The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday held a special screening of a movie highlighting people-to-people interaction across the Taiwan Strait amid frozen cross-strait ties, an event that was allegedly postponed due to political considerations.
The council spent NT$10 million (US$333,422) commissioning the National Geographic Channel to produce the 44-minute movie, Strait Dreams (逐夢海峽), to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Taiwan lifting the ban on military veterans visiting China in 1987.
The movie uses true stories to focus on the human aspects of cross-strait exchanges, including a three-month-old Chinese baby who traveled across the Taiwan Strait for cleft lip and palate repair surgery, as well as two Chinese cycling enthusiasts who took on a challenging ride in central Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
The mother of the baby, nicknamed Little Mumu (小目目), who was born with a complete cleft — the most serious type of the birth defect — brought her son to Taiwan to see Chang Gung Memorial Hospital plastic surgeon Philip Chen (陳國鼎) at the recommendation of her Chinese gynecologist.
In the movie, Chen says that due to Taiwan’s advances in medical technologies, Mumu was only one of tens of thousands of Chinese who travel to Taiwan for medical reasons every year.
Another storyline centers on two Chinese men, Yang Hongbin (楊紅賓) and Cui Junfei (崔俊飛), who took on the formidable task of cycling 53.5km to the peak of Wuling (武嶺) on Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山).
Wuling, at 3,275m above sea level, is the highest and purportedly the most beautiful highway in Taiwan.
Their story draws attention to Taiwan’s blooming biking culture and the success of the nation’s largest bicycle maker, Giant Manufacturing Co.
“Since 1987, more than 100 million visits have been made by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and they have helped weave tens of thousands of stories,” Mainland Affairs Council Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) said in her opening speech at the screening in Taipei.
Were it not for the abundant experiences of cross-strait interactions accumulated over the past three decades, it would not have been as easy for people like Mumu to travel across the Taiwan Strait to receive life-changing surgery, Chang said.
The special screening was held almost two weeks after the movie was premiered on the National Geographic Channel in Taiwan on Dec. 3 and there had been speculation that the delay was due to Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che’s (李明哲) trial in China or other political factors.
Lee was found guilty of state subversion by a Chinese court on Nov. 28 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
“Of course, we wanted to promote the movie as soon as possible, but after factoring in several matters and the current situation, we felt like today [Friday] was the most opportune time to do so,” Chang said, without elaborating.
The council said the movie has been aired eight times on the National Geographic Channel in Taiwan, adding that it is to be screened in 41 other nations, including China.
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