“There is only one China in the world,” actress Tiffany Ann Hsu (許瑋甯) said yesterday after receiving backlash from Chinese netizens for liking a post on Instagram that referred to Chinese tourists as a-lag-ah (阿六仔).
The post, which was made by a Taiwanese tourist and has since been removed, featured a photograph of Oshino Hakkai, a village in Japan.
In the caption, the Taiwanese tourist said that the village was crowded with a-lag-ah when they visited it on Tuesday.
Photo: screen grab from Sina Weibo
The sight sent their “patriotic sentiment through the roof,” they said.
The term a-lag-ah is a colloquial phrase typically used by Taiwanese who speak Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), and is sometimes used derogatively to describe Chinese. It is derived from the Chinese word dalu (大陸, “mainland”).
Chinese on Wednesday expressed their outrage online after discovering that Hsu had liked the post, with some calling for a boycott of her work.
At about 2am yesterday, Hsu said in a post on the Chinese microblogging Web site Sina Weibo that the “like” had been a mistake.
She had liked the post “out of habit,” without reading the text that accompanied the photograph, she said, adding that she detests comments such as the one made in the post.
The two sides of the Taiwan Strait are “one family,” she said, adding that she would be disabling her Instagram account to reflect on what had happened.
At about 1pm yesterday, China Movie Report (中國電影報導), a Chinese TV program that shares entertainment news, shared on its Sina Weibo page a photograph of a handwritten letter addressed to the program from Hsu.
In the letter, Hsu wrote about her identity, saying that as a child, because she did not look like the people around her, she was always considered a foreigner no matter where she went.
Her mother’s family originates from China’s Anhui Province and her father was born to Italian and American parents, she said.
“There is only one China in the world,” the letter read.
“I do not support Taiwanese independence. I hate division. I like people to get along,” Hsu wrote.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS