“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.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
RSS