The Northeast Coast and Yilan National Scenic Area Administration has planned a series of events in August to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of Turtle Island (龜山島) to the public, but one promotion has landed the agency in hot water.
The island off the main island’s northeast coast was designated a military restricted zone in 1977 and the government forced its residents to relocate to Taiwan proper. The restriction was not lifted until 2000, when the government decided to turn it into a tourist attraction.
The Tourism Bureau agency has invited those who used to live and work on Turtle Island to return for a visit on Aug. 1, including those who attended elementary school on the island, teachers, military personnel, police, doctors and nurses.
Photo: Chang Yi-chen, Taipei Times
It also invited people whose names include the word “turtle” to visit the same day and take a free tour of the island.
However, since it is rare for Taiwanese to name their children after a turtle, the invitation triggered controversy, with some critics questioning whether the free tour offer was genuine, including Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭).
“Is it the bureau’s strategy to attract criticism? Has it not heard derogatory expressions such as sons or grandchildren of turtles [meaning bastards in Mandarin]? And who would want to have ‘turtle’ (龜) in their names, considering that it has so many strokes?” she said.
The bureau defended its invitation, saying it had picked the word because it is special and the reptile is a symbol of longevity. It also said that it has found three people so far whose first names contain the word “turtle.”
One is a 81-year-old man named Wu Kuei-hsiung (吳龜雄), who lived on the island before moving to Yilan County’s Toucheng Township (頭城), and another is comedian Tsai Kuei (蔡閨), whose real name is Tsai Shi-kuei (蔡蠵龜), it said.
It said it was trying to contact one person who said online that they had a friend named after the reptile.
Wu has said he would accept the offer of a trip back home.
The 56-year-old Tsai said on Facebook on Monday night that she was named after a green sea turtle because her father saw one when the family lived in Penghu.
People are welcome to call her “a turtle island owner,” she wrote.
Her husband, TV producer Lai Hsun-biao (賴勛彪), yesterday said that his wife would be happy to attend such a meaningful event as long as time permits it.
Asked to comment about the name invitation, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday praised staff at the Tourism Bureau and area administration for planning for the anniversary and using their creativity to promote tours to the island.
It is not the first time that names have been used to promote tourism events, the bureau said.
In 2017, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Fulong Beach (福隆海水浴場) in New Taipei City, people whose names had fu (福) or long (隆) in them were invited to visit for free.
Turtle Island is open to the public from March to November, with the number of visitors capped at 1,800 per day, to protect its ecosystem. Visitors to the island can take whale and dolphin tours and see active submarine volcanic eruptions off its coast.
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