The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday released a video to mark the Year of the Ox ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and highlight Taiwan-US teamwork in fighting COVID-19.
The US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan has the custom each Lunar New Year of releasing a themed video.
The two-minute video posted on Facebook yesterday showed AIT Director Brent Christensen, Deputy Director Raymond Greene, spokeswoman Amanda Mansour and other institute officials writing Chinese characters.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
To underscore the institute’s slogan “Real Friends, Real Progress,” the video showed images of Christensen meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) during the fight against COVID-19.
The video had Hong Kong-born Taiwanese singer Wakin Chau (周華健) singing his song Friends in the background.
The video also showed images of Christensen and Chen meeting with former US secretary of health and human services Alex Azar during his visit to Taiwan in August last year.
An “Easter egg” at the end of the video is when the “I” in “AIT” turns into a symbol of love, a pun on the pronunciation of “love” (ai, 愛) in Chinese.
“We will remember 2020 not only for the challenges and heartbreak brought by the pandemic, but for the profound friendship Taiwan showed the United States during our time of need,” the AIT wrote on Facebook. “We hope the Year of the Ox brings us all health and happiness, prosperity and peace.”
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