The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the public for their vigilance and said that it corrected its mistake after a promotional video of Taiwan showed a mountain in Switzerland instead of Yushan (玉山).
The ministry days before had uploaded a video for Double Ten National Day on YouTube titled 2021: Taiwan Bringing People Together (2021,台灣有你).
Its opening seconds feature iconic locations around Taiwan, beginning with aerial footage of a mountain labeled “Mt Jade Main Peak.”
However, eagle-eyed viewers on Saturday noticed that the peak pictured in the video was actually Schafler mountain in the Swiss Alps rather than Taiwan’s tallest mountain.
Officials took action immediately, replacing the footage and re-uploading all editions of the video in 13 languages on the same day it was brought to their attention, ministry deputy spokesman Tsuei Ching-lin (崔靜麟) said.
Thanking the public for watching the video and pointing out the mistake, Tsuei reiterated the ministry’s promise to keep improving the production value and content of its National Day videos.
Alaya Film, the company that produced the video, yesterday issued a statement apologizing for the mistake, saying it was caused by a mix-up between two similar video clips.
With a “sea of footage” to choose from for the six-minute clip, the goal was to convey gratitude to all those who helped Taiwan in this extraordinary year, as well as the nation’s “sincerity, kindness and beauty,” the statement said.
While organizing the large amount of video footage, editors accidentally mislabeled the clip of a mountain range in northeastern Switzerland as Yushan due to their similarity, the statement said.
The company apologized to the ministry for the trouble its “careless oversight” has caused, while emphasizing that the filmmakers were afforded great creative space on the project.
It also thanked the nation’s alpine enthusiasts, who could not only discern the differences between the two similar-looking mountains, but could even determine which range the Swiss mountain was located in.
“Taiwan is a clearly a mountainous country with deeply passionate and knowledgeable enthusiasts,” the company said.
However, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) refused to accept the ministry’s apology.
Such a “cheap error” is unacceptable from the representatives responsible for publicizing the nation to the world, he said.
To prevent future mistakes, Wang called for a probe into the ministry’s methods for reviewing content created by third parties before they are shown to the public.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin
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