Taiwanese publisher Rye Field Publishing Co has pulled a book on the history of chili peppers in China and publicly apologized to its Chinese author after its editors incorrectly changed the word in the book for “continent” to “China” in Chinese.
The book’s author, Cao Yu (曹雨), wrote on Facebook late on Friday that he was “shocked” after receiving photographs showing pages from his book The History of Spicy Food in China published in Taiwan.
He posted a photo of a page that said chili peppers were introduced to China thanks to Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the new “China,” even though he wrote new “continent” in his original book.
Such errors were found throughout the book published in Taiwan, he wrote.
In Taiwan, the word dalu (大陸), which means “continent,” is also used to refer to “mainland” China.
The government agency that handles affairs related to China, Hong Kong and Macau, for example, is called the Mainland Affairs Council.
Some Taiwanese dislike the dalu or “mainland” designation for China, believing it infers that Taiwan is part of China, and tend to use the term for zhongguo (中國, “China”) instead.
Cao wrote that he was already angry about two chapters from his book being removed when it was published in China, and he could not believe that his book was butchered again in Taiwan.
Rye Field apologized on Facebook to Cao and his readers for the “serious errors” made by editors before the book’s publication in Taiwan last month.
It has notified book sellers to suspend sales of Cao’s book, Rye Field said, adding that it would announce further plans for people who bought the book, which is to be republished in its original form.
Following the apology, Cao wrote on Facebook that he was satisfied with Rye Field’s handling of the matter, while thanking his friends for highlighting the error.
Cao, born in 1984, is a research fellow at the Centre for Migration and Ethnic Studies of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, according to his LinkedIn page, where he goes by the name Rain Cao.
He received a joint doctorate degree in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara in the US and Jinan University in China in 2015.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS