The Taoyuan City Government has come under fire over a show last weekend at the Dasi Bean Curd Festival featuring scantily clad women.
Originally organized by the Taoyuan Tofu Merchants’ Association to celebrate Dasi District’s (大溪) famous bean curd industry, the city government has since 2015 helped to run the annual festival.
This year’s edition took place on Saturday and Sunday at the Dasi Multi-use Sports Center, with the usual DIY activities, market and other events to promote the product.
Photo: Screen grab from the Facebook page of Taoyuan City Councilor Chan Chiang-tsun
In a change from previous years, the organizers centered Saturday evening’s festivities around an electronic music festival, inviting a DJ to play on the main stage.
On Monday, Taoyuan City Councilor Chan Chiang-tsun (詹江村) posted a video on Facebook showing more than a dozen scantily clad women dancing on the stage being filmed by many men in the audience.
“[Taoyuan Mayor] Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), are you sure this is the Dasi Bean Curd Festival? Or an anniversary event at some Taoyuan hotel?” the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilor said.
The video received hundreds of comments, many of which questioned the choice of entertainment considering that the festival is a family event.
The Taoyuan Department of Tourism on Tuesday said that it organized activities that were suitable for daytime or evening entertainment.
A well-known DJ was invited to perform and dancers hired to liven up the event, but they became “bolder” with their clothing and moves as the show went on, causing discomfort among some, the department said.
Adjustments were made immediately after the organizers noticed, the department said, apologizing for the controversy and promising to rigorously vet future events.
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