The organizing committee of the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival on Monday offered an apology to the Taiwanese delegation, which was unable to walk the “green carpet” on the opening day due to a protest raised by the Chinese delegation over Taiwan’s name.
Festival office chief Nobushige Toshima told the Central News Agency (CNA) in a telephone interview that the Taiwanese delegation was among the distinguished guests invited by the festival organization while the Chinese were not.
On the opening night of the festival on Saturday, as throngs of international stars and filmmakers were gracing the green carpet, the Taiwanese and Chinese groups were feuding over the name that would be used to introduce Taiwan’s delegation.
The Chinese side, headed by director Jiang Ping (江平), demanded that Taiwan’s group use the word “China” as part of its name, a request deemed unreasonable and rejected by the Taiwanese delegation led by Chen Chih-kuan (陳志寬), director of the Department of Motion Pictures Affairs under the Government Information Office.
The argument lasted over 90 minutes, causing both delegations to miss their grand entrances.
Speaking to the CNA, Toshima said the committee was shocked and dumbfounded when it received the news regarding the feud. However, when asked why the organizers did not step in to mediate the dispute, he admitted the committee did not take good care of the Taiwanese delegation.
Taiwan has been a regular participant at the festival and has always attended under the name “Taiwan,” Toshima said, and he promised that the committee would not deviate from that as long as Taiwan continues to be part of the event in the future.
During the argument, Jiang threatened the committee with an ultimatum that if the name issue were not resolved in China’s favor within 10 minutes, the Chinese delegation would withdraw from the festival and contemplate never attending again.
According to an individual familiar with the film festival, Jiang’s behavior left the committee feeling “used” as his own self-promoting tool. Although the Chinese delegation was at fault, the committee’s hands were tied, the source said.
He added that Jiang participated in the film festival last year but did not make the same request. If Jiang had made the demand one week ahead of the event, the organizer would have had time to come up with a solution, but what Jiang did caught everyone by surprise.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS