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.
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