The box-office hit Kano has been criticized for “glorifying Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan,” prompting the film’s director to defend his work.
“Let’s leave out the politics. Baseball has universal values. We want to express the idea that ‘Though Taiwan is small, it is strong,’” director Umin Boya (馬志翔) said. “Let’s get reacquainted with ourselves and build up confidence in ourselves.”
The movie has received generally positive reviews, but there have been detractors as well. In recent days, controversy over Kano has boiled over in the media, with some heated discourse.
Photo: Wang Yu-hui, Taipei Times
Earlier this week, the Chinese-language United Daily News and China Times published a letter on the same day, which were signed by one writer surnamed Yen (嚴) and one surnamed Chen (陳), although the contents of the letters were identical. The letters criticized Kano as a distortion of history, sycophantic to the Japanese colonial government and as being made with a Japanese audience in mind.
Over the past two days, a number of netizens have written that the letter was written by Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) due to the style of writing used and mention of the 1990s civil war in the former Yugoslavia.
When questioned at the Legislature yesterday, Lung denied any involvement with the letter, adding that she was too busy to write to a newspaper.
When asked by lawmakers if she thinks that Kano glorifies Japanese colonial rule, Lung said: “People who write and create their own work must be true to themselves. They should not concern themselves too much with the opinions of the public.”
She added that the ministry handed out NT$75.8 million for Kano’s production because it was made in Taiwan.
Separately yesterday, Boya said that most people thought Taiwanese baseball began in the late 1960s with the rise of the Hongye little league team (紅葉少棒).
Boya told students at a high school in Greater Taichung that Chiayi City’s Kano school team predated the Hongye team.
“They fought against all odds to reach the final of the Japanese high-school Koshien tournament. They did it under very difficult conditions. Unfortunately, the Kano story was not well known... I wanted to direct this movie because it is a heart-warming story,” said Boya, who is from the Sediq Aboriginal community.
The film is based on the true story of a school baseball team from Chiayi City during the 1930s.
“It is all right if you are unsure of your future. Students should always hold on to their sense of curiosity and passion for learning, while following the things they find that are of interest,” Boya said to the students. “When an opportunity arises, you must grasp it and do not let go.”
“It is easy to dream, but to realize your dream can be difficult. You can succeed if you do not give up. Even if the result is not great, you can still be a winner to yourself,” he added.
Kano has earned NT$150 million (US$4.9 million) in Taiwanese theaters since its release two weeks ago.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS