Taiwanese have launched a sarcastic “Say sorry to China” contest on social media after a Chinese filmmaker replaced a local actor for allegedly supporting Taiwanese independence.
The contest on Facebook has attracted more than 24,000 followers and 6,000 posts since Saturday, organizers said.
Netizens have been apologizing to Beijing for a wide variety of reasons — from calling Taiwan a country to eating Japanese food and using iPhones.
“I suggest everybody say sorry to almighty China before dinner every night. We should all thank the Chinese for giving us food and letting us know China’s greatness,” read one scathing post.
The contest came after award-winning Taiwanese director and actor Leon Dai (戴立忍), a known supporter of the 2014 Sunflower movement, was dropped by Chinese director Zhao Wei (趙薇) from her movie No Other Love (沒有別的愛) for allegedly supporting Taiwan’s independence.
Zhao said in a statement on a Chinese microblogging site that Dai was replaced for failing to clarify his political stance.
She offered a sincere apology for “using the wrong person.”
“We are all Chinese and we firmly uphold our mother country’s unification objective... We cannot tolerate any falsity and ambiguity, especially regarding national interests,” Zhao said.
Dai later issued a statement saying he is “deeply sorry” to the film’s investors and crew for his past behavior causing controversy, adding that he does not advocate Taiwanese independence.
Wang Yi-kai (王奕凱), an active participant in the Sunflower movement protests, said he launched the Facebook contest “to mock China’s suppression and bullying” of entertainers.
Some Chinese agreed.
“I am a Chinese netizen. I am sorry that there are so many brain-damaged [people] in China, but most people are not like that and we support Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜),” read one post.
Chou, a 16-year-old Taiwanese K-pop singer, was in January forced to apologize for waving a Republic of China (ROC) national flag during an Internet broadcast, which stoked online anger in China and accusations that she was a pro-independence advocate.
Her video apology went viral on Jan. 16, when Taiwan held its presidential and legislative elections. Some analysts believe it might have cost the Beijing-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hundreds of thousands of votes.
Pop diva Madonna sparked anger in China after draping herself in an ROC flag during a concert in Taipei in February.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
RSS