Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) yesterday accused China of pressuring the Bologna Children’s Book Fair to label the works of Taiwanese illustrator Cho Pei-hsin (卓霈欣) as being from “Taiwan, China.”
Huang told a legislative hearing, which was attended by Ministry of Culture officials, about the dispute.
The Italian book fair, which took place from Monday to yesterday, displayed Cho’s work after she won its International Award for Illustration last year.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Book Fair Foundation
Huang said that after the start of the book fair, Chinese diplomats told Bologna government officials to refer to Cho’s works as being from “Taiwan, China,” not “Taiwan.”
“The event organizers felt helpless — they didn’t want to do it. And so their compromise was to not list any country name at all. No ‘Taiwan,’ and no ‘China,’” he said.
The incident shows that China has expanded its political pressure regarding Taiwan from sporting events to arts and culture, Huang said, urging the ministry to develop protocols for responding to such incidents.
Taiwan’s representative office in Italy thought that the Chinese officials likely took notice of Cho’s solo exhibit due to its prominent location near the book fair’s entrance, Deputy Minister of Culture Lee Ching-hwi (李靜慧) said.
Although the organizers thought China’s demand was “unreasonable,” a local government leader asked them to comply, and so they came up with their compromise, she said.
They chose not only to remove the country labels from Cho’s works, but also from works exhibited by illustrators who had won the award in other years, she added.
Lee said that her ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have since contacted Bologna officials and Italian lawmakers to make Taiwan’s position on the incident known.
Cho, who is based in London, describes herself as a visual storyteller with a focus on illustration and animation.
Her work has appeared in numerous animation festivals in Europe and Asia, as well as in publications such as the New York Times and the New Yorker.
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