Taiwan News hosted an AFP piece on how the Taipei Times' wonderful parody on Apr 1 saying that the pandas in Taiwan were fake -- which received worldwide interest and acclaim (great work, guys) -- met a frosty reception among the pro-China crowd which accused the paper of lese majeste...toward pandas...However, Taipei zoo director Jason Yeh was not amused and demanded a correction of the report he said had "seriously damaged" panda conservation education.Actually, the Taipei Times got the story wrong. It's not the pandas that are fake, but the feelings that sent them over.
"We urge the newspaper to correct this improper story as it sends the wrong message. The joke has gone too far which not only hurt its credibility but the conservation education," Yeh said yesterday.
The zoo had received dozens of phone calls locally and from abroad complaining about the article, he said.
Lawmaker Wu Yu-sheng of the ruling Kuomintang party also demanded the paper apologise for publishing an "untrue and baseless" report.
The Taipei Times has defended its move, saying readers should be capable of telling a joke from the truth.
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That sort of article hurts the feelings of the Chinese people! Stop it! STOP IT!! MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
ReplyDeleteLeave the Chinese dictators aloooooooooooone!!!!!!!1!1!1¡!!!1
ReplyDeleteTim Maddog
Yeah Chip,... Right!
ReplyDeleteChinese buying "made in China" souvenirs is an insult for their dignity.
Taiwanese (as other real tourists) are buying the same stuff... But who cares about "redneck"? ;-)
Taiwanese?
Anyway, the "redneck" tax-payers are covering the cost for the (useless?) labels...
Oh... How come a joke about pandas and China?
It is criminal... You should apologize...
You can insult Taiwan and Taiwanese, but you CANNOT joke about pandas...
Michael, do not use the words "parody" or "April 1".
How dare you?
Even me, I don't use them (of course, trust me!).
Anyway, I don't even know their meaning...
Michael, this news is “untrue and baseless”.
KMT deserves an apology.
"We" are waiting!
:-)
No, Mr. Yeh is right.
ReplyDeleteAs a result of reading that article I have stopped believing in pandas altogether.
I'm pretty sure they are just a story cooked up by the Chi-coms so that something about them would seem cute and non-threatening.
By the way, most specialists don't group them with racoons any more.
ReplyDeleteWhat's black and white, but red all over?
I know! It's just humor to label them raccoons.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, my very-blue WSR girlfriend thought it was the funniest thing in the world.
ReplyDeleteHowever, most specialists do label them as capitulationist.
ReplyDeleteI found it sidesplitting, too. "Annexation lardbombs" was good, but "capitulationist raccoons" works in so many comedic ways.
ReplyDelete