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Monday, October 05, 2009

Daily Links, Oct 5, 2009


A cyclist contemplates the innumerable choices for farms and restaurants on 130 between Dahu and Sanyi. What are the offerings on the blogs this week?
MEDIA: If Ma has really "ushered in a period of stability" as everyone says, why is everyone worried about the military balance between Taiwan and China? Is it Ma's policy that creates stability, or lots of shiny late-model fighter aircraft? Taiwanese LCD makers say China will be leverage against Korea, Japan. Second trade fair between Taiwan and St Lucia opens. CNA says new ag biotech park is going to make big $$. Taiwanese poachers in the Philippines. The 'rice bomber' goes organic. Taiwan wants Pinoy scientists to study meteorology there. AP says Parma sat still because Melor pulled it back toward Taiwan. Central Bank intervenes to keep the Taiwan dollar from rising too quickly due to improved export outlook. Ma faces trouble as KMT Chair. India's strategy toward China is changing even as China issues special visas for Kashmiris and for Arunachal Pradesh, saying that the people of the latter are "Chinese." FEER on the next Chinese revolution. Alishan to reopen in late October. The KMT splits in Kinmen, Taoyuan, Taitung as primary losers launch independent candidacies. More women in the labor force. US Admiral fears poor communication between Chinese, US navies.

MOVIES: Radio Australia interviews Will Tiao, director of the new movie, Formosa Betrayed. Will, can we have it here in Taiwan, on the ground, before the election?

AFP WATCH: AFP veers between success and insanity. On one hand balancing The China Wants to Eat Taiwan formula by saying that Taiwanese don't want to be annexed to China. Too bad they use "reunification." On the other hand, J Michael busts on another burst of ethereal nonsense, little more than pro-PRC glossalia, put out by AFP.

EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: October 31, Taiwan Gay Pride Parade. Owner of the domain names 'gueishan.com' and 'taoyuancity.com' with the exact same spelling as is found on many thousands of bus stops/official logos/etc. in Gueishan and Taoyuan wants to sell them. Flip me an email if you want them and I will put you in touch.
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Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 6, 2009 at 6:00 AM

    "Will, can we have it here in Taiwan, on the ground, before the election?"

    I think Formosa Betrayed is just the latest installment of the tired old white knight rides to the rescue of the yellow people genre (Shogun, Killing Fields, Joy Luck Club, etc.). FB doesn't fail to hit every standard Asian stereotype, it even features the tired old "dragon lady" charater.

    Of all the real Taiwanese heroes of the pro-democracy movement who could have inspired the lead, it's disappointing that FB's central character is an FBI agent.

    I understand that it is sometimes necessary for commerical reasons to play to your audience (white people), but I had hoped that FB had a higher calling.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TommyOctober 6, 2009 at 1:03 PM

    Didn't Timothy Keating make similar comments just two weeks ago? Is this some sort of extended swan song on his part?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tim MaddogOctober 6, 2009 at 4:14 PM

    Michael, you wrote:
    - - -
    Will, can we have it here in Taiwan, on the ground, before the election?
    - - -

    You know what's gonna happen if we can't -- it'll get shown in settings like "The 10 Conditions of Love" was, and there will be an even greater demand. I hope somebody seeds it for BitTorrent.

    Tim Maddog

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 6, 2009 at 4:41 PM

    The first Anon was making the comments as if (s)he had seen the whole movie, but why then was (s)he asking for the movie to come soon?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Patrick CowsillOctober 7, 2009 at 12:49 AM

    "I think Formosa Betrayed is just the latest installment of the tired old white knight rides to the rescue of the yellow people genre (Shogun, Killing Fields, Joy Luck Club, etc.)."

    We're lucky to have his account, very lucky. No white Knight saving Taiwan. Just one guy who happened to be here when 30000 were getting slaughtered by "their own" and who possessed the stones to write it down. What would you have him do? The tired white (and non-white) knights were those that cynically looked the other way.

    Why do you assume only "white people" care about Taiwan? I am married to a Taiwanese woman who would explain it to you much differently.

    I was talking about stones. If you had any, you wouldn't be "Anonymous".

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousOctober 7, 2009 at 2:56 PM

    Patrick, you're ranting because you're probably sensitive to the "white" part. Formosa Betrayed refers to a MOVIE here, not the book. There certainly is a strong white guy saves the world (and the Asians, and the Africans, and the ____) current in Hollywood cinema.

    As a simple thought exercise, try to think of a movie where the East Asian guy comes in and saves the Americans from disaster. And the East Asian guy is the one that smoothly floats across cultures and language and gets the girl. Then substitute that for lots of other minorities. Probably the one group that does okay these days, as an exception, is the American black male.

    But even that situation is quite precarious. Watch Blackhawk down for what happens when "black" is put in a foreign context. Though you get in TEXT at the end that 4000 Somalis died versus a very small handful of Americans, you feel deep empathy for the soldiers, and you feel like the Somalis are ants to be stamped out.

    ReplyDelete

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