Remember the last time you went home to your mother’s with your kid? Didn’t you criticize the Kuomintang at the dinner table while watching the evening news? Only because no one (like your husband) was standing to your left, (politically speaking) could you happily play the role of an unburdened oppositionist, secure in the fact that someone to your right (your father would always stand up to defend this party that you love and hate, that you should have separated from years ago.
You might not know that in the still of night when the elderly have trouble sleeping, your fathers also can’t help but admit they wish they were in your shoes. How your father wishes that one day he might be able to be like you and to holler at the top of his lungs, damn you motherfucker KMT. You tricked us into coming to this island and lied to us for forty years. It was not until we returned to the mainland to visit relatives that we found out that in their eyes, we were Taiwan citizens, Taiwanese, though we are constantly referred to as “you mainlanders” on the island where we have lived for forty years. Thus, those who are accustomed to reading their children bedtime stories will find out sooner or later, in Aesop’s fables, that they resemble the bat that is neither bird nor beast, a being with no identity.
Beijing blames communications breakdown for row over name in Japan
Taipei, Oct. 27 (CNA) China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Wednesday blamed a “lack of communication” for the row over the name of Taiwan’s delegation on the opening night of the Tokyo International Film Festival last Saturday. It also urged the two sides to avoid “internal fighting” in public in the future to jointly safeguard the overall interests of all Chinese people. “The situation probably took place due to a lack of communication between both sides. This is something we do not wish to see, ” said TAO spokesman Yang Yi when asked about the altercation at a regular press briefing. He added that he believed the matter would not affect the future collaboration or exchanges between filmmakers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. “Both sides should avoid internal fighting in public situations in the future in order to jointly safeguard the overall interests of all Chinese people,” Yang said. During the news conference, Yang did not directly reprimand Jiang Ping, the director of China’s delegation who instigated the incident when he demanded that Taiwan’s group must include “China” in its official name at the film festival. Jiang’s demand was immediately refused by the Taiwanese delegation, which asserted that Taiwan had always participated in the festival as “Taiwan” and that there was no reason to deviate from the usual practice. Chen Chih-kuan, director of the Department of Motion Picture Affairs under the Government Information Office who headed the Taiwanese delegation, told Jiang not to mix arts with politics. The incident lasted over 90 minutes and cost both delegations the chance to walk the “green carpet.” It also ignited anger among Taiwan’s people and public officials. Premier Wu Den-yih described Jiang’s behavior as “ruthless” and said it undermined the recently warming ties between Taiwan and China, even if an isolated case. Taiwanese lawmakers proposed to list Jiang as “persona non grata.” On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told the Central News Agency that his ministry was aware of the incident and urged better coordination over Taiwan’s participation in the international community. “Both sides should make reasonable arrangements through bilateral coordination so long as they are made under the premise of not creating two Chinas or one China, one Taiwan,” Ma said, repeating a comment made by TAO Deputy-Director Sun Yafu earlier in the day. The festival’s organizing committee offered an apology to Taiwan over their lack of action in handling the matter. The festival office’s head, Nobushige Toshima, promised that Taiwan will always be welcomed to attend the festival using the name “Taiwan.”
A preview of the 2005 documentary about three rice farmers in Taiwan.
Game Ideas from Simon
1. (ACTION) Rock climbing game — The red people are the Japanese army, chasing the light blue character (you) up a cliff face, towards your indigenous Taiwanese tribe, who will take you to safety. The black dots on the cliff face are grapple points for climbing. We could make this game as a series of rock climbing puzzle “levels”. I think that this game, on a political level, would be about postcolonial integration. Gradually, your tribe would turn into the same color as the people who are chasing you, until the player loses track of the importance of running away. This game, ideally, would make a point about postcolonial life.
2. (RTS) The Xiaolioucu game, or Lanyu game – Revolves around the idea of the indigenous Taiwanese people on those islands trying to keep the aboriginal culture going, while also providing an attractive, modern way of life bought from tourist dollars and the use of natural resources. This is based on the Taiwanese government’s alternatively helping and disrespecting aboriginal ways of life—on Lanyu, the government dumped nuclear waste, while at the same time supporting the tourist industry there. Alternatively, on Xiaoliouco, the same thing could happen. We could design this game to be played with several “levels”, historical places where Taiwanese aboriginal cultures have made “last stands” against the rising tide of Chinese KMT refugees. Places like these islands, Jade mountain, or Sun-moon lake.
3. (ACTION) Koxinga Game : A game about trying to Get as many of your ships as possible through the Taiwan/China strait. There would be some kind of gameplay mechanic where if your ships touched a green (pirate) node then pirate ships would flood the strait, making it more difficult to navigate. The dutch could also arrive…it might be a game where you try to last as many years as possible, keeping trade going through the strait. There also might be a mechanic whereby your territory could be increased or reduced by pirates/the dutch. The ships would have to touch land sometimes—they would need to touch your territory, the red territory.
4. (PLATFORM FORUM) The Conversation Game: A collection of thoughts and ideas that you can either agree with or disagree with on a sort of chibi-ized version of the Taiwan/China strait. You could choose three options with regard to each opinion—agree, disagree, don’t know/don’t care. Agreeing or disagreeing would cause things to happen to the picture—for example, if you end up supporting extremely independent or radical Taiwanese thought, then a missile would move steps and steps closer to Taiwan, or vice versa. I’m not sure exactly how the politics of the game would play out, but it would have to result in some kind of thoughtful event, no matter what the majority of your thoughts were.
