The Government Information Office (GIO) has lodged a protest with the Venice Film Festival for labeling Seediq Bale (賽德克巴萊), which has been nominated for the Golden Lion award, a film made by “China, Taiwan” and demanded a correction.
Chu Wen-ching (朱文清), director of the GIO’s Motion Picture Affairs Department, said the protest was presented by the Taipei Representative Office in Italy on Friday.
FUNDING
ARS Film Production (果子電影公司), the producer of the film, also wrote a letter to the festival organizer, asking it to correct the name of the country of production. ARS said the film was not funded by China and did not employ Chinese actors.
The epic Taiwanese film directed by Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) features the uprising by the Seediq tribe against Japanese colonizers in the 1930s, known as the Wushe Incident (霧社事件).
“It’s a pure Taiwan-made film and not a film made by Taiwan in cooperation with China,” producer Huang Chih-ming (黃志明) said.
Huang said the film had a budget of NT$700 million (US$24.29 million), with NT$350 million coming from the Central Pictures Corp (中影公司) and the remainder funded by Wei and a government subsidy.
INTERNET CAMPAIGN
Netizens have launched a letter-writing campaign to protest the incorrect reference to country of production.
“We are Taiwanese from the country called Taiwan. We are NOT Chinese from the country of dictatorship China,” the letter in English said.
“If I call you Italian as Nazi, would you feel happy or not? If NOT, then DON’T Call our Taiwanese as Chinese or part of China,” it said.
“Taiwan is an independent country. Unless you wish our democratic Taiwan country to become a part of evil dictatorial China,” it said.
“No More China after or before Taiwan. The film Seediq Bale is made by Taiwanese and the country is called Taiwan. NOT china, Taiwan or Taiwan, china.” it said.
“If your organization doesn’t want to change the wrong title of our country, we Taiwanese will have a major protest against your film festival,” the letter added.
Source: Taipei Times - 2011/07/31
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