[News] Chinese Delegation Throws Nationalistic Tantrum at Tokyo International Film Festival

[Nerws] Chinese Delegation Throws Nationalistic Tantrum at Tokyo International Film Festival.
Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan
Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan

The Chinese delegation has withdrawn its participation in events at the Tokyo International Film Festival because the festival has allowed a Taiwanese delegation (not a “Chinese Taipei” or “Taiwan, China” delegation) to attend the festival:

Jiang Ping, the head of the Chinese contingent at the festival said Saturday that the Taiwan delegation should be renamed the “China Taiwan delegation”, shortly before the opening ceremony.

His Taiwanese counterpart flatly rejected the call, and on Sunday a government spokesman waded into the row.
“The Chinese delegation should not use politics to interfere in the movie exchanges,” Taiwan government spokesman Johnny Chiang told the state Central News Agency.

“The move has infringed the rights of Taiwan people participating in the the film festival.”
In the wake of the row, stars from both delegations missed the walk along the “green carpet” — changed from the traditional red to highlight environmental concerns — which kicked off the festival.



China boycotted the opening ceremony because it was angry about the Taiwan naming issue. Taiwan’s delegation also did not participate, apparently to show their disapproval towards China. The Japanese press is reporting that Taiwanese actress Vivian Hsu was reduced to tears when she heard that she would not be able to participate in the Green Carpet opening ceremony.

An article in the Chinese state propaganda rag Global Times quotes Jiang as saying that he has no ill-will against his Taiwanese “compatriots.” Instead, he blames the Japanese organizers for accepting the Taiwanese delegation’s application. The article implies that the acceptance of Taiwan’s application has something to do with the Senkaku boat collision dispute. It even mentions the nationalist groups who held anti-Chinese protests, as if they would somehow have influence over a film festival committee.

I am not entirely sure how the naming issue was handled at last year’s festival, but a quick check of the 2009 festival homepage shows that films from China are labeled as such, and films from Taiwan are labeled as “Taiwan” films　[Japanese pages also use the kanji for Taiwan]. It looks a lot like Taiwan participated as “Taiwan” last year. If that was so, where was China’s rage back in 2009?