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The desired Taiwan by China is gradually disappearing

alexdriado 2024. 01. 13. 17:14

There was a time when the smile of a dictator would greet you wherever you went in Taiwan—it was a widespread phenomenon.

Because of the removal of an increasing number of those likenesses, which once numbered more than 40,000, it is now a sight that is much less common.

Around two hundred statues have been hidden away in a park that is located on the riverfront south of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. In this particular location, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek can be seen standing, sitting, dressed in the uniform of a marshal, dressed in the robes of a scholar, riding a stallion, surrounded by children who are loving him, and in his dotage leaning on a walking stick.

Even in a democratic Taiwan, it would appear that there is no longer any room for the former monarch.

This next Saturday, Taiwan will hold elections for a new government, which will once again put the island's developing identity to the test. China is becoming increasingly concerned about Taiwan's claim of a Taiwanese identity, which it views as a threat to the possibility of what it refers to as "peaceful reunification" with the mainland. This concern grows with each election.

In 1949, Chiang fled China in order to avoid the oncoming defeat that he was going to suffer at the hands of Mao Zedong's communist forces during the civil war. He arrived in Taiwan, which later became the Republic of China and continues to be a part of China to this day. It was Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party that established the People's Republic of China, which was the name given to the mainland. Both parties asserted ownership of the other's area. On the other hand, neither Chiang nor Mao conceived of Taiwan as a distinct location with a distinct population. But that is exactly what it has turned into.

In contrast to Taiwan, China's claims have never diminished. On the other hand, practically everything else on either side of the 100-mile strait has seen significant changes. China has become more powerful, wealthy, and an evident threat in recent years.

Taiwan has attained the status of a democratic nation and is currently in the midst of yet another election, which is putting its relations with Beijing to the test. Its freedom poses a threat to the hopes of unification held by the Chinese Communist Party, regardless of the outcome of the referendum that will take place on Saturday.

In the same way that Chiang does, there are still people who consider themselves to be Chinese; they gaze to China with admiration and even a sense of desire. On the other hand, there are people who have a strong affiliation with Taiwan. According to their perspective, Beijing is only another colonizing foreign force, similar to Chiang and the Japanese before him.

In addition, there are approximately 600,000 indigenous peoples who can trace their genealogy back thousands of years. In addition, there is a younger generation that is conflicted and frightened of inquiries concerning their particular identity. They are of Taiwanese descent, yet they do not believe that Taiwan should proclaim its independence.

Despite the fact that they wish to have a peaceful relationship with China and conduct business with it, they have no intention of ever being a part of it.

"I belonged to Taiwan. "However, I have faith in the Republic of China," adds a woman in her fifties who is dressed in tinsel and Christmas lights, much like Elton John.

During an electoral rally for the Kuomintang, often known as the KMT, which Chiang headed until his death in 1975, this is an unusual response to come from the audience. The county of Taoyuan, which is considered to be their heartland, is the location where tens of thousands of people have gathered to watch their presidential candidate, Ho You-ih.

As its longtime adversary, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Kuomintang (KMT) is negotiating peace and dialogue with the CCP. It asserts that Taiwan can only flourish if it engages in dialogue with Beijing.

"We ought to be friends with the mainland," the woman says with a chuckle. "We can make money together!"

The sound of patriotic rock is so loud that it drowns out her name, making it impossible to hear.

As Chiang Wan-an, the great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek and a rising star in the KMT, takes the stage, there is a tremendous roar of approval from the audience.

"I like him very much, he's very handsome," the woman can be heard saying while wearing the tinsel. "I hope he will be president one day!"

Those in their 50s or 60s make up the majority of the attendees. These individuals are traditional KMT supporters who have family or commercial ties to the mainland countries.

I was born in China. Taiwan is but a relatively small island. "Take a look at China!" exclaims a man in his fifties, ecstatic over the recent string of space launches that China has organized. "Of course we should reunify - not now maybe, but one day we must reunify."

A small number of young people are present in the throng, and those who are present do not appear to be interested in the legacy of the KMT.

By saying, "I'm not voting for the party, I'm voting for the candidate," Lin Chen-ze is expressing his opinion. "Although I am Taiwanese, I'm looking for peace. It is time for a change, and Hou Yu-ih is a fine man. The Democratic Progressive Party has been in control for eight years, and it is time for another party to take power. He has integrity and is very productive.

A party in Taiwan is requesting that voters decide between war and peace.
There is a confusion regarding the responses to a question that has been asked for decades: "Do you consider yourself to be Chinese or Taiwanese?" For Beijing, this is a cause for concern. When it comes to Taiwan's political parties, this is a delicate and novel dance in which ideological certainty is being quietly shelved.

"It's not right what they've done to these statues," says Fan Hsun-chung, a sprightly veteran who is 94 years old, as he strolls around the park that is filled with statues of Chiang.

Fans left his home in Sichuan, which is located deep within the mountains of southwest China, when he was 18 years old in 1947 in order to join Chiang's army. For the purpose of preparing Taiwan for its role as a bastion, Fan's unit was dispatched to Taiwan at the beginning of 1949, when the Chinese civil war was turning dramatically against them.

After a period of six months, Chiang, his administration, and an army consisting of nearly one million troops who had been defeated followed.

Fan believed that he would get back to his house soon. On the other hand, after Mao took power, he was unable to return home or even write home. "So, I waited and waited, for decades."

It wasn't until 1990 that he finally got to visit his hometown, which is located high up on a tributary of the Yangtze river. By that time, his family had already passed away, with many of them having been prosecuted by the Communist Party for his deeds associated with the "counter-revolutionary" movement. It was revealed to him that his mother and older brother had perished as a result of starvation during Mao's industrialization program, which had resulted in a famine.

Fan claims that he has never stopped feeling Chinese about Taiwan, despite the fact that he has lived there for seven decades. He says, "When we came here, our country did not perish; we are still the Republic of China." There are more than thirty provinces in the world, and Taiwan is one of the smallest of them all.

It is not too far away from here that Chiang himself is laid to rest in a state of unquiet slumber: within a sarcophagus made of black marble, which has not been buried for nearly half a century after his death.

"We were fighting for the unification of China," according to Fan. It was our hope that China would become powerful, unified, and independent. That was our ideal scenario.

Taiwan was nothing more than a bastion for Chiang, from which he could lick his wounds and pursue his aspirations of retaking China. Although the guy and his dream have been gone for a very long time, his mark is still palpable.

When you go around Taipei, you will find that you are surrounded by names that date back to a different era in China. Some of these names include Nanjing East Road, Bei-ping North Road, and Chang-an West Road. Mandarin, which is a dialect which originates from northern China, is the language that is used for education and trade.

Once again, wheat noodles and dumplings are the staple foods of Taipei, which is a city in Taiwan. At the same time that the communists assumed power in Shanghai, a significant number of the city's most prominent businesspeople fled the city, leaving behind a large number of good Shanghainese restaurants.

However, Chiang's legacy was not without a significant price. In a brutal manner, any displays of Taiwanese political identity were thoroughly suppressed. Chiang, whose personality cult rivaled that of Mao, Stalin, or Kim Il Sung, was responsible for the torture, imprisonment, and execution of tens of thousands of people before killing them. During this time period, the White Terror was written into the annals of history.

John Chen, a political activist who is 86 years old, describes the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as "like identical twins with the same mindset." "They both have this idea that we are all part of Greater China."

Chen is making his way through the cell block of an ancient military detention center located on the southern side of Taipei. This is a location that he is more than familiar with.

In 1969, he was prosecuted and sentenced to prison by a military court here. It had been three weeks since he had tied the knot. He was incarcerated for the subsequent ten years in Jing Mei, which is considered to be one of the most dreaded prisons in Taipei. Participating in a group that advocated for Taiwan's independence while he was attending medical school in Japan was his crime.

He was one of six other prisoners who were confined to the small cell. However, they did have a squat toilet in the corner of the room, as well as a bucket and a tap for washing their clothes. In the summer, they were sweltering, and in the winter, they were freezing. Just fifteen minutes of time each day was allotted to them for physical activity outside.

Chen is proficient in Japanese and acknowledges that he feels more kinship with the customs of Japan than with those of mainland China. Chen was born under Japanese rule and speaks Japanese fluently due to his upbringing.

In my opinion, I am not of Chinese descent. He identifies himself as Taiwanese.

Why are relations between China and Taiwan so high?
An extremely straightforward guide to China and Taiwan
The complicated politics of Taiwan are illustrated via the use of popcorn chicken and bento.
Chen is one of the many millions of people, who accounts for the majority of inhabitants on the island, whose families moved from China. Beginning in the early 1600s, they arrived in multiple waves, the most of which originated from Fujian. In the same way that English is distinct from Portuguese, Taiwanese, which is a dialect of southern Fujian, is similar to Mandarin in terms of its differences.

As far as he is concerned, "Taiwan is already independent," and the future looks promising.

There will come a time when the Chinese Communist Party will fall apart. And when it happens, we will be able to completely integrate ourselves into the global society.

The arguments made by Beijing that Taiwan is a part of China due to the fact that the two countries share a same culture and language are refuted by him.

The question is, what does that mean for Tibet or Xinjiang? So, if being Chinese or speaking Chinese is the foundation upon which the Chinese country is created, then what about Singapore?

The time of military authority in Taiwan has long since ended, and memorials can be found all throughout the island to commemorate the White Terror.

Nevertheless, there are those who suggest that Beijing's constant statements are causing a younger generation that is brittle to reevaluate how they perceive themselves.

Approximately five years ago, Lōa Ěng-hôa started the process of learning Taiwanese. Now, he is only able to communicate in Taiwanese or English, and he is adamantly opposed to speaking Mandarin.

The language of a colonial oppressor is what he perceives it to be. Since England was a part of the Roman Empire in the past, he compares it to the situation in which individuals in the United Kingdom were compelled to speak Italian.

"When I was in elementary school, we would get together every morning and sing the national anthem of the Republic of China. And there were always some kids who were too lazy to bother singing, and I would yell at them, saying, "Don't you love your country!" I was under the impression that I was Chinese.

According to him, he did not start to become aware of his identity until he started working in Australia and seen how the country was dealing with the traumatic history it had passed through.

When the KMT was in power, it was strictly banned for schoolchildren to speak Taiwanese, and they were disciplined if they did so. Because they believed that learning Mandarin would make it easier for their children to get into college or obtain a good job, Taiwanese parents forced their children to speak the language even at home.

According to Lōa, although Taiwanese may not be prohibited. However, the "ideological dominance" of Mandarin continues to exist.

"And the most essential point is that we are still denied the opportunity to be educated in Taiwanese. Eighty percent of the population speaks Taiwanese as their native language, yet we do not have the right to be educated in our own language. What level of absurdity is that?

Young people like him believe that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is currently in power and which originally advocated for Taiwanese independence and whose rise was a direct result of anti-Beijing fervor, is not going far enough.

There was a time when the Democratic Party of the Philippines (DPP) was a motley organization that had a difficult time winning local elections and seats in parliament. At its rallies, Taiwanese was the language that was spoken. Now it is the party that holds the power. It has reigned for a total of sixteen years, each of the most recent eight years included.

For the time being, its younger followers are fluent in English and are more concerned with issues pertaining to LGBTQ rights and the environment than they are with the urgent need for Taiwan to achieve official independence.

During a recent rally in Taipei, Hsiao Bi-khim, who is running for vice president of the Democratic People's Party, delivered her first major public address. She had a lot of charisma and was young, so she was a huge success with the audience.

Despite the fact that she was born in Japan to a mother from the United States and a father from Taiwan, Hsiao is reviled in Beijing. Her most recent position was that of Taiwan's de facto ambassador to the United States. It is a common misconception that she is unable to speak Mandarin, but the Chinese official media has been actively propagating this false information.

However, China is concerned by the growth of leaders such as Hsiao, who have essentially no family ties to the mainland and feel that Taiwan is more closely connected to Tokyo and Washington than it is to Beijing.

In addition to the Democratic Progressive Party, this election marks the first time that all three candidates for the presidency are of Taiwanese heritage. Not a single one of them comes from families who accompanied Chiang to Taiwan in 1949. As the son of a market trader from southern Taiwan who rose through the ranks of the police force to become the chief of the national investigative bureau, Hou, who is a member of the KMT, is a member of the party.

Both the Democratic People's Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) no longer discuss the necessity of formal independence. On the other hand, the KMT does discuss communication with Beijing, but they avoid discussing the issue of unification or whether Taiwan is a part of China.

The anomalous "status quo" of Taiwan, in which the island nation elects its own leaders yet is not recognized as a country, is currently acknowledged by both parties.

The woman dressed in tinsel gave a succinct summary of the situation at the KMT gathering, saying, "This is the mountain protecting us." In the absence of the status of the Republic of China, Taiwan is out of the question. Independence for Taiwan is not possible. War is the price of independence.

This phenomenon is referred to as "strategic ambiguity" by professionals. Everyone, even Beijing, has been pleased with it up to this point. This, however, is not how people identify who they are as individuals.

Regardless of where our forebears originated from, we are all Taiwanese living in this day and age. During their conversation, a group of hikers on a route close to Taipei said that they had intermarried and mixed Taiwanese and Mandarin when they spoke to each other.

When they travel outside of Taiwan, they claim to be born and raised in Taiwan. "We do not want people to think we are from China."

Because Beijing is in the process of determining what it wants to become, this presents a challenge for the city.

This is in direct opposition to the message that the Communist Party of China (CCP) is trying to convey, which is that China should be unified under the leadership of the CCP. The message has been conveyed to the people of Hong Kong, as well as to the Tibetans, the Uyghurs, and the Mongols.

Despite the fact that not everyone has a Taiwanese or purely Taiwanese identity, polls indicate that an increasing number of young people are leaning toward this identity.

In this new Taiwan, Chiang's family name is still recognized and respected. Many people in this area have expressed their desire for the KMT to nominate his great-grandson in the year 2028. In addition, Hsiao has been a candidate for the Democratic People's Party (DPP).

The issue for China is that the Taiwanese will make the decision, yet either side has a chance of winning.

"I have two younger brothers, and I am very worried that they will end up fighting in a war with China," says Shen Lu, who is 21 years old and is speaking at the KMT event. Youth voters have expressed that peace is the only thing that is important to them.

Very few Taiwanese people discuss the possibility of independence, much like their most powerful allies, because they believe it to be impractical or perhaps impossible. Peace, on the other hand, has turned into a chant for them to remain with what they have, regardless of what they choose to name it.

"I am Taiwanese but the most important thing for my generation is peace," according to Shen. "I do not desire to be unified..." I would like for the current state of affairs to continue. We should maintain it in this manner for all time.

Tovább

Gladiators: The serious business behind ITV's prime-time 'panto'

alexdriado 2024. 01. 11. 12:11

The BBC is bringing back the Gladiators franchise in the hopes that it can reach the show's huge success from the 1990s. The new season starts on Saturday and promises to be an exciting mix of action and comedy. Reviewers thought the arena fights were stupid, but the fight to have them on screen was a big thing.

Diane Youdale says, "I'll never forget the moment I heard a 'pop.'" She talks about the fall that was "one step too close" to breaking her neck.

Millions of people follow the 26-year-old, who is known as Jet, and she rugby tackled another competitor from a high place. She then fell awkwardly to the crash mats below and caught the other competitor's body in her own.

As they helped me into the ambulance, I was in so much pain that I thought I might be able to roll away while my limbs were still working. I've done my four years and now it's time for me to step down.

As "Gladiators' very own Wonder Woman" in the pilot episode, Youdale won over a lot of fans. She did a bunch of different sports challenges against fans, and her hair flicks and backflips won them over.

The former gymnastics champion is proud to say that Day-Glo became "a Saturday-night ritual" because ITV took a chance on a new style.

The injury at a Wembley Arena event in 1996 that wasn't shown on TV was the deciding factor, but it took a heavy toll.

The ups and downs of Jet mirrored the program's own ups and downs. Behind the scenes, it had been a huge battle to convince commissioning heads of the program's promise, and it had been an even bigger battle to get the right group of enthusiastic participants together.

Around the middle of the 1980s, Youdale left Billingham, which is on Teesside, to study dance in London. She talks about when she was a "jobbing actor" and a director.

A director approached her in early 1992, and she made sure she had a seat by "blitzing" an Army assault course at Woolwich Barracks.

She was scared she would get "beaten up" because she was 5 feet 6 inches (1.67 meters) tall and weighed 9 stone 6 pounds (60 kilograms). But she knew the American version of the show and thought they were asking her to try out.

The people on the American show looked like beasts; they were strong bodybuilders and fighters. Look at that! It was just me, a little dancer!

London Weekend Television (LWT) didn't have a lot of people they could hire. However, even though they read fitness magazines and looked at the market, they didn't notice that bodybuilders back then were not useful athletes.

It wouldn't matter how much money they had to get to the bus stop on time.

They probably thought about it for a few years. They would pick an actor or actress, only to find out later that the person wasn't popular, was weird, or wasn't right for the part in some other way.

It was different from everything else in that highly sought-after time slot when it first played on ITV on October 10, 1992, along with Blind Date and Beadle's About. It was often put up against "Gotchas" and the gunge tank of BBC One's Noel's House Party.

People knew the Lycra-clad fighters as Warrior, Wolf, Shadow, and Cobra because they were so good at events like Hang Tough and Duel. In the Eliminator showdown, participants had to go through a tough assault course.

The producers in the UK wanted glitz, glamour, and mood, while the producers in the US wanted something that was studio-bound and had a small audience.

A lot of people at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena were "pumped up" by the G-Force cheerleading to famous music.

Since the third season, Jonathan Glazier has been in charge of the show. He says that LWT is "a panto" that "everyone in the family" can enjoy.

Still, there was a lot of pressure because of money worries.

"That Saturday slot was hugely important," he shares. "The channels were in a fight for the audience and it was going to be expensive to make."

Ian Hyland, a TV critic for the Daily Mirror, says that "people genuinely loved - or loved to hate - the characters" in Gladiators. This is why the show was so popular, especially after David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson's beachy Baywatch antics.

Like most people, you cheered for them too. Do keep in mind that this happened back when regular people going on TV wasn't very common.

Even though the show was "going gangbusters" when Glazier took over as director, he says the early presentations needed a new method.

"At the start, nobody quite knew what it was and so the arena wasn't always full," he said.

You were able to pull off the amazing trick of moving half of the crowd to cover empty seats with some smart editing.

"People used to make jokes about it being a glorified pillow fight, but if you've ever been on the receiving end of those pugil sticks [used in Duel] you'll understand there's nothing Toytown about it."

With millions of people watching, Youdale had her mom read the fan mail. It was "uncomfortable" at times how much attention there was.

According to her, "once the show went out it was hard to hide." The program was always happy, though, so there was never a bad or uncomfortable time. Things could have gone in a different direction.

The yearly contract reviews made things even worse because producers kept an eye on how famous and well the actors were doing. Events like Shadow's firing for drug charges got a lot of attention in the tabloids.

Help was on the way, though.

Glazier said that the goal was to make sure that everyone on board was happy. They were just regular people when they first got in touch with us.

"The machine of ITV was there to help protect them by managing their personal appearances, and contracts were as level and fair as they could be."

Youdale wanted to live a life away from "the bright lights" after she left the stage, so she went to school to become a psychotherapist and counselor.

Due to a drop in viewers, the last show of Gladiators aired in January 2000. The huge reality TV show that has taken over Saturdays since then was just around the corner.

Glazier, who is currently in Singapore as the executive producer and director of Asia's Got Talent, says, "We knew live TV was where it was going."

"The elimination singing format was perfect for that and it sustained ITV and the BBC for years."

Gladiators is coming back for a second season on BBC, with Bradley Walsh and his son Barney in charge. The show had a short comeback on Sky in 2008–09. But does it really want to win a fight that it can't?

Youdale is one of the hosts of the GladPod show and thinks it will do well. He remembers the first one from the 1990s.

"The odds are against it [having the same cultural impact] because it was new and we only had four or five channels, but with a prime-time slot it will get the energy it needs," she said.

"I'm really excited."

Tovább

The Kuomintang party in Taiwan wants people to pick between war and peace in the upcoming election

alexdriado 2024. 01. 09. 17:05

While rock music blared, dancers on stage spun around, and the crowd went crazy waving thousands of Taiwan flags.

There was a lot going on at the Kuomintang (KMT) candidate for president on January 13th gathering on Saturday.

The host yelled, “Give me a president!” The crowd yelled, “Hou You-ih!”

While Mr. Hou watched, Jaw Shaw-kong, his running mate, took the mic and attacked the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which was in power.

“What path are they taking? He waved his finger and said, “The road to war!” “The road that leads Taiwan into danger, the road that leads to uncertainty!”

The KMT is trying to make people in Taiwan think they have to choose between war and peace with China as the election this weekend gets near.

Beijing claims the self-governing island as its own, and even though it wants “peaceful reunification,” it hasn’t ruled out using force to take Taiwan.

During the eight years that the pro-sovereignty DPP has been in power, China has steadily increased its military force around Taiwan. This is known as “grayzone warfare.”

The DPP has said that they also want peace and stability, but they want to keep Taiwan on its path of growth.

A recent campaign ad that went viral showed President Tsai Ing-wen driving quietly on quiet country roads with William Lai, her party’s presidential candidate. Then she gets out, and Mr. Lai takes the wheel with Hsiao Bi-Khim, his running mate. “Drive better than I do,” Ms. Tsai tells them.

But some people don’t believe he can do the job.

There were a lot of die-hard KMT supporters at the gathering in Taoyuan, but many of the people the BBC talked to were more worried about the economy and the cost of living. But things with China were also very important.

“I used to not think there was a chance of war, but now there is, and it’s scary.” “The DPP is too hostile; I want to return to peace with the KMT,” Ms. Shi, a 45-year-old service worker who was with her parents, said.

“We should look at how China takes care of its people and learn from them.” Take a look at their infrastructure and high-speed train. China is so far ahead that even their phones are better. “We don’t have that,” said Ms. Tu, 58.

“I’m not saying we should join together, but I do think we should work together more.” “We are the same people as China and we believe in the same things,” Mr. Li, a KMT party member, said.

“A tricky balancing act”
In the Chinese civil war many years ago, the KMT fought the Chinese Communist Party, which was its fierce enemy, and lost. They then ran away to Taiwan. It now likes stronger ties.

This is mostly because their economies are becoming more and more connected. China has become an important economic support for Taiwan because it buys the most Taiwanese goods.

A huge number of Taiwanese businessmen, or “taishang,” depend on the mainland to make a living. There are a lot of taishang who have traditionally backed the KMT.

The KMT’s party color is blue, and the “deep blue” group that wants the strongest ties with China still has a lot of power.

There are a lot of them who are from the so-called “1949 generation,” who left China when Mao Zedong’s communist army took over. For them, the country is still very important.

But over the past few years, the KMT has had a harder time finding the right balance.

It wants to have close ties with China, but it also wants to stay important to voters who are moving farther away from the mainland. It has been in power in Taiwan for decades, but the DPP has recently won some elections.

Polls show that most Taiwanese believe they have a unique Taiwanese culture and would rather keep things the same, which means they don’t want to declare independence or join with the mainland.

The KMT has had to tone down its message, saying that it is not “pro-China” but rather wants to improve ties with China.

It has put forward Mr. Hou as its presidential candidate. He is an ex-cop who is seen as a “light blue” centrist and a “benshengren” from a family in Taiwan. Recently, Mr. Hou replied to Xi Jinping’s renewed promise to unite the two sides by saying he would “forever protect Taiwan’s democratic system” and freedoms.

In the same way, Mr. Jaw, a fiery “deep blue” media personality who has pushed for unification in the past, recently said that China and Taiwan’s systems were “too different” and told voters that he would not push for unification if he was elected vice president.

People still think that the KMT is taking a lot of risks, though.

One reason is that its rhetoric sounds a lot like China’s, which some people might not like.

According to Song Tao, a top Chinese official, the two sides had “a choice between war and peace, prosperity and decline” in November. Because of this, the DPP government said that China was using the story to try to sway Taiwanese opinion before the election.

China has also made its choices clear by calling Mr. Lai of the DPP a “separatist” and a “troublemaker.”

Another risk is that it’s not clear if a KMT government would be able to achieve peace and make Beijing happy.

“The KMT thinks it can get Beijing to promise to be careful and keep its word.” “When I think about China’s position on Hong Kong, I’m not as sure that Beijing is ready to commit to anything,” said Ian Chong, a scholar at Carnegie China who does not live there.

“If the KMT wins, Beijing might calm down for a while.” But in the end, they want to take control of Taiwan, either by being economically dependent on it or by using force and threats.

In the long run, this is also a problem for the KMT. Different generations have different ideas about how Taiwan should interact with China. The KMT has always stood for a different view.

“The war and peace narrative is a reflection of a party trying to reconcile two different sides of itself and present a coherent argument to voters,” Dr. Chong said.

The KMT is moving in a certain direction, but people want to go in a different direction as well. They have to choose what kind of party they are: the Chinese Nationalist Party?” he said, referring to the main English name for the Kuomintang.

“Or is it happy to be a Taiwan nationalist party?”

Tovább

Golden Globes 2024: Robert Downey Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are among the early winners of the award season

alexdriado 2024. 01. 08. 3:15

There are a number of early winners at the Golden Globe Awards, including Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Robert Downey Jr.

It is being held in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, which is the location of the event.

Downey Jr. was awarded the award for best supporting actor for his performance as Lewis Strauss in the film Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan.

In his acceptance speech, he made a joke about the film's unexpected success at the box office, saying, "A sweeping story about the ethical dilemma of nuclear weapons grosses $1 billion?"

When asked about his performance, the actor stated, "Since the summer, dozens of people have approached me and told me that I was so subtle that I was unrecognizable as Lewis Strauss." First, let's not pretend that this is a complement to the other nominees, should we?

In addition, he drew reference to the modifications that were made to the membership of the Golden Globes in the wake of a scandal involving corruption and a lack of diversity. He thanked me for altering my game and said, "Thank you."

A mom who is going through a tremendous amount of pain after the death of her son was portrayed by Randolph in The Holdovers, which earned her the award for best supporting actress.

"Mary, you have changed my life, and you have made me feel seen in so many different ways," she remarked, referring to the character that she plays in the show. "And I hope I helped you all find your inner Mary, because there is a little bit of her in all of us."

In her address to Alexander Payne, the director of the movie, she expressed her gratitude by saying, "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to play this beautiful and flawed woman."

Anatomy of a Fall, a drama set in a courtroom, was judged to have the finest screenplay. When asked about the process of writing the film, the film's director, Justine Triet, recalled working alongside her partner, Arthur Harari.

"We were in the pandemic," according to her, "and my life partner and I, we spent our days co-writing the screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall, stuck in our apartment - and strangely, nobody died."

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, who were both recognized for their performances in Beef, as well as Jeremy Allen White, who was recognized for his work in The Bear, are now among the early winners in the television categories.

As a result of her performance as Princess Diana in the television series The Crown, Elizabeth Debicki was awarded the title of best supporting actress in a television series. She expressed her gratitude to the makers of the show "for trusting me with this part."

As a result of his performance in Succession, Matthew Macfadyen was awarded the title of best TV supporting actor. "I just adored every second of playing the human grease stain that is Tom Wambsgans," he said facetiously.

At the ceremony, films such as Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, Past Lives, and May December are among the other films that have been nominated for awards. In the television categories, Succession, The Crown, and The Last of Us have been nominated for awards.

The primary awardees are:

There are nine nominees. - The Barbie doll
Oppenheimer, number eight
Seventh, the Killers of the Flower Moon Seventh, the Worst Things
5. - Previous Lives
Fourth of May, December, Fourth of Anatomy of a Fall, Fourth of Maestro
Photographs taken on the red carpet at the Golden Globes
A complete list of nominations for the Golden Globes
Watching the films that are expected to win awards this year
At the beginning of the film awards season, which finishes with the Oscars on March 10th, the Globes are the first significant ceremony that takes place.

At the Golden Globes that are being held this year, there are some new categories, one of which is a category that recognizes achievement in the box office.

A number of actresses, including Emma Stone, Sandra Huller, Lily Gladstone, Margot Robbie, Annette Bening, and Carey Mulligan, have been honored with nominations in the two categories of best actress. These awards are divided into two categories: musical or comedy and drama.

Bradley Cooper, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the actors who have been recognized for their outstanding performances in both award categories.

Please tell me how I can watch the Golden Globes.

In the United States, the Golden Globe Awards will be broadcast on the CBS network but will also be streamed on Paramount+ in conjunction with Showtime.

The event begins at 01:00 GMT and typically lasts between three and four hours for the duration of the ceremony.

The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, also serves as the location for the live telecast.

In this year's nominations, who is it?

The film adaption of life in plastic that Greta Gerwig directed for the big screen, Barbie, is the most nominated film at the Golden Globes, with nine nominations.

The fact remains, however, that three of these nominees belong to the same category. The songs that Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Ryan Gosling have contributed to the soundtrack of the movie have resulted in them receiving recognition.

Barbie was released on the same day as Oppenheimer, which grossed $953 million (£755 million) and had eight nominations. Barbie garnered $1.44 billion (£1.14 million) at the global box office, and it was a memorable release.

Over the course of the summer, people were eager to watch both films, despite the fact that Christopher Nolan's biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who invented the nuclear bomb, could not have been more dissimilar in terms of its tone.

The film Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese, has received seven nominations. The film tells the story of members of an Osage tribe who were brutally killed in the 1920s as white settlers attempted to migrate into their land, driven by greed for oil.

Moreover, Poor Things has been nominated for seven different categories. Emma Stone plays the role of an infant whose brain has been transplanted into the body of an adult woman in the film version of the novel of the same name directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The character then embarks on a journey of self-discovery that takes her all over the world.

Past Lives, which is Celine Song's first directorial effort, has received five nominations. It tells the story of a woman who lives in the United States and who, while she was growing up in South Korea, rekindles her friendship with the man who was her best friend since school.

The biopic Maestro, which is about Leonard Bernstein, the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall, and May December, which is about an actress who spends time with the real-life subject of her next movie, a lady who was at the center of a tabloid story, each have four nominations each.

To whom are the Golden Globes being hosted?

Jo Koy, a comedian and actor from the United States, is being the host of this year's ceremony.

Even though he is not a particularly well-known figure in the United Kingdom, the 52-year-old comedian has previously hosted specials for Comedy Central and Netflix. Haunted Mansion and Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens are two of the films in which he has appeared as an actor.

During the course of his career, Koy has performed on a great number of stages all over the world; nonetheless, he has stated in a statement that "this one is going to be extra special."

"I couldn't be more thrilled to be the host... It is at this very moment that I have the opportunity to bring pride to my Filipino family. Mahal Kita (look it up on Google)!

According to what we discovered on Google, the phrase "I love you" is literally translated as "Mahal Kita" in Filipino.

A number of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Matt Damon, Jared Leto, Dua Lipa, Ben Affleck, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, and Florence Pugh, will be presenting their respective categories during the evening.

Just what are the new classifications?

There are eight films that have been nominated for the new cinematic and box office achievement category. These films will be the highest-earning, most praised, or most seen films of the year.

This is not only an attempt to ensure that box office smashes such as Barbie and Oppenheimer get recognized, but it is also a means for the Globes to accommodate a wider variety of films and invite a greater number of celebrities to attend the ceremony.

Taylor Swift's concert film, titled "The Eras Tour," has been nominated for an award. Notable nominations have been given to the most recent installments of the John Wick, Mission: Impossible, and Guardians of the Galaxy film franchises, which are examples of mainstream films that are not typically recognized during the awards season.

"Best stand-up comedian on television" is the other new category that has been released. Ricky Gervais, Trevor Noah, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, and Wanda Sykes are the individuals who have been nominated for this award.

Is there still controversy around the Globes?
As a result of suspicions of corruption and a lack of diversity within its voting group, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization that was responsible for the Golden Globes, sparked controversy in the year 2021.

Due to the fact that the Globes were getting their house in order, the ceremony for 2022 was significantly reduced in size. Over the course of the subsequent three years, the number of members on the voting body increased from approximately 90 to 300, and the composition of the body has become substantially more diversified.

As a result of the issue, the HFPA was broken up, and Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions were given ownership of the event.

Despite the fact that there were still questions around whether or not the Globes would be permitted back into the Hollywood fold, almost all of the stars returned to the ceremony in 2023, despite the fact that a rumored boycott did not materialize.

But increasing the number of members brought with it its own set of challenges; for example, after learning that they would not be invited to this year's event, some members threatened to take their vote away from the organization.

What makes the Golden Globes such an important award?

When compared to many of the other ceremonies that take place throughout the film awards season, the Golden Globes are typically considered to be a more humorous event.

Celebrity attendees are typically in a good mood, having recently returned from their Christmas break, and are eager to socialize over a few drinks when the event takes place during the first week of January of each year.

The Bafta Film Awards and the Academy Awards, on the other hand, are far more formal occasions, and the prizes that are awarded have a higher level of prestige.

A victory at the Golden Globes, on the other hand, may lend a substantial amount of momentum to an awards campaign. This is because the winners are given the opportunity to deliver an eloquent acceptance speech on television during a time when Oscar voters are contemplating their own nominations.

A nomination for a Golden Globe is significantly more likely than a nomination for an Academy Award would be. The total number of slots available in the film acting categories at the Academy Awards is twenty, whereas the number of slots available at the Globes is thirty-six.

Tovább

Israel Gaza war: UN says no let-up in Israeli air strikes in Gaza

alexdriado 2023. 12. 26. 17:33

During a visit to a hospital that is trying to treat the injured, a United Nations official stated to the BBC that there is no letup in the Israeli air attacks that are taking place in Gaza.

"Absolute carnage" was what Gemma Connell, a representative of the United Nations' Ocha humanitarian agency, described what she witnessed on Monday at the Al-Aqsa hospital located in the central region of Gaza.

It was "absolutely overloaded" at the hospital, she claimed, which meant that a great number of badly injured patients could not receive treatment.

At an earlier time, the Prime Minister of Israel made a commitment to step up the campaign against Hamas.

Benjamin Netanyahu stated that he had traveled to Gaza on Monday morning and that Israel's military campaign in the region was "not even close to being over."

His remarks come just a few days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the United States of America said that Israel should minimize the severity of its attacks.

The United States Department of Defense (Pentagon) has reported that the United States Armed Forces have taken out air strikes in Iraq against "Iranian-sponsored militias" in response to an attack on the Irbil air base, which resulted in the injuries of three United States military personnel, one of whom was in serious condition.

Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, stated that the strikes had targeted three facilities that were utilized by the Kataeb Hezbollah group and its affiliates, which is supported by Iran.

He stated that there had been a number of attacks of militias on US sites in both Iraq and Syria, and he emphasized that the United States would not hesitate to protect its people and infrastructure in the event of any more attacks.

Following Israel's military assault in Gaza, there has been an increase in the level of activities carried out by Kataeb Hezbollah and other armed militias in the region.

During an interview with the BBC World Service's Newshour program, Tom White, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), stated that there were approximately 150,000 individuals in central Gaza who had been given orders to evacuate by the Israeli military.

Ms. Connell, who was also interviewed by the Newshour, stated that "what I saw at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in [the city of] Deir al-Balah was absolute carnage."

According to her, there were a great number of casualties at that location who had "extremely severe wounds but [who] cannot be treated because there are so many people in front of them in the line for surgery, and the hospital is absolutely overloaded."

She claimed, "And some of those that I saw were people who were hit in the strike yesterday [Sunday]," in reference to an attack that was reportedly carried out on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, which is located in the central region of Gaza.

According to the health ministry, which is managed by Hamas, the Israeli strike resulted in the deaths of at least seventy persons.

There were "reports of an incident in the Maghazi camp," according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which they stated they had received. The statement stated that "despite the challenges posed by Hamas terrorists operating within civilian areas in Gaza, the IDF is committed to international law including taking feasible steps to minimize harm to civilians" .

Ms. Connell also mentioned that while she was in Al-Aqsa, "there were new air strikes hitting areas around the hospital in the middle area and new casualties being brought in." This occurred while she was there.

"Tragically I saw a nine-year-old boy with a devastating head injury who passed away," according to her.

"When I say that there were strikes again today and casualties arriving, some of those strikes were in areas that people have been told to evacuate to, which, again goes back to the refrain that, I think, I am so sick of saying: that there is no safe place in Gaza," added the spokesperson.

"And even when people are told to evacuate the places that they are fleeing to are not safe."

After Hamas conducted a murderous attack on towns within Israel on October 7, the war broke out. The offensive resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, the most of whom were civilians, and the capture of approximately 240 hostages. According to Israel, 132 people are still being held.

On Monday, the health ministry of Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, said that about 20,674 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli bombardments since January. Children and women are thought to make up the majority of those who have passed away.

The media in Israel and the Arab world have reported that Egypt has put out a proposal for a ceasefire between the two parties.

Reports indicate that the proposal would involve the gradual release of all Israeli captives as well as an undetermined number of Palestinian detainees who are currently being held in Israeli jails over the course of a month and a half, culminating with the cessation of Israel's offensive.

A prior agreement for a temporary cease-fire that Qatar mediated resulted in the release of dozens of hostages from Gaza in exchange for release of Palestinian inmates.

Despite the growing number of requests for a ceasefire, Israel and Hamas have both resisted at this point.