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Brian Hioe 丘琦欣

@brianhioe

26 Aug

Been thinking about the issue of accents in recent Taiwanese historical film, in that most recent films set in a past period of Taiwanese history do not attempt to mimic the accents of previous periods, but usually have contemporary Taiwanese accents for most characters

I.e., in Detention, there's one character, a school guard, with a strong Chinese accent, but most other characters have contemporary Taiwanese accents. In Your Name Engraved Herein, there's an odd disconnect between the older and younger versions of the main characters

As the younger versions speak with contemporary Taiwanese accents during parts set in the 1980s, while the older version of the characters in the present suddenly have slightly different, less contemporary accents.

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Brian Hioe 丘琦欣

@brianhioe

26 Aug

Qiao does realize the last war that China fought was against Vietnam, right? Which involved China invading Vietnam. Things like the Sino-Soviet split would probably blow their minds, I wonder if they know that took place

They realize that while Vietnam may not be willing to confront China in alliance with the US, uh, there are still significant tensions, right? I suggest they Google "South China Seas"

Also amused since as places caught between the US and China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan may have security relations with the US, but also economic relations with China, with significant trade ties, and are always counter-balancing these in a tricky manner

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Brian Hioe 丘琦欣

@brianhioe

26 Aug

@Diplomat_APAC

In my latest for @Diplomat_APAC, I rounded up pan-Green and pan-Blue reactions to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Broadly speaking, the KMT has sought to cast doubt on the US-Taiwan relationship, while the DPP has sought to reassure

thediplomat.com/2021/08/afghan…

Apart from alleging US unreliability, the KMT has also tried to tout what it claims to be its historic record of defending Taiwan, commemorating the anniversary of the start Second Taiwan Straits Crisis as an example.

The KMT leaders likely sought to use this to point to why it should be allowed to political power again, while members of the pan-Green camp have instead pointed to the crimes of the White Terror. Of note is that party leaders thought of as comparatively moderate

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Brian Hioe 丘琦欣

@brianhioe

27 May

Something else that will be key to watch tomorrow will be regarding the Tsai administration's justification for keeping the imminent arrival of Moderna vaccines under wraps until the last minute, citing the need for confidentiality in vaccine acquisition plans

This raises transparency concerns, which the Tsai administration has been attacked on, while the Tsai administration seems to fear last-minute sabotage, hence the secrecy

Local governments almost certainly don't have access to this information. Apart from pan-Blue mayors

clamoring for buying BNT from Fosun in past days, Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je was attacking the US, stating that the US had never provided vaccines to Taiwan during the pandemic so as to dismiss the possibility of vaccines coming from the US

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Brian Hioe 丘琦欣

@brianhioe

27 May

According to Mainichi Shimbun, the Japanese government is considering providing Taiwan with some AstraZeneca vaccines

news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/bre…

This will prove interesting to watch, if vaccine diplomacy is used to cement ties between Taiwan and other countries (as with shipments from the US and how the question of whether they are sent or not will be used as a metric to evaluate the strength of US-Taiwan relations)

It's hard to imagine another country in the region with as much good will towards Taiwan as Japan, of course

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Brian Hioe 丘琦欣

@brianhioe

27 May

DPP majority speaker Ker Chien-ming spoke with Terry Gou of FoxConn, who confirmed that he had been in talks with Fosun to buy 5 million doses of BNT--but that this fell through at the last minute for reasons that are unclear

cna.com.tw/news/aipl/2021…

Gou reportedly sought aid from Ker in this. So is it that China doesn't even want to sell to FoxConn, which is known for its pro-China leanings? Very strange. It could be that if there is Chinese interference, they may not want Taiwan to have vaccines at all

It's also possible that China only intends to sell to KMT-controlled local governments, viewing Gou as a bit of wild card it cannot control as much, since he's not subordinate to the KMT party structure and is independently wealthy

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