Not once, not twice, but on three occasions calendars meant for distribution by government offices across the country included Chinese holidays such as Reunification Day and Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) birthday, or substituted the Republic of China (ROC) flag with that of the blood-drenched People’s Republic of China (PRC). Every time, government officials blamed printing companies or, in an insult to our intelligence, black-and-white samples that had ostensibly prevented proofreaders from seeing clearly, for the mishaps. Now, anyone who has worked in publishing or ever pored over black-and-white proofs could be excused for recoiling in shock at such asinine explanations. Black-and-white or in color, the ROC and PRC flags certainly do not look the same — unless, of course, the printing company used so much black ink that it should be sued for environmental damage. And let’s be honest — black-and-white or color, the anniversary date of a mass murderer who starved millions of his own people is exactly the same.
Op-ed continued here.
1 comment:
I'm glad you brought this up. This 'mix up' with calendars happened from local (Hwalien, Taoyuan) and central (MOFA) government agencies, which is very unusual because the standard practice should be that all agencies download the calendar 'templates' from Executive Yuan Central Personnel Administration in Taiwan because CPA records all official holidays in Taiwan. They then adapt their calendars from this templates and send them off for printing. As we know, before printing up the final products, there's a proof reading stage. After that, the agencies would still check for mistakes before distribution. Unless the CPA has started using the Chinese version or agencies deliberately choosing the Chinese version, why would those printing companies all mistakenly download the Chinese one? Why didn't they accidentally downloaded the US or UK versions? They don't look like genuine mistakes to me.
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