Panda for Taiwan?

Politics Taiwan Politics
21

Poor pandas. Separated from their parents, seen as breeding machines, used for political propaganda, manipulated for show by everyone … I’ve seen a few in enclosures in zoos in Mainland that make you cry…

I wish they were free to roam the hills, explore mountains, and do their business without cameras or public announcements. No wonder they eat their own/do not mate.

Hope they fare well, and survive in this climate. I don’t want to see the bruhaha if something happens to these precious creatures.

Who was it that said that pandas were not a good symbol for Chinese people?

22

Who wants to bet there will be a pandamonium tomorrow? Anyone?

23

Perhaps we should start eating pandas and wearing their skin? They would favor much better as a species that way it would seem.

24

[quote=“Icon”]Poor pandas. Separated from their parents, seen as breeding machines, used for political propaganda, manipulated for show by everyone … I’ve seen a few in enclosures in zoos in Mainland that make you cry…

I wish they were free to roam the hills, explore mountains, and do their business without cameras or public announcements. No wonder they eat their own/do not mate.

Hope they fare well, and survive in this climate. I don’t want to see the bruhaha if something happens to these precious creatures.

Who was it that said that pandas were not a good symbol for Chinese people?[/quote]

Good news, Icon. It appears the authorities intend to step in and prevent further abuse of the pandas. :bravo:

[quote][color=#FF0000]Saucy and suggestive commercial exploitation of panda images may become a thing of the past [/color]in the pandas’ home city if a planned law is passed.

The bid for legislation to protect panda images comes in the wake of some controversial uses of panda iconography which have got Chinese citizens hot under the collar.

Self-styled panda artist Zhao Bandi outraged many with his Bandi-Panda fashion show at China Fashion Week in Beijing earlier this month, sparking nationwide concerns that the so-called conceptual art creation abused the panda’s decent image of being a friendly and cute symbol.

Zhao, who always wears a cap that makes him look like a panda cub on his head, is frequently accompanied at media events by a clutch of [color=#FF0000]scantily-clad panda girls[/color] - dressed in the sexy style of bunny girls, but with panda-eared wigs instead of bunny-eared ones.

[color=#FF0000]“I’m a king in the panda’s world. You see these panda girls are my concubines,” [/color]he said modestly in an interview with sina.com, a popular web portal in China on Thursday.

At the Beijing fashion parade Zhao used panda imagery in each of his creations. He said he used panda images as “a medium to present different clothing styles of Chinese social classes and social issues.”

“There is no meaningful links between panda and these figures that Zhao depicted in his fashion design. He just uses panda as a commercial stunt,” was a comment typical of many found on Internet messageboards.

[color=#FF0000]The Chengdu Municipal Committee of the National People’s Congress, in west China’s Sichuan province, on Friday confirmed the receipt of the planned law,[/color] jointly outlined by the municipal bureaus of forestry, parks and woods.

If passed, [color=#FF0000]it would become the world’s first panda law.[/color]

Zhao told the media that it was “unexpected” news to hear that his fashion concept might be outlawed by the legislation.

“To me, human being are always more important than pandas. [color=#FF0000]I have no intention to make fun of pandas. I am a fan of pandas,[/color]” he said. . . [/quote]
china.org.cn/english/environment/232989.htm

“King of the Pandas” :no-no:

25

Taipei Zoo annual budget for pandas NT$37.18 million
Taipei Zoo annual budget for Formosan Black Bears: NT$100,000
Both are endangered. C. 300 Formosan bears in wild as opposed to 2,500 giant pandas.

26

Personally I’d like to see that bear budget reduced even more. Give the funding to that lady down south who studies them instead.
My friend found a dead baby pangolin on a hike out of Wulai the other week, by the way. I thought that was pretty damn cool.

27

Just to play safe, I brought a sandwich to work. Let’s hope poor pandas get used to this humid weather.

I was watching the other day a program about rescuing black bears used for vile extraction. Vile is the key word. :fume:

Nothing againts pandas, but their cuteness is exploited way too much for my taste. (Please do not make any jokes about how they taste. :frowning: )

28

[quote=“Icon”]Just to play safe, I brought a sandwich to work. Let’s hope poor pandas get used to this humid weather.

I was watching the other day a program about rescuing black bears used for vile extraction. Vile is the key word. :fume:

Nothing againts pandas, but their cuteness is exploited way too much for my taste. (Please do not make any jokes about how they taste. :frowning: )[/quote]

You mean bile extraction right? That they take the bear’s bile for Chinese medicine, not that they take the evilness out of the bears.

I don’t think the big ones are cute at all. The babies are cute, like all baby animals are, and I got to see baby pandas at the San Diego Zoo. The adults were sitting around being lazy, sleeping all day and eating, so I assumed that they had adjusted to American life just fine. :wink:

29

It is vile what they do for bile.

Pity there is no medicine to cure the evilness of greed through manipulation of superstition and ignorance.

You would think that for all the resources put into pandas, there would be some left to educate people to see all creatures, not just cute ones, as precious.

When the black bears and tigers and pangolins are gone, we’ll be next.

ps.
either that or laziness, as you say of baby pandas.

30

The problem with the black bear, is that it is called Formosan Black Bear… It is Taiwanese, so the interest in preservation dies in that moment… another way of looking into it, is that preserving the Formosan Black Bear, as a Taiwanese bear, is proof of Hoklo racism.

Pandas are much cuter because they are from China…

31

So if you live in a ten milion US dollar home and fly by chartered jumbo jet with a hundred escorts and 500 guards, NO, you are not the US president you sir are a PANDA> :slight_smile:

32

Shameful and lame. Two pandas whose names taken together mean reunification. Pandas that are loaned on the condition that they cannot be renamed. Unbelievable! Pandas, that, as many have pointed out are part of a farcical conservation program which is largely about earning revenue via loaning to other zoos. Or, more pointedly in Taiwan’s case, political sleaze, yet more of the foot being wedged in the door.

The Taiwanese are bending over and grasping their ankles on this one for sure. I can’t believe there hasn’t been more protest. The only conclusion to draw is that more Taiwanese want these pandas than don’t. And those that don’t want the pandas aren’t making much fuss. Hey ho, reunification with the the beloved mainland compatriots can’t be too far off if this seems like a good idea to the nation.

And I hope that comparison of Panda budget with Formosan bear budget a few posts back isn’t true, 'cos if it is…

33

[quote=“Feiren”]Taipei Zoo annual budget for pandas NT$37.18 million
Taipei Zoo annual budget for Formosan Black Bears: NT$100,000
Both are endangered. C. 300 Formosan bears in wild as opposed to 2,500 giant pandas.[/quote]

Yes, it’s a national shame, they don’t teach about the bear at schools here and it’s being left to go extinct at this rate. I have seen some bears in a reserve in Hsinchu and the resources they are working with are really miniscule. They have to keep the bears in small pens and some of them are disturbed. They are trying their best to learn how to introduce them back into the wild in case the wild population will go extinct first, however it is very difficult as bears spend years with their mother who must show them what and where there are plants and animals to eat and even how to climb trees. There was a breeding program but it has been halted as they were inadvertantly mixing asian black bear DNA with Formosan bears and that of course would result in hybrids and not the Taiwanese subspecies.
As with many things in Taiwan, if it doesn’t reflect well on the country they take the put the head in the sand in approach or ‘meiyou banfa’. There are scientists and conversationists who are working hard on this , they just need more resources, more support from the general public and better enforcement of laws.
The reason the bear is not well supported by the general public is simply because it is not cute enough and cannot bring fame to Taiwan, if it was famous outside Taiwan then people here would be very proud of ‘their’ bear.

34

I decided a few years ago…I just don’t like pandas.
What the heck are they good for? Ever seen a panda do any tricks?
Any pandas famous for saving their masters from a fire or disaster?
All they do is roll around looking cute. Heck, Almas John and I will do that for beers. We don’t eat no bamboo though.
From what I’ve heard and read, they turn into real pricks as they age.
Maybe panda pelts are OK. Thats about their only real use as far as I can see.
One can only ‘look’ at a panda for so long…then what?
“OK, I seen the panda. I got the t-shirt. Lets get something to eat.”

Pandas…pfffffffft!

35

common, even if the binlang xishes cannot get international fame, how can you get some black bears to get it? They are not even fluent in Mandarin…

36

No. The REAL conclusion is that Ma has rolled over once again and admitted that the Chinese are firmly behind Lien Chan and his KMT cohorts and that Ma will keep his fucking mouth well and truly SHUT about it if he knows what’s good for him.
Ma’s getting sidelined and this is the living, shitting, bamboo-chomping proof. :roflmao:

37

Good to see you back TC. Since you’ve been away, the Canadian population has exploded - could be time for another culling.

And then we could dress up in panda customs and hit Chiayi’s night markets - do panda dancing for grog shots?

38

[quote=“headhonchoII”][quote=“Feiren”]Taipei Zoo annual budget for pandas NT$37.18 million
Taipei Zoo annual budget for Formosan Black Bears: NT$100,000
Both are endangered. C. 300 Formosan bears in wild as opposed to 2,500 giant pandas.[/quote]

Yes, it’s a national shame, they don’t teach about the bear at schools here and it’s being left to go extinct at this rate. I have seen some bears in a reserve in Hsinchu (Xinzhu) and the resources they are working with are really miniscule. They have to keep the bears in small pens and some of them are disturbed. They are trying their best to learn how to introduce them back into the wild in case the wild population will go extinct first, however it is very difficult as bears spend years with their mother who must show them what and where there are plants and animals to eat and even how to climb trees. There was a breeding program but it has been halted as they were inadvertantly mixing Asian black bear DNA with Formosan bears and that of course would result in hybrids and not the Taiwanese subspecies.
As with many things in Taiwan, if it doesn’t reflect well on the country they take the put the head in the sand in approach or ‘meiyou banfa’. There are scientists and conversationists who are working hard on this , they just need more resources, more support from the general public and better enforcement of laws.
The reason the bear is not well supported by the general public is simply because it is not cute enough and cannot bring fame to Taiwan, if it was famous outside Taiwan then people here would be very proud of ‘their’ bear.[/quote]

Yes, more of the same incredibly frustrating attitude. What to do? It’s their country. If they want to drool along with pandas and let their very own cool black beer go extinct, then so be it. There’s just not enough belief in Taiwan from the Taiwanese so why should anyone else care?

More frustration: I read in today’s International Herald Tribune about the pandas going to Taiwan. Evidently ‘China and Taiwan have been apart for 59 years since the civil war’. Crap. The ‘civil’ war wasn’t between China and Taiwan as any fool knows. Sounds like the AP doesn’t bother going beyond press releases from Beijing. But again, why should anyone else care if the Taiwanese aren’t going to?

39

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]I decided a few years ago…I just don’t like pandas.
What the heck are they good for? Ever seen a panda do any tricks?
Any pandas famous for saving their masters from a fire or disaster?
All they do is roll around looking cute. Heck, Almas John and I will do that for beers. We don’t eat no bamboo though.
From what I’ve heard and read, they turn into real pricks as they age.
Maybe panda pelts are OK. Thats about their only real use as far as I can see.
One can only ‘look’ at a panda for so long…then what?
“OK, I seen the panda. I got the t-shirt. Lets get something to eat.”

Pandas…pfffffffft![/quote]

Last night on the news they had a segment on the pandas every few minutes. I generally dislike pandas too, as they seem to want to die out by not breeding. However, someone in China taught one to do tricks. It looked like the same basic tricks they teach other bears; to balance on a small seesaw, to catch some rings and to ride on a bicycle, etc etc.

My gf thought it was cute. I was praying that the bear ripped the trainer a new asshole. Sadly that didn’t happen and the news transitioned clearly to a shot of a male panda mounting a female panda from behind. No warning, just a distance shot and zoom in to catch the action. That was briefly topped by the next segue which showed a female panda giving birth.

40

Quite enjoy hearing about pandas when it involves some compatriot (Chinese, that is) jumping over the fence for some hugs and getting a mauling by a pissed off - not so cute anymore - panda. There’s been a couple of those lately. Good panda.