Did anyone notice the swastikas in the Taipei Times today? A small one on the front page and a large on on page 13 “Style” pullout.
With so many foreigners working for that paper, aren’t you all just appalled to see filth like that in an English newspaper? Taipei Times and the foreign editors should know better than that.
I tried numerous times to call their office, but just got a recording that nobody was available.
Is there any way to formally protest this? I’m sick of seeing racist crap in Taiwan.
Could you describe what you saw in a little more detail? Context is important.
Are they Nazi swastikas? Or Buddhist swastikas? Is it an article about WWII history? Or a Neo-Nazi Rally? An ad for a vegetarian restaurant? Or is it a clueless ad using the Nazi swastika for promotional purposes?
They are showcasing some ignorant Taiwanese man with tattoos on his body, one of which is a prominent swastika on his chest, and commenting on how he is some kind of example of Taike fashion. Just glammorizing the whole thing.
I’ve ran across people like that before, many of which are well aware of what it means. They just think are cool and bad-ass, and could care less about other people’s sensitivities.
One time I saw a tourist in Ximenting. An older German lady, and she was crying and hugging her husband because there were a bunch of 20-25 year old looking males wearing Nazi regalia. I went and talked to them, and said look what you did. Dont you know anything about history, how hurtful that is? They said they knew, and they didnt care, and just smiled at us.
Kids wear Manson T-shirts back home. Idiots are everywhere.
Honestly, to most Chinese what happened in Germany is about as relevant to them as what happened in Nanjing is to us in the west. Would you think twice about having a bit of WWII Japanese memorabilia in your house?
(So says the guy who has a cat that looks like Hitler as his new avatar.)
I saw a guy working at a Taiwanese street restaurant wearing a T-shirt with a huge Nazi swastika on it. Lots of people also wear Nazi helmets. I don’t think Taiwanese people understand that Hitler didn’t only hate the Jews and Africans, but all non-Aryans.
I’m trying to find a quote by Hitler. I think he said something about “Mongolid half-apes”. If people know what Hitler said about them, they would think twice before surporting the Nazi Führer whose thousand-year reich only lasted 12 years.
Okay. People GET OVER IT.
The swastika was not started by hitler. It was around LONG BEFORE HIM. The swastika is a symbol of a religion. Just as the cross is a symbol of Christianity. Just as the Star of David is a symbol for the Jewish customs. Just because something carries a meaning for you does not mean that you must impose that meaning on this thing for everyone.
The swastika has been around in Asian traditions for far too long for a 40 year issue to change what it means to people here.
I seriously don’t get why you people can’t get that.
Go to Beijing and you’ll see loads of Mao paraphenalia for sale (and I would bet a few people on this forum own some Mao stuff). He murdered several times the number killed by Hitler. Not that that makes swastikas and Hitler stuff any more acceptable but I agree with the others who said that lots of people are unaware of others’ sensibilities or just don’t care.
Incidentally, there’s a motorcycle store in the neighborhood where I used to live and they had a big sign in the shape of the nazi eagle symbol, with round circle with swastika in the circle. It used to really piss me off when I passed by. But a while back I noticed the swastika was gone so the eagle’s now holding just a blank circle. I suspect they put it up because they thought it looked cool (it is a strong looking eagle and a good design) and was German (they appear to sell nice bikes – maybe they have BMWs), but didn’t realize the meaning. So, when alerted to the meaning they cleaned it up. The eagle’s still a nazi symbol, but I no longer find it offensive now that the swastika’s been removed. That cleaning up was obviously done out of respect for others.
[quote=“SuchAFob”]Okay. People GET OVER IT.
The swastika was not started by hitler. It was around LONG BEFORE HIM. The swastika is a symbol of a religion. Just as the cross is a symbol of Christianity. Just as the Star of David is a symbol for the Jewish customs. Just because something carries a meaning for you does not mean that you must impose that meaning on this thing for everyone.
The swastika has been around in Asian traditions for far too long for a 40 year issue to change what it means to people here.
I seriously don’t get why you people can’t get that.[/quote]
If it was in fact the Buddhist swastika then I agree with you.
If it was the Nazi one then I don’t.
If I was walking down the streets of Toronto displaying the old Japanese flag on my coat or something like that, and somebody came up to me and told me what it meant and that it was offensive then I would remove it.
One is a symbol of spirituality and one a symbol of hatred. Plain and simple.
I see the nazi one here all the time. I take it for the meaning that I am sure the person displaying it has and not the meaning hitler gave it.
My grandmother had tattoos from living in one of those camps. I am well aware of what they did. I just think that you need to quit being so sensitive to something that clearly isn’t being intended in the way it is being taken. I know budhists who use the nazi flag. Budhists. They clearly don’t hold that meaning. It does not have that meaning to them.
Next thing you know people are going to have to stop saying “That one” cuz it sounds like nigger.
SuchAFob, by your rational, if I was to dress up in white bed sheets and a white hood and go around town, there would be nothing wrong with that? So long as I had good intentions, right? And what if others objected to that? Would you dismiss them so easily?
One of the main issues still remains. What are the staff at Taipei Times thinking? (are they thinking at all?) This kind of thing honestly slipped by everyone there?
Imagine what an outcry there would be if a foreigner was wearing a tattoo or a t-shirt that glorified the Nanjing Massacre, or Unit 731’s biological experiments in northern China. There would be instant news coverage about how they have to kick foreigners out of Taiwan.
[quote=“xi fang bu bai”]One of the main issues still remains. What are the staff at Taipei Times thinking? (are they thinking at all?) This kind of thing honestly slipped by everyone there?
Imagine what an outcry there would be if a foreigner was wearing a tattoo or a t-shirt that glorified the Nanjing Massacre, or Unit 731’s biological experiments in northern China. There would be instant news coverage about how they have to kick foreigners out of Taiwan.[/quote]
Sure, in Taiwan. In Canada, there would be silence or at best a short paragraph on page 30 in the news.
OK folks. I just saw the picture in today’s Taipei Times.
It’s a simple Buddhist swastika tattooed on an Asian guy’s chest. The arms of the symbol are pointed in the opposite direction from the Nazi one. It’s also oriented as a square, rather than the diamond-shape of the Nazi one. It’s the same swatika you see in pretty much any Buddhist temple in Taiwan.
[quote=“Chris”]OK folks. I just saw the picture in today’s Taipei Times.
It’s a simple Buddhist swastika tattooed on an Asian guy’s chest. The arms of the symbol are pointed in the opposite direction from the Nazi one. It’s also oriented as a square, rather than the diamond-shape of the Nazi one. It’s the same swatika you see in pretty much any Buddhist temple in Taiwan.
That’s it.[/quote]
= no need to whine = no need to be overtly politically-correct.
Woohoo!
Hmmmm…Now where shall I put the large nazi swastika stickers on my bike…?
[quote=“xi fang bu bai”]Did anyone notice the swastikas in the Taipei Times today? A small one on the front page and a large on on page 13 “Style” pullout.
With so many foreigners working for that paper, aren’t you all just appalled to see filth like that in an English newspaper? Taipei Times and the foreign editors should know better than that.
I tried numerous times to call their office, but just got a recording that nobody was available.
Is there any way to formally protest this? I’m sick of seeing racist crap in Taiwan.[/quote]
Wow, how does it feel to be this fresh off the plane?
How about instead of jumping off the deep end, you educate yourself about the place and culture in which you now live. The swastika you undoubtedly saw is not a Nazi one, as anyone with two functioning hemispheres and more than an hour’s worth of experience with Chinese culture would be able to tell you. It will be the Indian swastika, generally associated with Buddhism here, and not racism. In fact, I don’t think it could get any further from racism and Nazism. So no, I’m not “appalled to see filth like that in an English newspaper,” because I’m not ignorant. How does it feel to be the FAIL crusader? Next you’ll be telling us Spain should be invaded for this:
(Semana Santa - look it up).
So in closing, 1) not all cultures are your culture, 2) differences are important, 3) ask before assuming, and 4)
This has been a Tetsuo Public Service Announcement.
Just for information, in Germany is the use of the “Hakenkreuz” (Hitler swastika), as well as all other Nazi symbols, against the law, with punishments up to three years imprisonment.
If the bedsheets and white hood were a symbol of your religion, sure.
You have to remember you aren’t in the west. You need to quit forcing your western views on things.
