My rough and ready translation of the TVBS article:
[quote]Lien Chan Goes to the Mainland Again, Sarcastic Net Friend: Taiwan Has Become Special Administrative Region
Can you accept this grotesque flag? A “net friend,” laughing at KMT Honorary Chairman Lien Chan’s second meeting with Hu Jintao, says that Taiwan will soon become a mainland SAR, and wants other net friends to vote on an SAR flag, including a flag whose main characters are not only Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, but also a giant panda and a tarepanda.
KMT Honorary Chairman Lien Chan’s trip to Beijing for the “Second Lien-Hu Talks” met with both cheers and jeers. A website called Forumosa.com jokes that Taiwan will soon become a mainland SAR, and wants net friends to vote on an SAR flag.
Like this one: the white sun of the “blue sky, white sun, and blood red floor” flag disappears, and becomes the five stars of the Chinese Communist Party. There’s also this one: the flower of the Hong Kong SAR becomes a plum blossom. Or this one: the lotus of the Macau SAR becomes a plum blossom. But as of this moment, the flag with the most votes is Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong together, encircled by five stars, with a “KMT-CCP as One Family” flavor.
Do you think this is funny? It gets worse. This “jipo” net friend put a tarepanda on Chiang Kai-shek’s head and a giant panda on Mao Zedong’s head, livening up this flag with some animal company. However, our Taiwan has never said it wants to be a mainland SAR, so these flags of course will never be used, and this net friend is just thinking too much! [/quote]
So Forumosa and Smell the glove are on TV ! … Time to pack Smell the glove. National security is watching your ass now, and so mine cause I vote INDEPENDENCE haha!
BRAVO… Forumosa rules. (and yep, they did not get it indeed)
Based on the premise of a Taiwan SAR, I would use the current ROC flag, but replace the KMT sun with a white plum blossom. Leave out the “seeds” within the flower, and replace them either with five little red stars (one for each petal) or one big red star (its points matching the petals).
For Taiwan independence, I do like the Yellow Tiger flag best, but for the sake of humor: Start with the Tibetan flag, but change the snow lions to yellow tigers, and the pointy white snow mountain to a rounder green hill. Replace the rising sun with the “four broken hearts” symbol from the World Formosa Congress flag. And change the color of the rays of light coming from it, to the colors radiating out of the Taiwan map on the winning entry from last year’s Taiwan Solidarity Party flag contest. This way we get to merge three banned flags–four, if you can work in little Falungong swastikas at the corners.
I’m just wondering how TVBS picked it up - do they troll forumosa? Did they pick it up from Seki’s link to it over at socialforce? Either way, maybe getting them to look at cute pictures is the first step toward getting them to actually read what’s posted at forumosa…
p.s. I don’t mind the TVBS “net friend” appellation, but I really wish they had showed my avatar and credited me as “smell the glove,” something like “wen yi wen shoutao.”
Oh snap! I saw those flags on the video on my flight back into Taipei last night. I wasn’t listening, but the flags caught my attention, and I thought to myself, “who’s the joker who thinks this is going to fly in Taiwan?”
You mean like the attached images? Yeah, I put it all together for posterity’s sake.
Earlier I was wondering if TVBS was trolling here or if they picked the flags up from socialforce - then a friend of mine told me to look closely at the screencaps in the TVBS article - sure enough, in the second one, you can just make out the text of the OP here at good ole Forumosa…
I’m sure if the government wanted to crack down and find the notorious creator of these flags, it would be chaos.
FAP: Are you “Smell the glove?”
Me: No, no. You should say “DO you smell the glove?” And No, I do not.
FAP: Huh?
Me: Huh shrme huh? Do YOU smell the glove?"
FAP: No, I am not “smell the glove.”
Me: No, DO you smell the glove?
FAP: I can not smell the glove. I’m Taiwanese.
Me: Huh?
FAP: Huh shrme huh? Are you “smell the glove?”
Me: Can you shoot me please?
Well, TVBS is not the most reliable news station in Taiwan (if there is any). From the moment one of the mouthpieces said that he wouldn’t mind “1 or 2 stories in 10 to be really true”, I guess we know the level of the TV Station.
And, most probably, the reporter just saw the flags and the votes, and coulnd’t understand the rest. Maybe he just lacks sence of humour (hey, we all take this very lightly…) or thinks because STG is a shoe-wielding legislator that he is like a Taiwanese proper…
So many things we can think about what the hell the reporter from TVBS saw in this thread that we might start a new thread only dedicated to him/her… Anyone can help?
I’m really not sure that the TVBS story was taking this all that seriously either. I think the tone of the article is quite playful and that perhaps they actually did appreciate the humour in this thread. Then again, I didn’t see the original news item (just the report linked to above) so I may be way off.
