Kaohsiung mulls withdrawing controversial film from festival

The 53-minute documentary, "The 10 Conditions of Love," was scheduled to be screened at the Kaohsiung Film Festival, which will run from Oct. 16-29. It features Rebiya Kadeer, who is accused by Chinese authorities of masterminding the July 5 Xinjiang riots.

Hau Chien-sheng, secretary general of the Kaohsiung City government, said that the city government was not aware that the documentary film was to be included in the festival, which was planned and organized by private companies commissioned by the government.

Now that the tourism sector is increasingly worried about a possible backlash, Hau said, the city government will review the decision to screen the film at the festival,

The Tourism Bureau under the city government recently received a request from local tourism stakeholders to cancel the screening of the documentary, and their position on the matter was conveyed to the city's Information Office, according to the bureau's director Lin Kun-shan.

Kaohsiung Tourism Association Chairman Tseng Fu-hsing said travel agencies in Kaohsiung worked out a resolution at a meeting on Sept. 14 to ask the city government not to screen the film as it might lead to a boycott of the city by Chinese tourists.

Tseng said that plagued by economic downturn, local travel agents are not willing to see their businesses further hurt by a documentary film, and therefore requested the city government to consider withdrawing the film from the festival.

In view of the good framework that has been established for interaction between Taiwan and China, Tseng said, he hopes the city government will handle the matter with discretion.

He said that last week at a travel fair in Xiamen, when he asked high-ranking officials from China National Tourism Administration whether the Dalai Lama's recent visit to Kaohsiung would influence Chinese tourists' decisions to visit Kaohsiung, he was told that the reaction was not likely to extend that far.

Media reports have claimed that in September, Chinese tour groups canceled 3,000 hotel reservations in the southern port city, translating into total operating losses of NT$6 million at the hotels, but Lin Kun-shan said he could not confirm these figures. He said he has received complaints from several hotels about room cancellations, but added that this could have been as a result of Typhoon Morakot and the A(H1N1) flu epidemic, and was not necessarily related to the Dalai Lama's visit.

Meanwhile, the Central News Agency yesterday reported from Berlin that exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer will attend a forum at an international book fair slated to be held in mid-October in Frankfurt.

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