CY Leung shies away from controversy over Taiwan university name
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has shied away from a controversy involving the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which earlier demanded that the word "national" be removed from the name of a Taiwanese university when mentioned at a local arts event.
Asked by reporters about the case, Leung on Tuesday said Secretary for Home Affairs Lau Kong-wah would make a response about the controversy, Metro Daily reported.
Several hours later, however, Lau met with the press and only repeated what an LCSD spokesperson said on Monday, before walking away without taking questions from media.
The controvery emerged after an official of the LCSD, which sponsored a local drama production, asked the theater company to delete the word "national" from the profile of the group's art administrator in the promotional material for the event.
The government official was referring to the art administrator's alma mater, the Taipei National University of the Arts, and was apparently worried that the word "national" would not conform with Beijing's view that Taiwan is just a province of China.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong said on Tuesday it would liaise with the Hong Kong government on the incident and hoped that the cultural event not be made political and that all the parties involved attend to the matter with mutual respect.
Legislator James To from the Democratic Party said Lau’s statement was "a pile of rubbish" and failed to help the public understand the government's stand on the issue.
He also said the case threatened to hurt the relationship between Hong Kong people and their Taiwan counterparts.
To urged the government to clarify its stance as soon as possible and make an apology if any administrative mistakes were made.
Cheung Siu-wing, chairman of the employees' union at LCSD, said from his understanding the decision was made by a senior cultural affairs manager under the instruction of assistant director Elaine Yeung Chi-lan.
According to an LCSD spokesperson, the department "has a close relationship with local arts groups and they have mutual respect and trust".
The LCSD promised to follow up on the case.
-- Contact us at [email protected]
EL/AC/CG
-
Reduce the risk of collapsing trees with advanced technology Dr. Winnie Tang
Last month was the hottest May in Hong Kong on record, the amber and red rainstorm warning signals were hoisted on the first day of June, with trees collapsing in many places across Hong Kong,
-
Hong Kong people cherish traditional characters Mark O'Neill
Last week the Education Ministry issued a report which urged Hong Kong to legally recognise Mandarin and simplified Chinese. It also said that Mandarin should be incorporated into the city’s exam
-
It's time we did something about caged homes Brian YS Wong
Caged homes. A term employed to denote “spaces” that could range anywhere from 100 sq. ft. apartments with sprawling sewage pipes and crisscrossed overhead wires and dripping roofs and broken pipes…
-
The conservative case for Gay Games Brian YS Wong
There is a dangerous temptation amongst some to frame conservative family values as ostensibly incompatible with the pursuit of any and all agenda or events deemed to be “progressive” in kind. An
-
The miserably rich Hong Kong people Ben Kwok
In Hong Kong, money can’t always buy happiness. That was the latest observation by the city’s top fund manager Cheah Cheng Hye, who attempted to explain the irony of why one of the world’s richest
