The lady called me back today around 4 or 5 PM (I'm a little surprised that she took some responsibility and called me back at all) and she STILL could not pronounce my Chinese name. Anyways, before she was going to indirectly explain why people of Chinese descent-despite their level of Mandarin cannot participate in a Chinese speech contest-I just cut her off and told her I had no interest in joining their competition. She abruptly just said 不好意思 (bu hao yi si basically means sorry or I feel embarrassed but it's so often said that it's nearly lost all sincerity) and 拜拜 (bye-bye). I know regret saying that so quickly since I should have spent at least a few more seconds explaining to her the concepts of equal opportunity and basic civil rights.
Oh and I told my teacher about it today during class and she was shocked. She said that a lot of ABCs don't know even Mandarin Chinese, plus she said I AM a foreigner since I was born in America, so if I have any foreign language background then that is my 優勢 (you shi I guess it could be defined as attribute) and shouldn't be held against me.
I was at the office getting information for the trip to Taroko gorge and then off-hand I mentioned what happened and Xiao Mai said that the lady called her too. I told her that they should have stipulated this in the rules and it would have saved all this fuss. Xiao Mai said that in the Chinese rules it says if your parents are Chinese or Taiwanese then you can't join. I told her then that should have been written in the ENGLISH rules as well since foreigners don't usually look for trouble and try to translate the Chinese rules when English rules are readily available. Furthermore, they should have clarified that they don't care about nationality they only care about ethnicity...since technically my parents are NOT Taiwanese nor Chinese but American citizens.
One of my classmates said that in the English rules it specifically states that the Radio Taiwan International speech competition will not evaluate contestants based on their appearance...well apparently they bar eligibility based on race and the color of their skin. Way to go Radio Taiwan International (www.rti.org.tw)!
Radio Taiwan International (RTI)
E-mail: chiouyus@rti.org.tw
Mailing address: 55, Pei-An Rd, Taipei 104, Taiwan
Deborah, (02)2885-6168 ext. 723
So apparently RTI is actually the new moniker for CBS or Central Broadcasting System, so it's the radio station of the national government...
"For over 75 years the Central Broadcasting System has moved forward in harmony with the government and braved the perils of enemies, both foreign and domestic, in order to broadcast for the country, maintain a stable society, promote a sense of history, and take the people of Taiwan to new heights."
(http://english.rti.org.tw/Others/AboutRti.aspx)
Yes, that doesn't sound socialist or reminiscent of 1984/Brave New World at all...
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2 comments:
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First time visiting your blog. Very interesting. My blog is relate topic to the shortwave radio too
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