Saturday 9 May 2009

TT gets knickers in twist over competition

Was there no real news last week (CSB trying to re-enter DPP? Ma's latest sell-out shenanigans? ... ) or is the "news" of Clare Wang NOT being chosen as tour guide to some Australian island really a suitable topic for the Taipei Times: "The biggest letdown in the world"?

... it is still difficult not to sympathize with Clare Wang (王秀毓), Taiwan’s finalist in the “Best Job in the World” competition that concluded this week.
Far and away the most “popular” of the “wild card” candidates based on an Internet vote, this wasn’t enough to get her the gig.

TT did it's best to pretend some rationality (incl. appeals to "the global recession" and "pragmatism") behind its knee-jerk nationalism:

...But this was, after all, a promotional exercise. With the global recession in place and the state of Queensland suffering increased vulnerability because of its extensive tourism sector, the pragmatic choice might have been a popular, multilingual person who could appeal to developing markets where advertising campaigns could benefit from the charisma and personal touch of a blogger.
Ideally, a candidate also fluent in Spanish or Chinese would have been perfect because a very large number of potential tourists could have been communicated with in Spain and Central and South America, or from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and the Chinese diaspora — not to mention other Asian territories whose residents might find someone like Clare Wang disarming and convincing.
Wang’s visibility and sheer energy could have developed a loyal and envious following in this and other highly Web-connected societies in Asia.

then it dropped all pretense at rationality:

... In Taiwan’s case, she could have also filled the vacuum left behind after the misfortune of that other global Taiwanese celebrity, New York Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民).

and finally it seems to suggest some kind of boycott of Queensland by Taiwan's tourists:

... If tremendous personal appeal, fluent English and a sense of humor and grace were not enough to get Clare onto the island, might we suggest readers follow Clare’s lead and travel to another part of Australia for their next overseas holiday.
Or, better still, New Zealand.

or better still, get things into proportion

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