Why Are We Funding This?

The recent fiasco regarding the Hong Kong film removal in Melbourne International Film Festival is quite interesting:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2009/08/07/2003450566
http://fareasternpotato.blogspot.com/2009/08/gio-angered-by-removal-of-film.html
http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2009/08/melbourne-film-festival-success-afp.html

This quote from Michael should be heeded by all artists in Taiwan:

I hope Taiwanese artists and others involved in collaboration with Chinese observe that their work will always be nothing more than a pawn in Beijing's political strategies.

This is actually a very interesting phenomenon in Taiwan that exists for quite a long time. In the movie and entertainment industries especially, the government often funds and supports projects in places like Hong Kong with more money than for Taiwan's own project.

This is quite weird. It is not like those films really benefits Taiwan's images. If the government does not want to help out Taiwan's own movie industries, that is fine. But they actually fund other countries' projects that has nothing to do with Taiwan. It is like the US government giving money to Honda and Toyota.

The full review on this type of illogical policies is warranted IMO. Instead of wasting money on some Hong Kong films that no body watches, they should give more indirect supports to Taiwan's film makers...etc. After the success of Cap No. 7, it is clear more support for Taiwan's film makers is not illogical or irrational.