At last month’s Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan, a very awkward and ugly thing happened when a TV celebrity and his daughter — the show’s hosts, no less — joked on stage about rape. Seems the comedian thinks rape is funny, and his daughter defended him. The Taipei Times reported that many fans at televised film awards show were less than thrilled with a crude joke that ”actor” Eric Tsang made about the recent popular movie titled ”You Are the Apple of My Eye” Tsang co-hosted the ceremony with his daughter, Mando-pop singer and actress Bowie Tsang.

The Chinese-language title of “Apple”, which is about a group of high school friends engaged in a romantic rivalry, literally translates as “Those years, we chased the same girl,”  according to the Times.

The movie was so influential that host Tsang said in public out loud on TV during the ceremony that Hong Kong director Wong Jing, a prolific director known for his own crude and crass sensibilities, allegedly wanted to make his own version of the high school movie, titling it “Those years, when we raped the same girl.”

That is not funny, and Eric Tsang needs some rape awareness education. See if he laughs one day if his daughter is raped in a back alley in Taipei. Funny? No way.

And that did the show biz daughter say to her day in the scripted repartee? “That sounds a little scary,” she replied as their celebrity audience giggled nervously and shamefacedly. Mostly they were taken aback by the hosts crude joke. Rape in not funny in any language.

And Eric went on: “But it hasn’t premiered yet. They are still converting it to 3D!”

Eric Tsang, report right now to the censor’s office and start your re-education classes today. Rape is nothing to laugh at. Is Taiwan so far away from Western sensibilities, that it allows its top film awards show, similar to the Oscars in America, to put this garbage on TV?

And it gets worse: After the ceremony, Bowie defended her crude rude father against an online outcry by Taiwanese netizens who called for his scalp and maybe even some chemical castration pills to “teach the guy a lesson!”

“Actually, my dad does have boundaries,” the dutiful daughter full of filial piety insisted.

“Maybe Taiwan show business needs to grow up and stop making sick jokes about rape on TV,” said a major newspaper in Taipei the next day. ”So sad. Taiwan is a great country with great people, and we have a thriving entertainment industry here. But this kind of dreck on TV at a major film awards show, like the Oscars, can you believe it?”

That statement needs no translation.

Tags: bowie tsang, Cultural Commentary, eric tsang, golden horse film awards 2011, rape joke, taiwanese celebrities
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