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Web celebrity briefly detained in
Shanghai for wearing T-shirt
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE: A Plurker posted a picture of a
roaring tiger and the caption 'you on the Internet' next to a small cat behind
bars and the caption 'you in real life'
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, May 22, 2010, Page 1
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Writer and Internet celebrity Lucifer Chu
holds up a T-shirt that reads ¡§Otaku Resistance Army¡¨ at Taiwan Taoyuan
International Airport on Thursday.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Writer and Internet celebrity Lucifer Chu (¦¶¾ÇùÚ) returned to Taiwan from China
late on Thursday night after he was briefly detained and questioned by police in
Shanghai on Wednesday for wearing a T-shirt with the words ¡§Otaku Resistance
Army¡¨ (ªü¦v¤Ï§Üx).
¡§I didn¡¦t know that there was an unwritten rule at the Shanghai Expo about
wearing T-shirts with Chinese characters ¡X especially characters they consider a
little sensitive,¡¨ Chu told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
¡§I was taken to a command post for a security check. I was kept there for about
30 to 40 minutes while they tried to figure out what the writing on my T-shirt
meant ... They thought the writing was a little sensitive so they gave me
another T-shirt and asked me to change, before allowing me into the Expo,¡¨ he
said.
¡§Otaku¡¨ is a Japanese term that can be loosely translated as ¡§geek¡¨ and is
generally used in Taiwan to describe Internet addicts and people who prefer to
stay home rather than go out.
The Otaku Resistance Army is an Otaku club in Taiwan of which Chu is the main
organizer.
Chu said when he was taken to the security post, a police officer asked him to
explain what ¡§otaku¡¨ meant.
After Chu explained, the officer said he could understand, but still asked him
to change his top because the words could be considered ¡§sensitive.¡¨
¡§I think the Shanghai World Expo organizers should make it clear what is and
what isn¡¦t sensitive, so that people won¡¦t get into trouble for wearing clothes
that don¡¦t really carry any sensitive message,¡¨ he said,
He also reminded people not to wear anything ¡§strange¡¨ when traveling in China.
After Chu posted the episode on his blog, many supporters left encouraging
words.
An Internet user who did not leave a name explained that the words on Chu¡¦s
T-shirt were considered sensitive perhaps because of the characters ¦v (house)
and ¤Ï§Ü (resistance), since there were several protests in Shanghai by people
whose homes had been flattened to make room for the building of exposition halls
for the World Expo.
Other Internet users, however, criticized Chu for being too ¡§soft¡¨ on the issue,
as he has a reputation for taking a stand against injustice.
¡§The funny thing is that he always calls on otakus to resist, but now he¡¦s
backing off himself when facing China,¡¨ a member of the social networking
service Plurk.com with the username Yutingtwn said.
Another Plurker, GreenOil, posted a picture of a roaring tiger with the caption
¡§you on the Internet¡¨ next to a picture of a small cat with tiger-like markings
behind bars and the caption ¡§you in real life.¡¨
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