China pulled out of the 2010 Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on Saturday because it insisted Taiwan couldn’t be called Taiwan.

It insisted that Taiwan should be called ”Chinese-Taipei”  – as happens during Olympic events — even though Taiwan has appeared as Taiwan at previous TIFF events.

Head of the Chinese delegation, Jiang Ping (江平), told festival organizers the fault lay with the Japanese organizers.

Relations between Beijing and Tokyo frosted over when a Chinese fisherman was arrested for fishing near the disputed Diaoyu Islands (also known as Diaoyutai and Senkaku Islands, depending on your point of view).

This spat over a film festival marks a new low.

Taiwan actress Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄), left, sobbed as she talked about the incident during a Taiwan film press conference at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo on Sunday.

“We worked so hard till the last minute, but still couldn’t resolve it.”

She added that she was all dressed up and excited, “just like a bride.”

She attended the festival to promote her new film Juliet (茱麗葉) with co-star Janine Chang (張鈞甯), right.

“Since we couldn’t walk the green carpet, we entertained ourselves by lining up green paper on the floor in the backstage and catwalked on it just for fun,” Vivian said.

Doze Niu (鈕承澤), director of Monga (艋舺), and his two lead actors Ethan Ruan (阮經天) and Mark Chao (趙又廷), also attended the festival.

Source: Apple Daily