China: Mainland Blogger’s ironic review of shabby government buildings in Taiwan

Blogger Lv Se De Shou Cang recently ran a photo journal titled ‘A look at some of the administrative buildings in Taiwan’, which has also generated interesting comments. (All pictures cited from the blog)

陈水扁家族弊案最近吵得沸沸扬扬,让许多人对侦办扁案的特侦组感到很好奇。事实上,座落于日据时代建筑的特侦组外观非常老旧,墙壁水泥斑驳脱落,看起来甚不起眼,很多民众经过还不知道这就是鼎鼎大名,专门打老虎的特侦组。

The Special Investigative Unit

The corruption scandal and the conviction of Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian have become such a public affair recently. It  provoked great curiosity in the team which investigated this case, the Special Investigative Unit. In fact, the building that houses the SIU is a decrepit structure built during the Japanese occupation. It looks so drab that many passersby simply do not know that this is the home of the famous, tiger-beating SIU.

当看到taiwan行政院的照片…我实在不知该说甚么…

When I see the photo of Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, the executive branch of the government, I really don’t know what to say.

这是台湾的立法院(下图)也就是一般所谓的国会,常常上电视打架的立法院

This is Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, the so-called parliament, where we sometimes see fist-fights erupt on television.

It is quite obvious that what this blog is really about is not just a photo tour, but a thinly veiled criticism of many of mainland China’s government bodies and public officials’ extravagant work and life-styles. Even though there is not a single word in the blog directly flagging this intent, comments below show that almost everyone quickly understood.

Here is a sample of some of the comments, many of which are masterfully sarcastic.

对岸的公务员们,你们弃暗投明吧,过来给你们大房子住,奥迪车开~~~~

The public servants across the strait, you should all embrace our great cause so that you can enjoy our splendid offices and luxurious Audi transport.

看了台湾的穷酸样,我们很有“成就”感。

After seeing Taiwan’s stinginess, we have gained such a strong sense of our own splendid accomplishment!

我们的镇政府大楼也比他漂亮。

Even our township government buildings are more embellished than these.

看得我眼泪直流,台湾人民真的生活在水深火热之中,我们一定要解放台湾。

This makes me so sad and shed so many tear! The Taiwanese people are living in such a hell. We must liberate them!

民选政府就是不一样!记得某法国朋友来宁公干路过雨花区政府大楼时,惊诧地问道:这幢像白宫一样的建筑是什么?

Government elected by people is so much different! I remember once one a business trip to Nanjing, a French friend of mine passed the government building of Yuhua District and was startled: what is this White House look-alike structure used for?

Incidentally, the district-level (the second lowest level) government building the last netizen spoke of looks like this:

Yuhua District Building

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