Paper Talk: Hong Kong history buff points to omissions in recent book about Sino-Japanese war

Sunday, Ming Pao Daily

Bookstore owner complains about omissions in war book

A second world war history book published last year to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory of Chinese people’s resistance against the Japanese invasion was said to have omitted words, phrases and even a chapter about the Chinese Communist Party. Chen Yuan, a bookstore owner who loves studying history, pointed this out, saying that the book was a reprint based on the 1955 edition by Ho Ying-chin, the Kuomintang’s chief of general staff. Key terms in the edition, she said, such as “Zhu-Mao gang”, “Communist bandits” and even a chapter about the destruction of war history by the Communist Party, were all absent from the book, whose publisher is Hong Kong Open Page Publishing Company, a subsidiary of mainland-linked Sino United Publishing.

Monday, Apple Daily

HK woman detained in Taiwan for taking back money

A 45-year-old Hong Kong woman who travelled to Taiwan for six days in February was captured on a surveillance camera taking back a NT$1,000 (HK$240) note she had placed on the counter of a shop at the airport in Taichung to pay for an Easy Card – similar to Hong Kong’s Octopus – together with NT$900 in change given by the shop assistant while the latter was busy handling the transaction. She was later caught by police, but was finally freed and allowed to return to Hong Kong as the police said she was not caught when she committed the crime and the amount involved was small. The incident was widely reported in Taiwan.