China-Taiwan dispute at Gwangju Biennale spills into Yeosu island fair

A naming dispute over the “Taiwan Pavilion” at this year’s Gwangju Biennale has spilled over into the World Island Fair Yeosu, with the Chinese city of Zhoushan pulling out of a planned two-month promotional exhibition and its international programs.

Zhoushan, a coastal island city in China's Zhejiang province, had planned to run a promotional booth at the fair, which opened last week and runs through Nov. 4. The city had also planned to take part in “Island Friends Day,” a program designed to introduce participating overseas island regions. That plan has now been completely canceled, according to a Yeosu official at its international relations division.

“Two members of the Chinese city’s booth operations team arrived at Gimhae International Airport for the fair, but they left Korea within just a day or two,” the official told The Korea Times on Tuesday. “Given the situation, we are now planning to redesign what was planned to be a Chinese booth and use it for other events.”

The withdrawal follows China’s protest against the “Taiwan Pavilion” for an exhibition event linked to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts at the Gwangju Biennale, which opened Saturday. Beijing has long opposed language or arrangements deemed to imply Taiwan is a separate sovereign state, maintaining that the self-governed island is part of China.

The Yeosu official said she understood that Zhoushan had cited the pavilion name dispute when it notified the organizing committee of its decision not to participate.

Asked why a dispute in Gwangju had affected an event in Yeosu, the official said Chinese authorities appeared not to distinguish between the two cities, which are now part of Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, a single local government recently formed through the merger of Gwangju and South Jeolla Province.

“Since Gwangju and Yeosu are now part of one administrative jurisdiction, China does not appear to see them as separate,” she said.

For the Yeosu fair organizers, the absence of Zhoushan, the only Chinese participant, is a big setback, given that China was expected to be a major source of overseas visitors. They have set a target of attracting 3 million visitors overall, including 90,000 foreign visitors.

“When the Chinese city agreed to participate, city officials said they expected a substantial number of visitors. But that has become less certain, and we now expect that fewer Chinese visitors may come than originally anticipated,” the Yeosu official said.

Officials at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul did not respond to The Korea Times’ request for comment on the issue.

Under the theme “Connecting Islands, Oceans and the Future,” the fair features exhibitions and programs on island ecology, culture, tourism and future development. Its organizers have said the event was supported by a combined national, provincial and municipal budget of more than 70 billion won ($52 million) and aims to generate 12 billion won in revenue.

But the fair has drawn fewer visitors than organizers had hoped during its opening weekend. According to the organizing committee, slightly more than 25,000 people visited the fair on its opening day, when an opening ceremony and celebratory performances by popular singers were held. Attendance fell to 10,251 the following day, bringing the two-day total to 35,668.

To meet its goal of 3 million visitors during the 61-day run through Nov. 4, the fair would need to draw an average of 49,180 visitors a day. The opening weekend’s daily average of 17,834 was about 36 percent of that required pace.