Elisa Menendez
MALAGA university has been slammed for using Japanese ‘fascist propaganda’ on its film festival posters, making national headlines in South Korea.
Fancine, an annual film festival organised by the University of Malaga (UMA), has come under fire for its promotional posters featuring the Japanese Rising Sun flag and imperialist iconography.
The festival, running until November 22 is celebrating Asian cinematography for its 28th edition, with the campaign ‘Asia through the veins’.
But images decorating the city centre and posters used on social media have been blasted as ‘offensive’ for victims of ‘Japanese aggression’ during the Pacific War and the Southeast Asia colonial period.
“Imagine a German film festival, whose poster is the Nazi flag,” said Oriental Asia Studies teacher, Macarena del Campo.
The UMA has apologised and said ‘often the ignorance of other cultures leads us to make unwise decisions’.
Despite the apology and removing the imperialist images, in exchange for the Asian Lucky Cat and Maoism symbols, the Malaga festival has made big national headlines in South Korea.
Yaonhap Television, the Korean equivalent of CNN, blasted the use of the Rising Sun flag and reported that there have been several complaints to the Ministry of Education in Spain.
The posters dealt a huge blow to a number of South Korean universities, with which the UMA has strong ties, including a student exchange programme and various projects across East Asia.
