The parody YouTube channel offers an important platform to highlight the humorous side of cross-Strait relations.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/01
By: Morley J Weston

With all the grim news coming out of Chinese politics lately, it can be easy to forget that the cross-Strait situation is a little bit ridiculous. Fortunately, the parody TV station EYECTV – a sort of Republic of China (R.O.C.) The Onion – has spent years reminding Taiwan that geopolitical claims on both sides are inherently goofy.

The anchor – nicknamed Retina (陳子見) – reads news from a notional pan-Blue perspective, referring to China, Mongolia and Hong Kong as integral parts of the Republic of China, which is ruled from Taipei by Chinese president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

According to co-founder and occasional host, 28-year-old Ocular Nerve (何姍蓉), “We got the inspiration for this channel when we were in China in 2015; we saw CCTV [China Central Television, China’s state-run broadcaster] playing and thought it was pretty funny. We wanted to mimic it.” The channel’s Chinese name is a play on words with CCTV.
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