Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Even movie stars can’t escape the odd cross-cultural blunder. Poor old Cameron Diaz had to apologise to Peru on Sunday for carrying a bag with a political slogan that evoked painful memories in Peru’s history.

The actress visited the Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru’s Andes on Friday carrying an olive green bag emblazoned with a red star and the words “Serve the People” printed in Chinese, perhaps Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong’s most famous political slogan. The bags are marketed as fashion accessories in some world capitals, but in Peru the slogan evokes memories of the Shining Path insurgency that fought the government in the 1980s and early 1990s in a bloody conflict that left nearly 70,000 people dead.

Read more: Diaz 

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Etiquette, Customs and Travel Abroad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.