T
aiwan cultural & creative industry  
(Taiwan Soft Power) 
          
   this site's world No. 1 in  2020~24,  2017~19 2016,  2015, 2014, 2013 2010~12      Top  since 1998  
 


fights for rights

 home  Taiwan  TW  OP  tour  restaurants  night market democracy  love  personality  hospitals  pres.  president  women  speech  privacy  fraud  univ.  internet-army  military  massage  prostitution  judiciary  police  prosecutors  judicial-persecution  corruption  foreign-labor  Taiwan-brief  human-rights  intl-human-rights  death penalty  diplomacy  transportation  avia.  happiness   housing   buffet   food   image  soft power  creativity  culture  wealth  drugs  persecutions  trans-justice   US-cartoons  US-designs  Japan-comics  Chn-creativity  Chn-cartoons-WWII  political-cartoons  cartoon-creativity  mental-control  music  movies  FB  CovID           Is 'cannibalism' legal in a 'cannibal'-led country ?
     

Taiwan

         Taiwan  

poor creativity

♣ the  Lowy Institute Asia Power Index, 2023 Edition

Cultural Influence No.1 US , No.2 China, No.3 Japan, No.4 India, No.5 Australia,  No.6~No.12 Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Rus, Indonesia, Vietnam,  No.13 Taiwan (ROC)
Comprehensive Power  1.US, 2.Chn, 3.Japan, 4.India, 5. Rus, 6. Aus, 7. S. Korea, 8. Singapore, 9.Indonesia, 10.Thailand,  11.Malaysia, 12. Vietnam, 13. NZ, 14. Taiwan (ROC)

power.lowyinstitute.org/countries/taiwan


  IMDb: Top Asian Films of All Time (top 30)

No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 6 7  
Japan S. Korea Hong Kong
(China)
India Iran Indonesia Thailand Taiwan
12 films selected 5 5 3 2 1 1 0
 

  <IMDb>  "Greatest Chinese Movies of All Time"

Hong Kong : 17  films selected
 
2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 18, 20, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34
China: 13 selected
1, 3, 5, 10, 11, 13, 16, 21, 22, 23, 26, 32, 33
Taiwan: 1 selected 4 Before ROC moved to Taiwan: 2 selected 27, 35;  US co-producer 2  17, 19

  AFP, 2023-11-26: after a Taiwanese director voiced support for the island's independence in an acceptance speech in 2018's  Golden Horse Film awards, There were no mainland films in the 2019 nomination list and several Hong Kong movies dropped out that year, while big commercial productions were conspicuously absent at both the 2020 and 2021 awards.

  Variety, 2023-11-26:  After Chinese industry to boycott Golden Horse, parts of the Hong Kong industry have stayed away too. Many Hong Kong film folks find themselves torn between the developing political and financial realities back home and Taiwan's indie-spirited film industry. Tsai's government has unveiled a succession of policies seemingly designed to use culture and entertainment to give the island territory a larger profile on the world stage.  It remains to be seen if more of the TAICCA-seeded projects come to fruition. And if Taiwan's film and TV companies are willing and able to fill the gap in the market created by Hong Kong's production slowdown and by mainland Chinese entertainment's inward turn of the past five years... brief msn.com/en-us/news/other/taiwan-drifts-towards-cultural-power-as-golden-horse-film-awards-cap-month-of-industry-activity/ar-AA1kvpBA  Patrick Frater

  abc news (Australia), 2022-9-8: Amid China's military and diplomatic isolation, Taiwan turns to films and games to reconnect with the world.  Taiwan was still "in its early days" of building soft power.  While Taiwan's government had been aware of investing in soft power for a long time, there was a lack of coordinated strategy between different ministerial departments. "The DPP did put more of a focus on things like multiculturalism and democracy, whereas the KMT focuses a little bit more on the Chinese base to Taiwanese culture" ; In 2020, Taiwan reported $44.7 billion in revenue from its creative industry, with a 9.83 per cent increase in overseas sales on the previous year.  msn.com/en-au/news/australia/amid-chinas-military-and-diplomatic-isolation-taiwan-turns-to-films-and-games-to-reconnect-with-the-world/ar-AA11zOGi

ISSF's  Global Entertainment & Media Penetration

ranks

countries

1 US
2 S. Korea
3 Japan
4 India
5 UK
6 France
7 Spain
8 Mexico
9 Turkey
10 Italy
 

 ISSF's Global Soft Power Index 2023

Ranks countries ranks countries
1 US 14 Australia
2 France 15 Sweden
3 UK 16 Denmark
4 Japan 17 Norway
5 Germany 18 UAE
6 Swiss 19 Holland
7 S. Korea 20 Turkey
8 Spain 21 Belgium
9 Canada 22 Austria
10 China 23 Saudi Arabia
11 India 24 Finland
12 Singapore 25 Qatar
13 Italy img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/905bb114-a609-4bd0-a33b-dabe335781b0/downloads/ISSF-WSPI-2023-FINAL.pdf?ver=1692105020621
 

 Asia Nikkei (Japan), 2022-5-30: Taiwan makes soft power grab for Europe's Mandarin learners Push comes as China's Confucius Institutes face global headwinds.   asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Taiwan-makes-soft-power-grab-for-Europe-s-Mandarin-learners

ISSF's World Soft Power Index 2022
Brand Recognition

1 USA
2 Japan
3 Germany
4 S. Korea
5 UK
6 France
7 Italy
8 Swiss
9 China
10 India

img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/905bb114-a609-4bd0-a33b-dabe335781b0/downloads/ISSF_s%20World%20Soft%20Power%20Index%202022.pdf?ver=1660547924817

ISSF's World Soft Power Index 2022
Entertainment & Media Penetration

1 USA
2 Japan
3 India
4 S. Korea
5 UK
6 France
7 Turkey
8 China
9 Italy
10 Spain

img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/905bb114-a609-4bd0-a33b-dabe335781b0/downloads/ISSF_s%20World%20Soft%20Power%20Index%202022.pdf?ver=1660547924817

 

cultural artifacts of Taiwan's National Palace Museum

DW (Germany), 2022-8-17 Taiwan considers evacuating cultural artifacts amid China tensions; National Palace Museum denied these rumors in a statement  dw.com/en/taiwan-considers-evacuating-cultural-artifacts-amid-china-tensions/a-62836646
Global Times, 2022-8-9  CNN on July 30 revealed that "in the event of an evacuation, the museum said it would focus on saving around 90,000 relics from its 700,000-strong collection, prioritizing artifacts of higher value and those that take up less space...  to the US and Japan....it hard to dispel public concerns....The relics are  cultural heritage of the 5,000 years of Chinese history, and once sent abroad, it will be difficult to get them back,  The museum's collection will be better off if it remains where it is in the event of an "attack from the Chinese mainland," suggested Feng Ming-chu, former curator of the museum   globaltimes.cn/page/202208/1272494.shtml
China Times, 2022-8-13  "真正的護國神山在故宮" / according to world scholars' opinions, China won't attack Taiwan by nuclear bomb as long as those cultural artifacts remain in Taiwan.   chinatimes.com/opinion/20220813002769-262101?chdtv   


 

   jump to:   ads.   animation   music  product design  arts  cartoon  movie   architecture   visual comm.   tour   food   medical   

 Dr. Joseph Nye said hard & soft power enable Taiwan to deal with China and expand its international space. (Dec. 8, 2010)   The Diplomat 10-5-2020 (https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/us-presidential-elections-2020-the-taiwan-factor/) advises that Taiwan’s strategic calculus could double down on its use of soft power  Washington Post, 2-17-2021:Today, 98 % of Taiwanese are ethnic Han Chinese... 
there has been a shift among younger generations who increasingly do not feel China’s emotional pull but rather embrace their home island’s history, and its Indigenous culture, as an expression of being distinctly Taiwanese.
Indigenous artists (
related to the Austronesian peoples) shine as Taiwan’s mainstream embraces its island identity.

 

台灣VS韓國文創產值
pic.1 Taiwan VS Korea, in Publications, Movies, TV, Ads., Pop music , CTN 12-24-2017 (Korea -red bar, Taiwan - blue bar )
ps: China's OTT broke in TW in large scale, Taiwan cultural industries are not competitive / Liberty Times, 3-16-2019

 Taiwan stated "Taiwan is small, but our 'soft power' is big ! " , "Culture makes Taiwan great ! "
However, Taiwan's culture like a mouse in circles still stay in same place A column article of United Daily 2-21-2019: Taiwan's cultural and creative industry almost become an endangered industry.  Taiwan's cultural & creative industry has nothing but slogans and many argues. The total value of Taiwan's cultural & creative production was far behind of that of Korea, Korea's value in publication is about 6 times larger than Taiwan's,  Film industry 6 times, TV 3.5 times, Advertising 3 times, Pop-music 6 times bigger than Taiwan's, according to statistics by Taiwan government and reports by headline news of the China Times at 12-24-2017.    CTN comments that Taiwan lacks of updated related laws and policy no focus, no direction, no institute, original creativity is not encouraged, the industry field is divided, without integrated marketing.   Taiwan's De-Sinicization policy gave up rich Chinese cultural background and history ......   so as to lose advantage in cultural-creativity battlefield.  Critiques in UDN (10-24-2019) :  Design field thinks culture & arts are nothing but decorative, fine arts belittle commercial arts, etc ... the arts should take the lead for the fusion of tech. and culture ( https://udn.com/news/story/11321/4122342 ) .

The output value of Taiwan's cultural & creative production in '12 - '13 declined 9.28%, in contrast, Taiwan's neighbor countries increased, China 14.27%, Malaysia, Philippines 8+%, Korea 0.65% ... Taiwan's cultural & creative industry even failed to create a "bubble", the reason is lacking of original creativity. / The China Times, 8-15-2017 
      ( ps: "Hard Power" means military power, etc  ―  Taiwan has not invented any top weapons. )

 
Taiwan won some important film awards 10 years ago, but not in recent years

List of Asians' big-wins in Oscar 2016 - 2021

Best Picture 2021- Japan (nominated); 2020- China (won); 2019 - S. Korea (won)
Best  Actor 2020 - S. Korea/USA (nominated)
Best Actress 2016 - Israel/USA (nominated)
Best Supporting Actor 2016 - India/UK (nominated)
Best Supporting Actress 2020 - S. Korea (won)
Best Director 2021 - Japan (nominated); 2020 - China (won), S. Korea/USA (nominated); 2019 - S. Korea (won)
Best Original ScreenPlay 2020 - S. Korea/USA (nominated); 2019 - S. Korea (won); 2017 - Pakistan/USA (nominated)
Best Adapted ScreenPlay 2021 - Japan (nominated); 2020 - China (nominated), Iran/USA (nominated); Armenia/USA (nominated)
Best Int'l Feature Film 2021 - Japan (won),  Bhutan (nominated);  2020 - Hong Kong (nominated); 2019 - S. Korea (won); 2018 - Japan, Lebanon (nominated); 2017 - Lebanon (nominated); 2016 - Lebanon (won)

 

List of Asians' big-wins at Cannes Film Festival 2016 - 2021

 "Palme d'Or" 2019 - S. Korea (Parasite)
2018- Japan (Shoplifters)
Best Actor 2022 - S. Korea 
2016 - Iran
Best Actress 2022 - Iran
2018 - Kazakh
2016 - Philippines
Best  Director 2022 - S. Korea

List of Asians' Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival 2016 - 2021

 Best Picture 2016 - Philippines
een.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Lion

List of Asians' Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival 2016 - 2021

 Best Picture 2016 - Philippines
een.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Lion

List of Asians' winners in SIGGRAPH  2016 - 2021

2020 India (Computer Graphics Achievement Award)  
2017 India (Computer Graphics Achievement Award)  
2020 Australia (Distinguished Artist Award)  

List of Asians' winners in SIGGRAPH  2016 - 2021

2020 India (Computer Graphics Achievement Award)  
2017 India (Computer Graphics Achievement Award)  
2020 Australia (Distinguished Artist Award)  

 

 

 

 ●   UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage  /    https://ich.unesco.org/en/lists

ranks

Asian country heritage items selected
1 China 40
2 Korea 24
3 Japan 20
4 Mongolia 15
5 India 13
6 Indonesia 10
7 Saudi Arabia 8
8 Cambodia 5
9 Philippines 4
10 Qatar 3
10 Malaysia 3
10 Pakistan 3
13  Thai 2
14 Singapore 1
14 Sri Lanka 1
14 Vietnam 1
14 UAE 1

18~3X

Myanmar, Laos, Nepal 0
Taiwan 0
  Taiwan is doing De-sinicization (getting rid of Chinese culture) for political reason.

◆  sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-hawker-culture-gets-nod-included-unesco-intangible-cultural-heritage-list-140941296.html  12-16-2020: Singapore’s hawker culture was officially approved on Wednesday (16 December) to be inscribed into UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.  The biggest thanks must go to the generations of hawkers for nourishing a nation’s stomach and spirits.   Taiwanese like its night market culture, but was not selected.

 

Taiwan's soft power  vs.  Asia's soft power

Till 2019-2020, Taiwan has not been included in Portland or USC Soft Power survey ranking list, so Taiwan's soft power is behind Asian's "world top 20" nations , including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, China, India, UAE.     for details : click Soft Power
 

world best surveys Taiwan's rankings
in top 25~30 list
comparison with
other Asia & Pacific countries
Brand Finance -  Global soft power Index 2022 failed 1. US, 2. UK, 3. Germany, 4. China, 5. Japan, 6. France, 7. Canada, 8. Swiss, 9. Russia, 10. Italy
Brand Finance -  Global soft power Index 2021 failed 1. Germany,  2. Japan, 3. UK, 4. Canada, 5. Swiss, 6. US, 7 France, 8. China, 9. Sweden, 10. Australia, 11. Korea, 12 Holland, 13.  Russia, 14. Norway, 15. Denmark, 16 NZ, 17. UAE, 18. Iceland,    19. Italia, 20. Singapore
US News: 2021 Best Countries Overall failed top 10 2. Japan,  5. Australia   7. New Zealand
Brand Finance -  Global soft power Index 2020, top 60 n/c https://brandirectory.com
 
Brand Finance -  Global soft power Index 2020, top 60 n/c https://brandirectory.com
 2019/2020 
Top 30 SOFT POWER by Portland
 failed No. 8 Japan, No.9  Australia, No. 17 New Zealand,  No. 19  S Korea, No. 21 Singapore, No. 27 China
US News: 2020 Best Countries Overall
The Best Countries in the World
n/c No.3 Japan, No.5  Australia, No. 11 New Zealand,
No. 15 China, No. 16 Singapore , No. 20  Korea,
No.22 UAE , No.25  India,  No. 26  Thailand,
No. 30  Qatar
2018/2019 Monocle's Soft Power survey  failed No. 3 Japan, No.8  Australia, No. 11 New Zealand, No.15 Korea, No. 19 China,  No. 21  Singapore,  No. 25 India
2018/2019 Soft Power 30 Study by USC Center on Public Diplomacy  failed No.5 Japan, No. 10 Australia, No. 18 NZ, No. 20 S. Korea, No. 21 Singapore, No. 27 China
2017/2018 Monocle's Soft Power survey  failed No. 4 Japan, No.9 Australia, No. 13 New Zealand, No.17 Korea, No. 19 China,  No. 22 Singapore, No. 24 India
2017/2018 Soft Power 30 Study by USC Center on Public Diplomacy  failed No.6. Japan,  No. 8. Australia,  18. NZ,  No. 20 Singapore, No. 21 S. Korea,  No. 25.  China
2016/2017 Monocle's
Soft Power survey
 failed No. 3 Japan, No.6 Australia, No. 13 New Zealand, No.17 Korea, No. 20 China,  No. 23 Singapore, No. 24 India
2015/2016 Monocle's
 Soft Power survey
 failed No. 4 Japan, No.6 Australia, No. 13 New Zealand, No.15 Korea, No. 21 China,  No. 23 Singapore
 

 

 

  According to a survey of 2020, Singapore ranks No.1, Japan No.7, Korea No. 9 on "enterprise",  Japan ranks No. 5, China No.10 on "engagement", Korea ranks No. 5 on "digital", Japan ranks No.6, China No. 8 on "culture", No any Asian country ranks top 10 on "education" and "govt."
 

Best Countries overall in 2020:  1 Swiss 2 Canada 3 Japan  4 Germany  5  Australia  6  UK  7 USA  8 Sweden  9 Nederland  10  Norway  11 NZ  12 France  13 Denmark  14  Finland  15 China  16 Singapore  17  Italy  18  Austria  19 Spain  20  Korea  21  Luxembourg   22 UAE  23  Russia  24 Portugal  25  India  26  Thailand  27  Greece  28  Brazil  29  Israel  30  Qatar  31  Saudi Arabia   32 Malaysia   33 Mexico  34  Poland  35  Turkey


 

 

 

 
world's most livable cities  ... and Taiwan

Till 2020, Taiwan has not been included in the top ranking list of the world's most livable cities  

world's most livable cities
world best surveys Taiwan's rankings
in top list
comparison with
other Asia & Pacific countries
EIU's Global Liveability Ranking 2022 failed top 10 1. Vienna 2. Copenhagen 3. Zurich 4. Calgary 5. Vancouver 6. Geneva 7. Frankfurt 8. Toronto 9. Amsterdam 10. Osaka
The World's Best Cities to Live In 2022 failed top 10 1. London, 2. Tokyo, 3. Shanghai, 4. Singapore, 5. Melbourne, 6. Sydney, 7. Paris, 8. Beijing, 9. NY, 10. Amsterdam
The EIU's Global Livability Index Ranking   2021 failed top 10  
The World's Best Cities to Live In 2020 failed top 10 1. Tokyo Japan, 3. Singapore, 5. Melbourne Australia, 8 Seoul Korea, 10. Sydney Australia
Monocle's Quality of Life survey 2021 9 Taipei 1. Denmark, 2. Swiss, 3. Helsinki, Finland, 4. Stockholm Sweden, 5. Tokyo, Japan, 6. Vienna  7 Lisbon, 8. Auckland, 9 Taipei, 10. Sydney
 
 The EIU's Global Livability Index Ranking   2019  failed in the top 50 No.2  Melbourne,  No.3  Sydney,  No.4 Osaka (Japan), No. 7 Tokyo,  No.10  Adelaide,  No.12 Auckland (NZ),   No.15 Wellington (NZ),   18 Brisbane  (Aus) ,    No. 38 Hong Kong,  No. 40 Singapore,   No.57  Seoul (Korea),  Taipei behind   
Safe Cities Index (SCI)  2019,   EIU (Economist UK), NEC failed in the top 20 No.1  Tokyo, No.2  Singapore, No.3 Osaka (Japan),  No.5 Sydney (Aus), No. 8 Seoul (Korea), No10 Melbourne, No. 20 Hong Kong  
ArchDaily / The World's Most Livable Cities in 2019 failed in the top 20 No. 3. Auckland, New Zealand, 11. Sydney, Australia,  No.15. Wellington, New Zealand , No.17. Melbourne, Australia  
 The EIU's Global Livability Index Ranking   2018  failed in the top 50 No.2 Melbourne (Australia),  No.3  Osaka (Japan),  No. 7  Tokyo (Japan) ,  No.10       Adelaide  (Australia),   No.12 Auckland (NZ)    Wellington (NZ) ... ... (omitted),  Taipei 58
 The EIU's Global Liveability Index Ranking   2017  failed in the top 50  No.1  Melbourne,  No. 5  Adelaide,  No. 7  Perth,
No. 8 Auckland (NZ),  No.11 Sydney,  No.13  Tokyo,  No.  14  Osaka,  No.16 Brisbane,   No. 20 Wellington (NZ),  No. 35 Singapore,  No.45  Hong Kong,  No.58  Seoul (Korea),  No.60   Taipei  
     

EIU (Economist UK)'s  Global Liveability Index evaluates stability, healthcare, culture&environment,  education,   Infrastructure

 


 

Taiwan's cultural creativity  :  artists―shortage of creativity & vivid imagination ! government―lacking of forward thinking ... United Daily (1-10-2016): 3 major political parties' presidential candidates all ignore cultural policy & direction in their debates.   Liberty Times 4-6-2016:  Government took the lead to plagiarize, and ignored copy-rights, Taiwan becomes "an island of Plagiarism".

 

Taiwan's soft power : Taiwan Soft Power, Taiwanese personality 

 

       

pic.:  This website-group was ranked No.1  "Taiwan cultural creativity" 
on US Bing,
2022-12-12, 12-3-2020, 10-23-2019,  Oct. 1, 2018; This website-group was ranked No.2   "Taiwan creativity", on US Bing, 2022-12-12; No.1 at 12-3-2020, 10-23-2019,  Oct. 1, 2018


pic.:  This website was ranked No.1   "Taiwan cultural creativity" on Yahoo search engine,2022-10-9, 2022-5-31, 2021-8-9, 2021-5-9, 2021-4-18, 12-3-2020, 4-26-2020, Oct. 23, 2019, Oct. 1, 2018
 


This website was ranked No.2 "Taiwan cultural creative industry" on Bing, 2022-10-9;
No.1   "Taiwan cultural creative industry" on Bing, 12-3-2020, 4-26-2020; This website was ranked No.1 by keyword "Taiwan cultural creativity" on Yahoo search engine, 12-3-2020, 10-23-2019, Oct. 1, 2018

           

pic.:  This websites group was ranked No.2  "Taiwan soft power" on US Bing at 2022-12-12; No.1
 "Taiwan soft power"
on US Bing at  12-3-2020, 10-23-2019, 11-28-2018


pic.:  This website was ranked No. 2   "Taiwan ultural creative industry" on Yahoo, 2022-10-9 ;This website was ranked No.1, 2,3  by keyword "Taiwan cultural creative industry" on Yahoo search engine, Oct. 23, 2019
 ps.:  This website was ranked No.1 by keyword "Taiwan cultural creativity" on Yahoo search engine, Oct. 23, 2019, Oct. 1, 2018; This websites group was ranked No.1 on Yahoo search engine
 by keyword "Taiwan soft power" at  12-3-2020,
10-23-2019, 11-28-2018

\

 

 

 

 
pic.:  This website was ranked top 2 by keyword "Taiwan cultural and creative industry",
on US Google, Oct. 1, 2018
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword 
"
Understand Taiwan " on Google, 1-6-2017, 9-30-2017

 

pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword
"comment Taiwan" on Google at 12-4-2016, 1-1-2017, 9-30-2017, 11-20-2018

 

 

 

   

 

Tourism        For full text TaiwanTour & Travel

CNN (2022-12-6): Taiwan's 'living hell' traffic is a tourism problem.  Taiwan is notorious for its dangerous roads. Multiple countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan and the US, have specifically called out Taiwan's road conditions. "Many drivers do not respect the pedestrian's right of way,” the US State Department warns.  The Canadian government: "Motorcycles and scooter drivers don't respect traffic laws. They are extremely reckless.” Cities in Taiwan share a major issue – a lack of pavements and consistent walkways for pedestrians, ... Pedestrians are then often “forced” to walk onto car lanes...  The number of people lost their lives to traffic incidents in Taiwan is approximately six times higher than Japan and five times higher than the UK.  msn.com/en-us/travel/news/taiwans-living-hell-traffic-is-a-tourism-problem-say-critics/ar-AA14Xb2n  brief

   

 Taiwan's travel & tourism  - 10th in Asia

World Economic Forum (WEF)  <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> released at 9-4-2019 shows Taiwan had the sub-region's largest decline in competitiveness from 30th down to 37th.    Taiwan ranks No.10 among Asian countries.   for details : click tourism
 

WEF travel & tourism category Taiwan's rankings and/or score comparison
prioritization of travel and tourism   No75  Singapore No.6 ,  Hong Kong No. 11
Natural & cultural resources No.58  score 2.6 China  No.1, score 6.0 , France No.2,  5.0,  Spain  No.3, 5.7,   Japan No.7, 5.3,   Indonesia No.18,  Thailand No.21,  Korea No.24,  Vietnam No.26,  Malaysia No.31,  HK No.40,  Philippines No.46,  Sri Lanka No.52,  Nepal No.56
Natural resources  No. 87 Hong Kong No. 42, Singapore No.120
 
cultural resources & business travel No. 36  score 2.6 China No1, score 7.0
price competitiveness No. 78 China 5.7
Health & Hygiene  No.43,  score 6 score worse than Korea, Japan, Mongolia
international openness No. 60 only better than China, Mongolia
Safety & security No. 26 human resource & labor market: Taiwan No.18
 ps: Compared to the report of 2017,  Taiwan significantly tightened visa requirements (37th down to 119th), waning cultural resources and business travel (26th to 36th) and recalibrated figures showing a drastic reduction in protected areas (20th to 118th).

For full details :  http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TTCR_2019.pdf

 

According to  World Economic Forum (WEF)  <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 4-6-2017), Taiwan's most important indexes for promoting tourism, like "Attractiveness of Natural Assets" (parks, beaches, mountains, wildlife, etc) ranks world No.87, "Natural Resources" ranks No.55,   "Environmental Sustainability" ranks No.75 (No.69 in 2015), "Price Competitiveness" ranks No. 46, "Hotel Price Index" ranks No. 89 (82 in 2015), Taiwan got "n/a" on China's world top 5 indexes such as "World heritage natural sites" as well as "World heritage cultural sites".
comment Taiwan travel and tourism, No.1 on internet, pls. click for details

   

 

 

   

 


Food -  

 restaurants - Taiwan's cultural creativity on food

2022  Michelin stars comparisons among Asian countries

 Michelin cities

number of 3 stars

num. of 2 stars

number of 1 star

total num.

Tokyo (Japan) 12 41 150 203
Hong Kong 7 12 52 71
Kyoto (Japan) 6 19 83 108
Osaka (Japan) 3 11 82 96
Singapore 3 7 41 51
Macau 3 5 7 15
Seoul (Korea) 2 7 24 33
Shanghai (China) 2 8 37 47
Taipei (Taiwan) 1 6 24 31
TaiChung City (Taiwan) 0 1 4 5
Kaohsiung (Taiwan) 0 0 2 2
TaiNan City(Taiwan) 0 0 0 0
Users/88695/Downloads/20220830_PR-MG_TTTK-2022.pdf
guide.michelin.com/th/en/article/news-and-views/michelin-guide-singapore-2022-new-starred-restaurants
   2022-7-12
guide.michelin.com/en/article/news-and-views/michelin-guide-seoul-2022-eng

guide.michelin.com/hk/en/article/news-and-views/michelin-guide-hong-kong-macau-2022-unveiled-today-with-11-newly-starred-restaurants
guide.michelin.com/en/article/news-and-views/the-michelin-guide-kyoto-osaka-2022-is-unveiled-en
michelin.com/en/press-releases/michelin-guide-2022-shanghai/
guide.michelin.com/en/article/news-and-views/michelin-guide-tokyo-2022-eng    
2021-11-29


Taipei Times, 2022-9-10,  Liberty Times (Taiwan), 2022-8-30, editorial :
 This year’s Bib Gourmand list for Taiwan includes more than 20 types of cuisine. With Taiwanese cuisine accounting for as high as 30 percent of the total ...
Taiwan's cuisine / 
Indigenous diets are characterized by taro, yam, millet, wild vegetables and herbs, wild boar and seafood. Early Han Chinese immigrants, predominantly from Fujian and Guangdong provinces, introduced their traditional foods to Taiwan, adding a range of new delicacies to the national cuisine. The Japanese colonial era brought a smorgasbord of new flavors and textures to Taiwan, including sashimi, oden (various ingredients simmered in a soy-flavored dashi broth) and boxed meals containing steamed rice and side dishes. At the end of the Chinese Civil War, 2 million Han Chinese arrived on Taiwan’s doorstep and brought with them the eating customs and cuisines of northern and southern China
   ...  
talk.ltn.com.tw/article/paper/1537171    taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2022/09/10/2003785064
 

restaurants in full details click restaurants

 

        Luc Besson's movie "Lucy"  shooting in Taiwan particularly includes Din Tai Fung ― 
           which is not only the most famous Taiwanese restaurant but also even a landmark of Taiwan, however,           

 

(1) Din Tai Fung admitted at 5-9-2012 having used  Monosodium Glutamate / sodium glutamate (M.S.G.) as addictive in some foods there -  and they won't change this policy so as to keep major cuisine (e.g., steamed bun/bao (小籠包), chicken soup) delicious (according to United Daily News 5.9.2013).  According to  National Health Research Institutes and United Daily News (8-15-2015) "Horrible foods for dining out": Taiwan's food (in restaurants, cafeteria, etc) problems include using MSG.  Taiwan's 5 star restaurants like Sherwood Hotel announced any chefs using MSG will be fired.  According to int'l medical studies, using Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is controversial. (ref to "The Dangers of MSG" : http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/the-dangers-of-monosodium-glutamate.htm)  Some claimed it may causes asthma, headache, even brain damage. )
 

(2) Din Tai Fung was suspicious of being involved in Taiwanese food scandal, Apple Daily (蘋果日報)10-10-2014 reported that one Taiwanese Dept. of Health found out Din Tai Fung imported some oil products from King's Cook which bought  lard oil (mixing animal feed with cooking oil) from Ting Hsin Int'l. ( http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20141010/485241/   台中市衛生局調查發現,鼎泰豐曾向購買頂新正義油品的台中金品調理(KingsCook) 公司進貨,恐中鏢。)
 

(3) Din Tai Fung admitted having used G.M.(genetic modified) soy material(豆類) for a long time (until July 2015).   The China Times, (3.29.2013) reported professor Kuo H. J. (National Taiwan University, Department of Agronomy) comments - Taiwan using G.M.(genetic modified) is "national scandal" (國家級醜聞」), French scholar Seralini found G.M. foods may cause cancer with higher probability,    BBC (6.6.2013)<Taiwan diet danger everywhere>: Taiwan is the only country eating cured products made by animal-feed, G.M.(genetic modified) soya beans.  (主妇联盟说台湾是世界上唯一直接食用饲料级基改黄豆加工 的豆制品国家。)  But Din Tai Fung still used the "scandalous" G.M. stuff for 2+ years after the news being spread island-wide.  Recently, CNN (7-24-2015) dropped Din Tai Fung down to No.20 position  in Taiwanese foods list.

 

The Brand Personality ?

Din Tai Fung's Hong Kong branches were just eliminated their Michelin star
 title at Oct. 31, 2014,  (lost again in Dec. 2015)
Taiwan's Din Tai Fung never won any Michelin star title, but it is advertising itself a Michelin star restaurant by posters at front of largest Japanese mall, Mitsukoshi Dpt. Store in Taipei. (photo Aug. 22 2015)

Din Tai Fung USA website (http://DinTaiFungusa.com) has also been advertising a similar one in its front-page. (tests till present at 9-17-2015)

ps: the China Times analyzed losing Michelin most likely it's because of inconsistent quality problem.  (http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20141031001358-260405) 

 

    
      
◆  Food - night markets

     Best night-market-food in Taiwan : oyster omelet (introduced by Discovery channel of USA) ―  it is most typical Taiwanese food( street snack everywhere in night markets), but not exquisite & elaborated food.  a TV program expressed many oyster omelets use peanut (
fatal aflatoxin was usually found in this kind of food) powder and some unknown ingredients/addictives.    intro. to Taiwan cuisines

 Food - scandals

      Taiwan's food  safety scandals poisonous, black hearted food in Taiwan for 20-30 years, click for details  
    
Major world media like The New York Times and The Economist
(11.29.2014) comment a series of food safety scandals is one of few main factors causing the KMT, Taiwan's ruling party, has suffered one of its worst electoral defeats since Chiang Kai-shek and his forces fled to the island at the end of Chinese civil war in 1949.

 
   

 

   

 

Advertisement     a long time loser

My article in <the United Daily News> (Oct. 2007) mentions Taiwan's ad. creativity has been lousy for a long time,  In the past 10 years, Taiwan is about in the last place in Cannes Ad. festival, world best ad. contest.  (Even Vietnam, Philippines, red China are bit better than Taiwan)  Till  2017, Taiwan still only has small number of winnings in int'l ads & creativity contests. 

    

Taiwan's most important ad.

 Take Taiwan's national ads : "UN for Taiwan" (Taiwan to join the UN ) , as an example :

who said ?

 said what ?

This site's comment

2007Taiwan government :

UN for Taiwan ad. is "un-limited creativity"

(1) Those are quite old ideas.

(2) click to read details

National ChenChi University, ad. professor book

using puns in UN series is " very creative and witty idea"

    

Taiwan's int'l winning ads.

As for Taiwan's business ads. or TV commercials obtaining winning records in int'l ad. festivals, are not all so original,..... or/and not very sharp-witty,  e.g., making love with an insect symbolizes insecure sex, or stick out (very out) the tongue to make a funny face, ...... are student-level ideas.

★★ ADK Taiwan's "House of Little Moments"(【統一小時光麵館】2016)was the 1st Lion-award Taiwan got since 2006/2007, this is still a practical idea, instead of a sharp-witty one.

a TV commercial concerning Taiwan's highest divorce rate in Asia and 2nd in the world by 電通 won an award in Cannes in 2021, but it is "a story" lacking of clever idea.

 

 

   

 

Animation (comment Taiwan's best awards in world's best contests)

Taiwan's Top Institution(ps)

animation

World's top contest, prize & honors, and university's opinions

This site's comments

National Taiwan University
of Science & Tech.
Cubic Tragedy
 

ACM SIGGRAPH  
   People' Choice Award 

                        
 Experts won't feel the idea, girl face-lifting resulting in Picasso's cubism a <weeping woman>, unexpected .  

 

National Yuan-lin University
of Science & Tech.
Cubic Tragedy

NYLU's graduate school paper concluded this animation as "Picasso-inspired idea ..... contrary to our expectation".

 experts suppose won't feel this idea "un-expected".
 
National Taiwan Univ. of arts A fish with a smile

Berlin international Film Festival, children's section, Special Prize of jury committee

 (1) it's just a story for children.
 (2) elegant drawing style, but those pictures don't look like any city in Taiwan.
National Tainan Univ. of arts After the rainy day

 winning in UK

 Just like most Taiwan's films,  boring obscure-meaning codes, hence most people are hard to understand or may make over-interpretation. 
 
National Palace Museum Adventures of NPM (1) grand prize, 2008 Tokyo International Anim. Fair.
(2)
anim. goal : " bridging the gap  between ancient artworks and modern audiences.
 (1) it's a story for children, not for modern adults.
 (2) the film is showing in children's center of National Palace Museum, Taipei Taiwan.  

Tamkang Univ.'s paper concludes Taiwan animation's 1st problem is "short of creativity".    Very few Taiwan's researches 're working on this subject - creativity. (Taiwan  animation currently is only expertise at drawing tech.)

◎   comment Taiwan's international winning animation films in 2011.

 

  Picasso cartoon Cubism       Picasso cartoon Cubism
 

2 examples (pic. above) let us learn Picasso-Cubism inspired cartoons already having existed long time ago
(<The World encyclopedia Cartoons>,中國戲劇出版社)

More clever Picasso-inspired  ideas have already been developed years ago, please click to see!

 

 

   

 

Music/songs

An essay <China Tames Rebellious Side of Rock "n" Roll> in <New York Times>, likened today's Red Chinese pop music culture to the politically enforced conformity  of the Cultural Revolution, the core of songs is "have fun", culture has become an empty vessel, there are few hints of angst, alienation , or any but the mildest expression of teenage rebellion.

Washington Post,  5-29-2020
On mainland singing competition shows, contestants often perform songs by Hong Kong or Taiwanese artists.

Taiwan's pop music was tamed by political pressure in the past, the "opposition culture" in Taiwan's music field was almost eliminated.

Today's music is in a money-oriented environment.

Very few people notes an usual case :  two most popular singers, Wu-bai and S.H.E. (hottest in China too) sing 2 same-name songs, namely all the same as Chinese translation of "Brave New World" - a classic literature regarding man-handled white-terror tyranny.   S.H.E. seems so happy and exciting while singing this song.

In contrast, Apple Computer's famous commercial <1984> comes from another white-terror literature  "1984" written by Orwellian.   Ad. research papers mention one reason it succeeds ( the most remarkable US ad campaign, although aired only once ) is that people are curious about the mystery/puzzle -  a tyranny in a free country.

Certainly, the <1984> despises human-controlled tyranny.

 Apple <1984> TV commercial

 <Brave New World>

 <Brave New World> Chinese translation book

1984, Apple TV commercial

Brave New World, Chinese translation book


everybody in a blue-smog (mock IBM CIS color) "jail" are under control by big-brother in a big screen . try http://Youtube.com !
 

 (1) A literature by A. Huxley
 (2)
http://futuresteve.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/brave-new-world/  

book cover

  

 

   

 

Arts

United Daily 10-31-2019: Plagiarism again in Taiwanese design field !!  an art-work in Tai-Nan art festival copied UK's, another art-work on train (government's project) copied Russian's ...... All Taiwanese designers should respect themselves and take these cases as a lesson. 

Apple Daily, opinion, 7-20-2018 :  Taiwan ( Taiwanese everywhere) lacks of aesthetics accomplishments,  particularly those in power can allocate resources have "really turn me off" taste (倒盡胃口),  Taiwan's public art works are too vulgar to be endured (俗不可耐), and some are sort of cheap-copy works (仿冒竊).

Critics in UDN (10-24-2019) :  Design field thinks culture & arts are nothing but decorative, fine arts belittle commercial arts, etc ... the arts should take the lead for the fusion of tech. and culture ( for details pls. read https://udn.com/news/story/11321/4122342 ) .

Dec. 8, 2012 : To everyone's surprise, 2 out of 3 artists in Taiwan government's selection for participating Italia Venice Biennale are foreigners !  This means Taiwan does not have talented artists??

Many Asian countries have great ambition to do city-marketing by arts expo.,  there're 8 arts biennales will be taken place in Sept. 2008.

Taiwan is one of them -   <Asia Arts Biennale > was held till Feb. 2008.

Taiwan's largest news introduced (with a large-sized picture) an expo.  artwork  -  world brand's logos are spread on human bodies, this work seems to symbolize "Globalizing" phenomenon.

However, the idea "logo body" already appeared a number of times in,  i.e., <Your Logo Here, photos from S. Cal. 2004-2006>, and some logo tattoo works .......

More sharp-witty and more difficult ideas appeared in cartooning field at least 13 years ago, i.e., Japanese Yomiuri international cartoon contest.

  logos body     

pic. left: "number" logos on athletes,  pic. right: similar idea intro. by Taiwan's major newspaper

 

 

   

 

Architecture   no aesthetical & creative astonishment

◆   Taipei Performing Arts Center was selected as one among "the transformative buildings set to shape the world" in 2021, in that the eye-catching building has a planet-like sphere protruding from one side - will undoubtedly serve as a contemporary landmark for the Taiwanese capital;  however, some look-alike sphere buildings were already designed earlier  ― all "plug" into a central cube

 

 Taipei Performing Arts Center

www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/insight/year-in-architecture-2020

slideshare.net/manishkhageeshrestha/desing-concept

ge.com/news/reports/sphere-of-turbulence-whats-hiding-inside-a

below are Taiwan's "Face" buildings :

architecture

This site's comment

Taipei 101 building

Ugliest skyscraper in the world :  NOT very exquisite & aesthetic  appearance 

Tao-yuan international airport

  1st Hall : copied U.S. airport.
  2nd Hall :  shortage of spirit breadth and arts
atmosphere.

An article by VIP professor in Taiwan major newspaper (2002) asserted  :  " Copy is humanism spirits" 、 " How can we bear and even enjoy those original designed architecture by Taiwanese, our own people !? "

ps1:  Taiwan's Pavilion at Shanghai's World Expo. 2010 (China)  ―   an ordinary architecture, far worse than UK's Pavilion (based on same construction cost and same land-space).

ps2:  another contrast

 Can you tell which is US  Washington Dulles int'l airport, or Taiwan Taoyuan int'l airport ?

US Washington Dulles international airport

Taiwan Taoyuan international airport

US Washington Dulles international airport

Taiwan Taoyuan international airport

      ps: Taiwan eventually was ashamed of this stealing and modified its look recently ... already after many many years

 

 

   

 

Visual Communication

Taiwan government logo, UN for Taiwan logo, state-run enterprises logo, Taiwan's universities annual event logo ......  etc,  suspiciously are cheap-copy works.  Similar visual designs're everywhere in Taiwan.

Some examples are listed as below:

 (1)     (2)  

Central Reinsurance Co.

Taiwan's government, Central Reinsurance Co.  logo

Korea Seoul's official  logo

Logo by National ChungCheng university Taiwan
world logo appeared earlier logo of
Taiwan's government
Korea metro's logo
(appeared earlier) 
design by Taiwan's best university 


  
  

 

       


 

Pic. left is the logo of Taiwan government, since 11-9-1993, next 3 are logo of Canadian Pacific Rail, since 1968.

In addition to cheap-copy suspect, Taiwan's official document states their logo "easy to identify and associate with Taiwan's brand ... a simple shape and modernized & internationalized, aesthetic design " ; but, exactly on the contrary, it's neither modernized, nor as aesthetical simple as CPR's logo... 

 

     (3)   Taiwan's cultural landmark

  knife as tree, lawn, mountain   knife as tree, lawn, mountain

left : Silk Cut ad. in UK, appeared earlier    right:  poster for Taiwan's cultural government and Eslite book store (ps)

ps:  Both use same ideas "sharp knife tree, dangerous gear-wheel lawn"   
       Pic. at right side is an ad. for <Creative Ideas Exhibition of Taiwan Cultural Industry, Taiwan>, Eslite bookstore ( Taiwan's pride, a cultural landmark of Taiwan)

(4)  

pic. left above: logo and emblem of KMT
presidential election 2019/2020 

pic. left blow: a design for FCCLA (USA)
(ps: appeared earlier)

 

KMT denied it's a cheap-copying work,
but ROC design association
(中華民國設計師協會榮譽理事)
expressed "UP" is an obvious Plagiarism !

besides, Taiwan's head was cut out

 ref. to LTN, 11-15-2019

 

 

   

 

Film/movie    Taiwan's film almost dead

  abc news (Australia), 2022-9-8: Amid China's military and diplomatic isolation, Taiwan turns to films and games to reconnect with the world.  Taiwan was still "in its early days" of building soft power.

●  New York Times, 5-29-2020 : "Looking for an Introduction to Taiwan’s Greatest Filmmaker?"

      NY Times introduces Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s work :  “Millennium Mambo”(千年曼波), ,“The Assassin”(刺客) , “The Time to Live and the Time to Die” and “Dust in the Wind”(風中的塵埃), etc.  "Much of the acclaim for Hou rests on the implicit challenge that his movies pose to conventional narrative filmmaking. They are less rooted in story than in motion, space and time — the fundamentals of cinema. "
      Cinephiles scoffed: Maybe Hou was simply too challenging, too singular and too uncommercial for any distributor here to touch...  But scholar Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh noted that Hou himself likened his style to liubai 留白, the Chinese ink-painting technique of leaving space blank.    full details pls. read https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/movies/Hou-Hsiao-Hsien.html

●   Washington Post,  5-29-2020
      
Even today, Hong Kong artists and Taiwanese celebrities hold considerable cultural clout, working in the mainland and appearing and performing on variety shows and television dramas.

●  France 24, 11-21-2020:  Chinese cinematic talents used to dominate the Golden Horse nominations but China boycotted the event last year after a Taiwanese director called for the island's independence during an award acceptance speech. ref to:  france24.com/en/live-news/20201121-two-hong-kong-political-films-win-at-taiwan-golden-horse-awards

●  Till 2020, Taiwan has submitted 46 films for Oscar consideration. Three Taiwanese films (The Wedding Banquet (1993), Eat Drink Man Woman(1994), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)) have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film  all were directed by Ang Lee

Taiwan won some important film awards 10 years ago, but not in recent years

List of Asians' big-wins in Oscar 2016 - 2021

Best Picture 2021- Japan (nominated); 2020- China (won); 2019 - S. Korea (won)
Best  Actor 2020 - S. Korea/USA (nominated)
Best Actress 2016 - Israel/USA (nominated)
Best Supporting Actor 2016 - India/UK (nominated)
Best Supporting Actress 2020 - S. Korea (won)
Best Director 2021 - Japan (nominated); 2020 - China (won), S. Korea/USA (nominated); 2019 - S. Korea (won)
Best Original ScreenPlay 2020 - S. Korea/USA (nominated); 2019 - S. Korea (won); 2017 - Pakistan/USA (nominated)
Best Adapted ScreenPlay 2021 - Japan (nominated); 2020 - China (nominated), Iran/USA (nominated); Armenia/USA (nominated)
Best Int'l Feature Film 2021 - Japan (won),  Bhutan (nominated);  2020 - Hong Kong (nominated); 2019 - S. Korea (won); 2018 - Japan, Lebanon (nominated); 2017 - Lebanon (nominated); 2016 - Lebanon (won)

List of Asians' big-wins at Cannes Film Festival 2016 - 2021

 "Palme d'Or" 2019 - S. Korea (Parasite)
2018- Japan (Shoplifters)
Best Actor 2022 - S. Korea 
2016 - Iran
Best Actress 2022 - Iran
2018 - Kazakh
2016 - Philippines
Best  Director 2022 - S. Korea

List of Asians' Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival 2016 - 2021

 Best Picture 2016 - Philippines
een.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Lion

List of Asians' Best Animated Feature in Oscar 2016 - 2021

2020 China/USA (nominated)  
2018 Japan (nominated) won Annie Awards
2016 Japan (nominated)  
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Animated_Feature

List of Asians' winners in SIGGRAPH  2016 - 2021

2020 India (Computer Graphics Achievement Award)  
2017 India (Computer Graphics Achievement Award)  
2020 Australia (Distinguished Artist Award)  

List of Asians' British Academic Film Awards 2016 ~ 2021

2021 Australia, New Zealand   (BAFTA Award for Best Film)

2019

S. Korea (BAFTA Award for Best Film)

BAFTA Award for Best Film Not In English

2021 Japan  (won)
2019 S. Korea  (won)
2018 Japan, Lebanon  (nominated)
2017 S. Korea (won), Cambodia  (nominated)

●  China (mainland) and Hong Kong boycotted Taiwan's Golden Horse Award 2019 for controversial statements concerning Taiwan Independence in Golden Horse Award 2018 .    Taiwan president office responded that culture should not be blocked by political barrier.    China declared its film award ceremony (金雞獎) will be held once per year since 2019, which implies China's boycott lasts.

● Taiwan's film industry got 3 major troubles :

(1)   Taiwan government used to do political propaganda/comm. by using movies, till now Taiwan's government still thinks highly of things helpful to win political elections, besides, Taiwan government's movie policy already gave up to WTO, U.S., Hollywood.

(2)   Taiwan likes to 'create'  some abstract/obscure symbols attracting very very few people.  Using Eastern exotic flavor was another very useful strategy for attending world film contest.   Lacking witty & creative idea led to Taiwan film industry's death.

         ☉  Taiwan's movies fail to create better humour like "Lost in Beijing" ( red Chinese film banned by CHN gov.) .
         ☉  Taiwan's all-time grossing film, <Cape No.7>, is not a stylish witty comedy (some world best media positioned this film as comedy), but attracts lots of Taiwanese (particularly southern Taiwanese) by some simple ideas( i.e., sort of slapstick) and Taiwanese grass-roots culture elements.  
         ☉  Taiwan's <You are the Apple of My Eye> of 2011 was very popular in TW, HK and Chn, but most of it's boyish humors are not witty & stylish, this film attracts audiences by
stoking collective memory of their youngsters age.
         In 2012, Taiwan's films only won 2 awards in Taiwan's Golden Horse film festival (China and HK won most awards), which is the worst in latest 20 years.   In 2014, Taiwan was bit better, won 3 out of 23 awards in total.

(3)  Taiwanese are rich, but spent little on arts, and taste not too good - many people prefer real things, like money.    International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported 2010 Taiwanese GDP (USD 35,604) ranked world no. 21.(news 9/23/2011)

  per person per year (200X)
movie NT470 (about US 15)
drama NT91 (US 3)
dancing show  NT65 (US 2) 

United Daily, 2022-7-5: too much controls by the gov. results in uninteresting TV show, and industry suffering.  udn.com/news/story/121823/6425508?from=udn_ch2cate6643sub121823_pulldownmenu_v2 

TV soap opera series : Taiwan's TV opera series focus on "charming leading-actors/actress" (not giving importance to the content) to attract audiences, so Korean, Japanese, red Chinese TV series are better & more popular.   United Daily (5-24-2020):  NETFLIX in Taiwan is filled with Korean soap operas, Taiwanese indeed favor Korean story.   United Daily (12-28-2014): Taiwan's TV opera are not original.   UDN (critique C2, 6-21-2015): Taiwan's drama crisis/ lacking of budge, passion, actor/actress.
 Variety show/program of assorted entertainment:
UDN 7-22-2018: Among all creative & cultural industries, Taiwan's audio & visual industry has closest relationship with China's, but
Taiwan's entertainment shows are too 'slapstick" for Chinese people.    This sort of shows were very popular and was the reason or excuse that Taiwanese people don't like going to theater watching movies, but till 2013, those stuffs were not fresh enough and already behind China's, some paper even questioned Taiwan's variety show/program of assorted entertainment : "Are they incurable?" (4/7/'13 UND).  United Daily (12-26-2014):  Taiwan needs creativity.   Apple Daily (8-31-2015) : Taiwan's entertainment show from bad to worse, the gap between Taiwan and China becomes bigger, Taiwan's TV field in risk !    BBC (UK), 1-13-2013: Taiwan's pop culture leaps Chinese hurdles -   Millions in China watch the Taiwanese variety talk show Kang Xi Lai Le - but not on television.  it's not just a reluctance to embrace a different kind of TV humour. Chinese regulations forbid all types of Taiwanese talk shows from being aired in their original state.

 

   

 

Cartooning

<A Journey into Asian Cartoons> in FECOnews of 2019 (by Zola Zu) said that American Cartooning expert Dr. John A Lent was impressed that this relatively small country produces renowned cartoonists  (e.g., Ron Chu) popular in other places besides Taiwan and the way Taiwanese cartoonists survive one way or another under the circumstances of a dwindling market ... 

About 10 years ago, ROC on Taiwan government together with <The United News> system organized a Taiwanese team to participate in Euro's largest humour contest, <Kokke Heist Humour & Cartoon Festival >,only 3 artists (including Zola Zu) were selected.

Recently Taiwanese cartoon artists have shown little talents on Taiwan International Cartoon Contest sponsored by Taiwanese government,

Almost all juries withdrawn from <Courage World Cartoon Contest> (ranking world No. 1 for some years) , due to "seems political" reasons .   

Both animation and cartooning need creativity, but at present Taiwan doesn't have that environment.   

Taiwan youngsters like "Kuso" stuffs, however, formula/routine mind is not good enough for cartoon creativity.  

 

Japanese winning art in Knokke Heist, Belgium                1st prize work in contest held by MinSen Daily

 

 

pic. left:  Knokke Heist winner, appeared earlier.      
pic. right: Taiwan's 1st prize cartoon was sent to Knokke Heist and lost.

 

ps: Taiwan has (only a few) world class cartoonists : i.e., T.Y. Ju (Ron Chu)

 

 

   

 

Product Design

Apple Daily, editorial, 10-3-2020: Taiwan president Tsai said "The power of design is the nation's power".  From today on, "design" is no longer just an actor, but a "leading actor".  https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/20201003/Y3KEHXF4CRDRLJNNY2ZOJUMZ3I/

(1 )  Taiwan's best-selling cultural creativity :

Recently, Taiwan's best-selling & widely known product , "Chinese Fortune(or Rich) God figure toy", is based on Taiwanese superstition (Apple Daily: 88%of college students believe ghost existing ), and eagerness for money,

Taiwan's figure-toy design just simplified Chinese Gods' complicated appearance to little cute mascot, in contrast, int'l designs for gods are more witty, i.e.,

   
☉ Europe, Belgium rug Co.     installed a special compass in each product, its needle points to Islam's holy land instead of pointing South/North    this created a lot of business.
☉ Japan      made a watch converting 114 world major cities' time to Islam holy land's time, with time-alarm function for Muslims' prayer.

  
( 2 )  best-selling cultural products for int'l tourists

A major design periodical comments:  <National Palace Museum>'s rich treasures is the key to success of Taiwan's Cultural & Creative Industry.

However, <NPM> seems to look down upon the talent of Taiwanese designers.

<NPM>   product

comments

 

Alessi "the Chin Family"

 

(1) <NPM> cooperates with Japan, Italy, hence, NPM's products are not purely Taiwanese or Chinese flavor.
(2)  Mr. Chin got  slant eye (or "raising eyebrows"), it's western view-point, the Oriental usually don't draw that way.

 

Chinese creativity vs Taiwan creativity
Taiwan's tourists guidebook/ pamphlets (pic. above)   
calls 5000 yrs treasures

  "Chinese Creativity" .

How about "Chinese Creativity" in today's Taiwan ??

"Jadeite Cabbage" tray-pillow for
 chop-sticks to rest on

 

(1) most products directly use antique-art shape.
(2) At least 20 years ago, various assorted dedicated vegetables and fruits  glass chopsticks tray-pillow already were made-in-Japan (best-sellers too) .

 

Don Dynasty ladies picture slippers

 just directly applied antique pictures on products.

<NPM> should designs Chinese treasures, and makes witty, humorous artworks  to represent Taiwan's modern arts.   Western tourists suppose like to buy souvenir with Chinese culture & flavor created by ourselves.    "Mercenaries" cannot represent Taiwan to Olympics.

 

<NPM>merchandises:

slippers, mugs, etc with Don Dynasty Ladies Picture


Zola Zu's design :

(1) expo. in Europe like Holland, Turkey, and was printed in best-collection albums.
(2) printed in <the China Times>.
 

 directly use antique pictures(or simplify a little bit)

I choose the theme : When the East encounters the West,  Fine arts meets Cartooning, to integrate 2 major cultures.  

NPM slippers, National Palace Museum

art cartoon, slippers

ps: "tech. oriented" product design like <idea> contest, <if> contest is not discussed in here

 

   

 

Medical

Global Times, 2022-6-10: "The handling of outbreak also proved that Taiwan's medical and health facilities are inadequate and cannot take care of a large number of patients at the same time, which is completely inconsistent with Taiwan's claim that it has advanced medical and health infrastructure,""In any place where a public health crisis was so badly handled and people's lives were treated carelessly with no respect, the authorities should resign."   globaltimes.cn/page/202206/1267806.shtml

Bloomberg, 2021-7-25: Taiwan’s medical care system is run on a tight budget to keep costs affordable.  Taipei Medical University professor  comments Taiwan's medical quality is no longer good.  Taiwan's former medical chief 楊志良 (chinatimes.com/opinion/20210804005734-262104?chdtv) criticizes that the health & medical system has been damaged.  full text: CovID-19 in Taiwan   There's no any Taiwan's hospitals selected in "World's Best Hospitals - Newsweek" in 2020 and 2021.

 Guardian (UK), 10-31-2020: Now, Taipei's people browse, busk and greet each other with handshakes and hugs. It feels normal.  However, Taiwan has already "exported" dozens COVID-19 infected cases to a number of foreign countries, not sure yet who should be responsible for this, according to United Daily, editorial, 10-31-2020
https://udn.com/news/story/7338/4977422?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

New York Post  4-25-2020 : Taiwan deals with CovID-19 with "a lot more authoritarian.", "almost everyone is tracked.".  Taiwanese govt. responded at 4-28-2020 that Taiwanese would like to cooperate with our policy.  But the truth is Taiwan's "Big Brother" already sneaked into numerous families in the name of  Epidemic Prevention, by an injunction violating Tort Law and domineering over Constitution (凌駕憲法的侵權禁令) , without having noticed all nationals, in accordance with United Daily, editorial at 5-7-2020.   The ironic thing is after lifting Coronavirus Lockdown, Japan doesn't trust Taiwan's Epidemic Prevention, and has not put "democratic" Taiwan on their welcome list, many other countries did same thing to Taiwan.  The China Times, editorial (6-6-2020, 6-25-2020) analyzed one main reason is Taiwan rejects mass testing, even small-scale testing, the number of test per million people is 3000+, ranked world No. 138, about same level as that of African countries, even African Luanda tested double number of Taiwan's.  A famous National Taiwan University M.D. expert endorsed for Taiwan's policy :  there's no any CovID-19 in Taiwan, 3 weeks later, a Japanese girl staying Taiwan for 4 months was detected positive in Japan's airport.   Therefore, those free flow of information can be suspicious  and may endanger the world people According to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the new coronavirus may never show symptoms or fall ill — but can still transmit the illness to others (4-15-2020, Business Insider). Bill Gates in the New England Journal of Medicine: The prevalence of asymptomatic transmission doesn't bode well for global containment efforts.  All studies (CNBC 5-7-2020, Singapore's Blackbox Research and Toluna, Forbes 6-5-2020, 4-16-2020: The Deep Knowledge Group) concluded China is better than Taiwan on CovID-19 safety countries rankings  The China Times 6-25-2020 editorial: Taiwan has no same capacity and experience as Beijing does to face something serious, it will be horrible in case CovID-19 epidemic break out.  https://www.chinatimes.com/opinion/20200624003961-262101?chdtv

●  According to WEF<Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 9-4-2019), Taiwan's  Health & Hygiene score 6.0, is worse than that of Korea, Japan, Mongolia.   

●  Next TV news (5-25-2019, 20:44, 壹新聞  壹電視 ) reported that Taiwan government kept adjusting the price of more and more drugs to cover the deficit of medical insurance system, which resulted in more and more brand drugs withdrawing from Taiwan (e.g., TIENAM) , because cheap-price generic drugs made in Taiwan are not as curative effective as brand drugs, Physicians worry there's no good medicines for patients ....  Besides, Apple Daily (6-4-2017): Taiwan medical service's critical problem ―― Preventive Health-Care service is behind.    The China Times, (7-4-2017) : "patients centered" is nothing but a slogan.  

  Apple Daily (蘋果日報, 4-15-2019), United Daily (聯合報, 4-14-2019) ... : Going easy route, lacking of ethics, MDs advised using Da Vinci for even a minor operation,  38 hospitals were suspected of making false report about Da Vinci surgery to illegally obtain benefits from national insurance up to NTD 3.5 billion.

 Apple Daily 6-30-2018 pointed out Taiwan's medical service has no good preventive health care and health promotion, and will worsen within next 10 years for political factors.

● FTV (4-16-2017) comments medical Doctors' social status is lower than before.  
The book "Exposing the truth of modern medical circle in Taiwan" ("誤診誤醫", published by the China Times, 2012; by Xu Da-Fu  ) criticizes : Taiwan's hospitals focus on profit/benefit and ignore patients' rights , The whole medical circle already went the wrong route...

Surgery / Taiwan's excellent surgeons perform many operations simultaneously - happened quite often in Taiwan...
Medicines /
 the quality of prescription medicines in Taiwan is from bad to worse...
Bribery /
the institution needed to be paid bribery most is judiciary system, second is Taiwan's medical and health services ...
◎ full text Taiwan Medical services  or  http://Courageworld.ch/TaiwanHospitalsMD.htm

 

   

 

Sports/Athletics

●  olympics.com/beijing-2022/olympic-games/en/results/all-sports/medal-standings.htm  Taiwan in Winter Olympics Beijing 2022 : zero medal.

●  Tokyo Olympic Games medal rankings : countries of Asia & Pacific - No. 2. China, No. 3 Japan, 6 Australia, 13 NZ, 16 S Korea, 27 Iran, 34 Chinese Taipei (2 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze) .   Fox News, 2021-8-14  : China alters medal count to include Hong Kong, Taiwan to unofficially claim gold medal dominance over US.

●  According to Wikipedia (May 2020), Taiwan in Olympics (summer) has won 5 gold 7 silver, 12 bronze, was ranked world no. 66.

  In 2016 Rio Olympics medal tally statistics, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) only got 1 gold, 2 bronze, ranks world No. 50, compare to previous years, 5 medals in 2000, 2004, 4 medals in 2008, 2 medals in 2012;Other Asian nations -  China ranks No.3, Japan No.6,  Korea No. 8,  Australia No 10,  N.Z. No.19,  Iran  25, North Korea No. 34, Thailand No. 35, Indonesia No. 46, Vietnam No.48, Taiwan No. 50

●  Taiwan just held 2 world scaled athletic events that have ever seen in Taiwan's history :

World Games Kaohsiung Taiwan & Deaflympics Taipei : comments/critiques   to see how they showed Taiwan's culture and creativity.

 

   

 

other Soft Power
As for other items of Taiwan's soft power, according to Reporters without Borders (RSF), Taiwan's press freedom (speech freedom) ranks No. 45 (always behind No. 45 since 2008), Taiwan's human rights, judicial system, high-ranking officials' corruption, women's rights, abuses of international/foreign workers, death penalty ( capital punishment ) etc need to be improved.

 

 

   

 

Summary

(1) Not easy to upgrade "Made in Taiwan" to "Create in Taiwan",  since Taiwan has very few experts in creativity. (government does not think highly of them)

(2) Most Taiwanese professors (PhD) do theoretical studies, don't have talent (some even are not interested ) on witty creativity/design. 

(3) Ph.D usually is required for college teacher position, it's one criterion for Taiwan government to evaluate all schools.  Un-talented teachers can't train students to be talented.

(4) Taiwan's society and people don't think important of arts, culture, creativity, etc.  

(5) Taiwan government official in univ. paper said Taiwan doesn't have that kind of environment for creativity.  
     Creativity needs freedom,  democracy, and people's independent personality,  government officers don't like creativity, which means extra risk.

(6) Taiwan should fight "diamond cut diamond" with western nations in major fields , instead of going backdoor (or side-door) by exotic local culture, Eastern mysterious flavor, obscure codes, etc.

(7) Taiwan government used to give less budget to cultural field, and use e.g., movie as propaganda/comm. tool.   Taiwan needs int'l friends, but uncreative films won't attract enough audiences.

(8) Taiwanese government kicks cultural creativity to the corner , in that creativity seems no use for political election, but requires extra efforts on social controls/adm.

(9)  Taiwan's government prefers to use his own men.

(10) Taiwanese youngsters love heavy slapstick 、silly "Kuso" stuffs ("young-designers" policy is wrong).
     Taiwanese adults' imaginative power  is bounded, thinking in a roundabout/evasive way,  their tastes are lousy .......  pls. see 2 examples as below :

 

artworks introduced by Taiwan's largest news:

western artwork earlier

 
 

Merging Mao's photo  &  Tian-an-men Square
of Beijing

with "Miki mouse"
(to symbolize Red China's westernization  )

Morphing Mao
with "Miki mouse"
(to symbolize China's westernization  )

 

 is Biro Mihaly: A haboru borzalmai ellen, Plakat Budapest, Europe, at 1912. http://www.hnm.hu/utils/Gallery.php?ItemID=213&PicNum=9

fighter planes pass
Tian-an-men Square, and
drop
human-beings as bombs

ps: this painting price 10 times from 2005 to 2008
 


using youngsters as artillery bullets

(appeared earlier)

to be continued, if necessary

 

          Taiwan needs medicine, not cosmetic

 

ps2:  Other researches : finger-pointing moon results in that ear will be cut (28.3%) , chopstick knock bowl results in being a beggar (22.3%),  swimming in July (Lunar) results in un-luck (64.7%), whistling after sunset will encounter ghost (37%), pregnant woman using scissors will give birth to an abnormal baby(32%)  - reported by <Apple Daily>5.29.2005  (largest and best news evaluated by university) 

 

comment Taiwan Cultural Creativity prt in <the United News> of Taiwan

 part of article commenting Taiwan's creativity was printed  in <United Daily News>