Taiwan Soft Power


Taiwan Soft Power (cultural & creative industry) ★ this site's world No. 1 in 2020~23, 2017~19 , 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010~12 ★ Top since 1998 ★	fights for rights

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Taiwan	Taiwan weak cultural creativity	Kow-Tow "soft" diplomacy

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♣ 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

♣ 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

♣ 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, e.g., Taiwan made its donations quietly to avoid Beijing’s ire. Brookings (https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/increasing-soft-power-is-a-low-cost-high-return-strategy-for-taiwan/
) 1-22-2018: Increasing “soft power” is a low-cost, high-return strategy for Taiwan, “soft power ”— may prove every bit as valuable for strengthening Taiwan’s standing over the long run. Financial Times (UK) 12-3-2020: Anxious Taiwan launches US charm offensive to win Biden’s backing. This is sort of soft power applications.   Bloomberg 11-2-2020: Women Are Leading Taiwan’s Public Relations War Against China. Taipei’s representative in U.S. makes use of soft-power edge. The women running Taiwan are looking to boost a soft-power edge over Beijing and promote an inclusive democracy system. (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-01/women-are-leading-taiwan-s-public-relations-war-against-china?utm_source=google&utm_medium=bd&cmpId=google) However, Washington Post, 5-20-2020: There's a limit to what this soft power can achieve ... Taiwan was unable to compete with China's economic and political clout, Taiwan has seen its already small list of diplomatic backers diminish ...

How is Taiwan's soft power ??
Till 2020, Taiwan has not been included in Portland (PR company Portland Communication) or USC( University of Southern California.) Soft Power survey ranking list, which values each country's "enterprise", "engagement", "digital", "culture", "education" and "govt.". We can say Taiwan's soft power is behind Asian's top 30 nations , including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, China, India, UAE, etc.   In 2019/2020, Asian's winning countries include No. 8 Japan, No.9 Australia, No. 17 New Zealand, No. 19 S Korea, No. 21 Singapore, No. 27 China. In 2018, Asian countries Japan(No.5), S. Korea(20), Singapore(21), China(27) won top 30 . The world top 30 are 1. UK, 2. France, 3. Germany, 4. US, 5. Japan, 6~30 are Canada, Swiss, Sweden, Nederland, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Spain, Finland, Belgium, Austria, NZ, Ireland, S Korea, Singapore,   Portugal, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Czech, China, Russia, Brazil, Argentina.

Another survey, the UK based Monocle's Soft Power Survey ranks nations according to their culture, politics, business, diplomacy and education rather than their financial or military power, drawing on US academic Joseph Nye's notion of applying power by persuasion and attraction rather than coercion or force. Taiwan always failed Monocle prior to 2019.

Brookings (https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/increasing-soft-power-is-a-low-cost-high-return-strategy-for-taiwan/
) at 1-22-2018 commented that Increasing “soft power” is a low-cost, high-return strategy for Taiwan, “soft power ”— may prove every bit as valuable for strengthening Taiwan’s standing over the long run.

In 2010, Dr. Joseph Nye said hard & soft power enable Taiwan to deal with China and expand its international space. (Dec. 8, 2010) In 2010 Annette Lu, former vice-president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), advocated the ROC's use of soft power as a model for the resolution of international conflicts. However, in 2013 a series of food safety scandals in Taiwan has hurt consumer confidence, and now there are worries they could dent the island's economic growth and damage tourism (BBC, 11.19.2013). Food safety issues continue till 2018. USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices, 4-20-2018:●the justice ministry was insufficiently independent and conducted politically motivated investigations of politicians. According to Taiwan's national Chung Cheng university survey 2-23-2016, about 80% Taiwanese don't believe the impartiality of Taiwan's judiciary (prosecutors and judges). At Jan. 29, 2015, Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je in <Foreign Policy> commented Taiwanese democracy: "Does Taiwan have democracy? Real democracy means politics belongs to the people. Taiwanese politics belongs to corporations and is controlled by political parties".

In 2007, Yale published a book ""Charm offensive: How China's soft power is transforming the world". Taiwan also stated "Taiwan is small, but our 'soft power' is big ! " , "Culture makes Taiwan great ! "
The true answer is : Taiwan's soft power needs to be improved !

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

Till 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
ISSF's World Soft Power 2022	failed	1. US 2. France, 3. Germany, 4. Japan, 5. UK, 6. Swiss, 7. Italy, 8. S. Korea, 9. Spain, 10. China,11.India,12. Sweden, 13. Canada, 14. Australia, 15. Denmark
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
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

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

Times Higher Education , World University Rank 2023 timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2023/world-ranking#!/page/7/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats
Rank	Taiwan	China	Korea	Hong Kong, Macau	Singapore	Japan
1~70		16 Tsinghua University Beijing 　 17 Peking University Beijing 　 51 Fudan University Shanghai 52 Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 67 Zhejiang University Zhejiang	56 Seoul National University Seoul	31 University of Hong Kong 　 45 Chinese University of Hong Kong 　 58 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	19 National University of Singapore 　　 36 Nanyang Technological University	39 University of Tokyo 　　　 68 Kyoto University
70~100		74 University of Science and Technology of China 　 95 Nanjing Univ.	78 Yonsei Univ. (Seoul campus) 　 91 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Daejeon	79 Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. 　 99 City Univ. of Hong Kong
PS: National Taiwan University (台灣大學) only got No. 187 (No. 113 in previous year) , number of students per staff 11.4, female/male 42: 58, int'l students 11%

Economist, EIU, THE GLOBAL LIVEABILITY INDEX 2022 Biggest movers down the ranking in the past 12 month Taipei (Taiwan) ranks world No. 53
	City	Location	Rank	Index	Rank Move	Index Move
1	Wellington	New Zealand	50	85.7	-46	-8.0
2	Auckland	New Zealand	34	89.2	-33	-6.8
3	Adelaide	Australia	30	90.7	-27	-3.3
8	Taipei	Taiwan	53	85.1	-20	1.2

world's most livable cities ... include Taiwan's ?
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
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
Monocle's Quality of Life survey 2019	failed in the top list https://monocle.com/film/affairs/quality-of-life-survey-top-25-cities-2019/	No.2 Tokyo (Japan), No.11 Melbourne (Australia), No.13 Sydney, No.16 Hong Kong, No.17 Kyoto (Japan), No.21 Auckland (NZ), No.22 Fukuoka (Japan), 23 Brisbane, 25 Singapore
Deutsche Bank Liveability Survey	not included in the top list https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000494405/Mapping_the_world%27s_prices_2019.pdf	No. 2 Wellington (NZ), No. 7 Melbourne ( Australia ), No.10 Sydney, No.14 Tokyo No.16 Auckland (NZ), No.17 Dubai (UAE), No. 23 Singapore, No. 26 Saudi Arabia Riyadh, No. 29 Seoul (Korea), No. 33 India Bangalore, No. 39 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, 44 Hong Kong, 46 India Delhi, No. 48 Shanghai (China), No. 55 Beijing
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 power - pls. see this web-page,
★Taiwan's other soft power - please click ! ( ps: "Hard Power" means military power, etc ― Taiwan has not invented any top weapons. )

● 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; 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. left: top5 "Taiwan soft power " on Metager at 2022-12-12; This website was ranked No.1, 2 "Taiwan soft power" on MetaGER of Europe, Oct. 23, 2019; among top 5 rankson metager.de at 2022-12-12● pic. : This website-group was ranked No.1 by keyword "Taiwan soft power" on Baidu of China, 12-3-2020, Oct. 24, 2019
　

● pic.: No.2 "Taiwan soft power" (Chinese version) on Bing, 2022-12-12; This websites group was ranked No.1 "Taiwan soft power" in Chinese on US Google and Bing at 2-5-2019, 11-28-2018

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● 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;This website was ranked No.1 "Taiwan cultural creativity" on Yahoo search engine, 12-3-2020, 10-23-2019, Oct. 1, 2018

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

Monocle's soft power survey:

2018/2019 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	France	16	Nederland
2	Germany	17	Finland
3	Japan	18	Norway
4	Canada	19	China
5	Swiss	20	Belgium
6	UK	21	Singapore
7	Sweden	22	Ireland
8	Australia	23	Austria
9	USA	24	India
10	Portugal	25	Brasil
11	New Zealand	ps: Asia & Pacific countries marked
12	Italia
13	Spain
14	Denmark
15	Korea

2017/2018 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	Canada	16	Nederland
2	Germany	17	Korea
3	France	18	Finland
4	Japan	19	China
5	UK	20	Belgium
6	Swiss	21	Austria
7	USA	22	Singapore
8	Sweden	23	Ireland
9	Australia	24	India
10	Italia	25	Brasil
11	Denmark	ps: Asia & Pacific countries marked
12	Portugal
13	New Zealand
14	Spain
15	Norway

2016/2017 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	USA	16	Norway
2	Germany	17	Korea
3	Japan	18	Finland
4	UK	19	Brasil
5	France	20	China
6	Australia	21	Austria
7	Canada	22	Belgium
8	Sweden	23	Singapore
9	Swiss	24	India
10	Danmark	25	Poland
11	Italy	ps: Asia & Pacific countries marked
12	Spain
13	New Zealand
14	Holland
15	Portugal

★

2015/2016 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	Germany	16	Norway
2	USA	17	Austria
3	UK	18	Finland
4	Japan	19	Portugal
5	France	20	Belgium
6	Australia	21	China
7	Sweden	22	Brazil
8	Swiss	23	Singapore
9	Danish	24	Poland
10	Canada	25	Turkey
11	Spain
12	Italy
13	New Zealand
14	Holland (Neitherland)
15	Korea

Taiwan is not included in soft power survey as well as 2015/2016 Quality of Life survey.

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2014/2015 Monocle's Soft Power survey
1	USA	16	Norway
2	Germany	17	Finland
3	UK	18	Belgium
4	Japan	19	China (better than 2013/2014)
5	France	20	Austria
6	Australia	21	Ireland
7	Swiss	22	Brazil
8	Sweden	23	Singapore
9	Danish	24	Portugal
10	Canada	25	Poland
11	Spain	26	Turkey
12	Italy	27	Mexico
13	Holland	28	Greece
14	New Zealand	29	Russia
15	Korea	30	Argentina

Taiwan is not included in soft power survey as well as 2014/2015 Quality of Life survey ― No any city in Taiwan is included in the list, some cities in Asia are ranking top, those are No.2 (Japan Tokyo) No.3(Australia Melbourne), 9(Japan Kyoto), 10 (Japan Fukuoka), 11(Australia Sydney ), 12(NZ Auckland), 13 (Hong Kong), 16 (Singapore), No.25 (Australia Brisbane)

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2013 Monocle's Soft Power rankings
No.	countries	ranks in 2012
1	Germany	3
2	UK	1
3	USA	2
4	France	4
5	Japan	6
6	Sweden	5
7	Australia	9
8	Swiss	8
9	Canada	10
10	Italy	14
ps: The Guardian, UK (6.19.2013) : ...Over the last few years, China has attempted to salve its soft power angst with hard cash, pouring money and manpower into the movie industry, the culture-promoting Confucius Institute and the foreign-language output of state broadcaster CCTV. ...Last year, the outgoing Chinese president, Hu Jintao, wrote an essay bemoaning his country's poor performance in the cultural arms race. "We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of westernising and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration," he wrote, somewhat dramatically, adding "the international culture of the west is strong while we are weak." ◎

2012 Monocle's soft power rankings				2011Monocle's soft power rankings
1	UK	11	Korea	1	USA	11	Norway
2	USA	12	Norway	2	UK	12	Denmark
3	Germany	13	Finland	3	France	13	Spain
4	France	14	Italy	4	Germany	14	S Korea
5	Sweden	15	Netherlands	5	Australia	15	Finland,
6	Japan	16	Spain	6	Sweden	16	Italy
7	Denmark	17	Brazil	7	Japan	17	New Zealand
8	Swiss	18	Austria	8	Swiss	18	Austria
9	Australia	19	Belgium	9	Canada	19	Belgium
10	Canada	20	Turkey	10	Netherlands	20	China
ps: In 2012 China soft power fell to no. 22, in 2011 China - it's a matter of freedom and control - and the scales are out of balance. In 2012, Britain ousts the U.S. as world's most influential nation: Country tops rankings for 'soft power' 　◎

2010 Monocle's soft power rankings
1	France	14	Norway
1	UK	15	Japan
3	USA	16	Italy
4	Germany	17	China
5	Swiss	18	Israel
6	Sweden	19	Korea
7	Denmark	20	S. Africa
8	Australia	21	Brazil
9	Finland	22	Mexico
10	Netherlands	23	India
11	Spain	24	UAE
12	Canada	25	Turkey
13	Singapore	26	Russia

According to Monocle's soft power survey, each top-20 country has its special or stronger part, e.g., Korea soft power - A wizz with technology and now the pop powerhouse of Asia, Japan soft power - Goodwill to all Japanese , thanks largely to a dynamic pop culture, Australia - Smart thinking has added to vast natural reserves of soft power, and China - Chinese government's continuing poor treatment of artist Ai who was prevented from travelling outside the country despite his growing global popularity and a successful year, USA - continues to lead the world in investment in world food and health initiatives, plus tackling climate change, but it's military reputation of 2012 was further tarnished following reports of secret drone attacks in Pakistan, and its overseas occupations and unmanned drone strikes, plus an insular outlook during the recent election, lost the US its top spot..

Dr. Joseph Nye said hard & soft power enable Taiwan to deal with China and expand its international space. (Dec. 8, 2010)	pic.1 Taiwan VS Korea, in Publications, Movies, TV, Ads., Pop music , CTN 12-24-2017 (Korea -red bar, Taiwan - blue bar )
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. 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. 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. )
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★ Taiwan's soft power : Artists are short of creativity & vivid imagination ! Government lacks of forward thinking !

★	SOFT POWER

Tourism Full analysis Taiwan Tour&Travel

★"Formosa" means "a beautiful island", however, some media of both Taiwan and China (新週刊New Weekly) comment the best attraction in Taiwan is Taiwanese people itself. (an ambassador from S. America said so too)

★ 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

★ 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. In the overall ranking list, Asian country Japan got No.4, China No.13, Hong Kong No.14, Korea No.16, Singapore No.17, Malaysia No.29, Thailand No.31, UAE No.33, India No. 34,... (ps: secret hackers attacked while my updating WEF report of 2019)

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

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★	SOFT POWER

Visual Communication

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

Some examples are listed as below:

(1)		(2)		(3)

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

ps: the logo of Taiwan Ministry of Economic government, since 11-9-1993, next 2 are logo of Canadian Pacific Rail, since 1968. It's a cheap-copy suspect. Besides, 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...

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(4) Taiwan's cultural landmark

Silk Cut prt ad knife as tree, lawn, mountain

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

◎ Liberty Times 4-6-2016: Government took the lead to plagiarize, and ignored copy-rights, Taiwan becomes "an island of Plagiarism".

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★	SOFT POWER

Food -

◆ best restaurants full text restaurants in Taiwan

2022 Michelin stars comparisons among Asian countries Taipei ranks last among main Asian cities
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

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1. 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. 　

Din Tai Fung's Hong Kong branches were just eliminated their Michelin star
title at Oct. 31, 2014,
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

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◆ Food - scandals

Taiwan's food safety scandals till 2015 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.

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★	SOFT POWER

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

Taiwan's Top Institution(ps)	animation	World's top contest, prize & honors	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 results in Picasso's cubism <weeping woman> unexpected .
National Yuan-lin University of Science & Tech.	Cubic Tragedy	graduate school paper: "Picasso-inspired idea ..... contrary to our expectation"	experts 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) a story for children. (2) elegant drawing style, but doesn'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, so that 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. (Taiwan animation currently is only expert at drawing tech.)

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

Picasso cartoon Cubism

2 examples among Picasso-Cubism inspired cartoons

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

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★	SOFT POWER

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)

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) This series in recent years 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"

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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 not very sharp-witty , i.e., making love with an insect symbolizes insecure sex, or stick out (very out) the tongue to make a funny face, ...... are students 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.

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★	SOFT POWER

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

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

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★	SOFT POWER

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.

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 ( for details pls. read https://udn.com/news/story/11321/4122342 ) .

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).

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 (see pic. below).

logos body

pic. : "number" logos on athletes

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★	SOFT POWER

Architecture

◆ 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

UDN (聯合報) 10-23-2019: Taiwan is far behind in urban construction, in contrast, some metro in Asia always have astonishing architectures ... (brief)

below are Taiwan's "Face" buildings :

architecture	This site's comment
Taipei 101 building	Ugliest skyscraper in the world - NOT very aesthetic & exquisite appearance
Tao-yuan international airport	1st Hall : copied U.S. airport. 2nd Hall : shortage of spirit breadth and arts atmosphere. 3rd Hall: Taiwan fails to design, and fails to build the design by UK team

An article by VIP professor in Taiwan major newspaper 2002 asserted : " Copy is humanism spirits" 、 " How can we enjoy & bear those original designed architecture by Taiwanese !? "

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

ps2: another contrast :

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

ps: TaoYuan int'l airport just modified its appearance.

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★	SOFT POWER

Film/movie

● 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.

● 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 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)

● Taiwan's film industry got 3 major troubles :

(1) Taiwan government used to do political propaganda/comm. by using movies, besides, Taiwan government's movie policy already gave up to WTO, U.S., Hollywood.

(2) Taiwan can only makes some abstract/obscure symbols that attracts very very few people. Using Eastern exotic flavor's another very useful strategy for attending world film contest. No witty & creative idea led to Taiwan film industry's death.

         ⊙ Taiwan's movie 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 CREATIVE, is not a witty comedy (some world best media position this film as comedy), but attracts lots of Taiwanese by some simple ideas( i.e., sort of slapstick) and culture elements.
         ⊙ Taiwan's <You are the Apple of My Eye> of 2011 is 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.
PS: 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.

(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
movie	NT470 (about US 15)
drama	NT91 (US 3)
dancing show	NT65 (US 2)

● 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 (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: 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 !

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★	SOFT POWER

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) .

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★	SOFT POWER

Product Design

(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	short 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.	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.

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

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★	SOFT POWER

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 楊哲銘 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

◎ full text pls. Taiwan Medical services or http://Courageworld.ch/TaiwanHospitalsMD.htm ◎

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★	SOFT POWER

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 click to see how they showed Taiwan's culture and creativity.

◎

◎◎

★	SOFT POWER

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.

★ comment Taiwan's scholarly articles on cultural creativity ('soft power') field:
critic critic1 critic2 critic3 critic4 critic5 critic6 critic7 critic 8 critic 9

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★	SOFT POWER

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

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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)

PS: Taiwan Animation, int'l contest winners

anim

★ <Adventures of National Palace Museum>

NPM web-site (English version)	This site comments
the winner of the prize "animation of the year" Tokyo Int'ernational Anim. Fair of 2008.	(1) The NPM Chinese version web-page mentions: the film obtains "grand prize exhibition", a weird grammar sentence. (2) Japan's web-pages: "Animation of the Year" award goes to <1.0: You are (not) Alone> I have no idea which is right ...
describes this animation as "an exciting story of their (the leading actor, "ceramic child pillow") search for a katydid that has flown away from another of the NPM's treasure, Jadeite Cabbage".	(1) Not an exciting story. (2) The NPM is in Chaos after night, it can be an exciting story, why was the child only interested in that insect? (3) Suggest readers to compare with some other films like <Night at the Museum>, or classic animation ＜Statues Que＞.
This film "bridges the gap between modern audiences and ancient artworks".	(1) It's for kids, not for modern audiences. The film is showing in children's centre of NPM. Almost all audiences are children when I was there at July 4, 2008. (2) Children usually love vivid colorful film, not like this film .

★ <Cubic Tragedy>: ACM SIGGRAPH Peoples' choice no.1

(1) About 10 years ago <TIME>'s article stated Japanese comic strips show a sense of inferiority about their Eastern face ( many Japanese hero-characters look like western person's feature & body structure ), Cubic Tragedy's Oriental face-lifting story may interests Western audiences.

(2) Attendees might feel "proud" when recognizing (or figure out) it's a Picasso's painting, so as to vote this film as People's Choice award winner.

(3) The author's strategy is smart, however, the Picasso-inspired idea won't surprise creativity experts, because lots of fine-arts inspired and Picasso inspired ideas have already been developed long long time ago, in both West and Asia. ( see pic. below)

(4) The author tried to "design" the girl's face (to avoid "yellow skin") and the Asian eyes (described in the book "Survival of the Prettiest" , or any look like soap "Ugly Betty" ), <Cubic Tragedy> gives the girl a polygonian (square,cubic), pink face just same as certain background.

(5) Americans invest more money in their looks (beauty) than in education, around 1/2 the number of global M.D.s in plastic surgery are living in USA, the surgery may be treated as just a make-up or hair-coloring in the near future. Hence, the pink color may be sarcastic on that girl and many females, however, changing background-color may broaden the theme.

(6) In 1990, there's a widely-known concept arts : a French artist did a plastic surgery on face, and live show to world arts museums, people can buy this DVD or some skins cut ...... is it an art, a stunt, or a tragedy with various hidden meaning ?

Lots of fine-arts and Picasso inspired ideas're already published long time ago.

★ <After the rainy days> winning in UK

(1) A western saying : "Chinese are inscrutable", and many western juries, audiences favor stereotyped image of Eastern world - so, many Taiwan's films are on purpose full of exotic flavor, mysterious atmosphere, etc, or go even further : obscure/abstract codes, philosophical arts, poetry like a dream .........

(2) The "arts" are usually decoded to various meanings, depending upon audiences' knowledge and life experience ....... Picasso and a kid both can create same "art-work" i.e., displaying a M. Duchamp toilet, but the kid doesn't mean too much. An empty museum is a concept art, randomly shooting in the street is a Surrealism art. (quoted by John Carey, Oxford U. professor, to comment arts)

(3) Famous Ad book <Visual Persuasion> (U. Penn. USA) mentions Surrealism is sometimes thought of as a representation of dream (lack of logic) imagery and a source of various hidden meanings. However, attempt to read these hidden meaning may run into a problem of over-interpretation. It's mainly an art of eye-grabbing visual paradoxes.

(4) Most audiences only want entertainment, instead of spending efforts in taking a boring philosophy class, or in escaping from a maze.

(5) Great arts can be understandable and popular, i.e., Polish <fallen art>, Canadian <Special delivery>, Korean <Birthday Boy>, are easily understood, and may touch many people's hearts.

(6) Some symbolic tokens seem not so fresh, i.e., a flying graffiti, or fish soaring to the sky. Many times it seems to be easy : for instance, "graffiti" symbolizes rebellion, "flying" symbolizes set to free (or release from tyranny), so, combine both to get a flying graffiti.

(7) Sometimes lyric stuffs may needs obscure (but not too obscure) codes, but, why does mocking-politics kind of film need camouflage?

(8) <After the rainy day> is sort of "arts" animation.

(9) For so many years, Taiwan government loves to do some political propaganda/comm. by attending int'l film festivals with this kind of obscure-meaning films, so that Taiwan fails to communicate with million times of world audiences, this style of movie already led to Taiwan film industry's death.

★ <A Fish with a Smile> (10 min. short film) Jury Committee Special prize, Children's Jury Short Film, Berlinale int'l film Festival 2005

(1) director : C Jay Shih, Alan Tuan, Poliang Lin

(2) brief - "I once had a fish that was as loyal as a dog, as amicable as a cat, as attentive as a lover". This animation is kind of surrealism languages - deconstructed, inconsistent, hallucinatory, etc.

(3) If you like this anim., also try "EEL", a Japanese made Cannes award winner.

(4) The drawing style is elegant, however, this city looks like Euro's more than Taiwan's.

(5) The nature of animation is closely related to poetry, poetry is related to thinking in nature. I feel university should produce great themed art-works.

(6) I guess "fish is crying" is a more witty phrase than "fish is smiling". (because fish is in water)

ps: a few other winning anim. can't be found in Youtube, or their school sites

Summary:

Taiwan is struggling from OEM to OBM (for Pixar 3D films and China's cheap labor), Taiwan's animation is skilled in drawing tech., but is short of creativity.

1. Taiwan's society :
Taiwanese people don't think important of arts, culture, creativity, etc.

2. Taiwan government :
Taiwan doesn't have that kind of environment for creativity.
Creativity needs freedom, democracy, and people's independent personality. Government officials don't like creativity, which means extra risk.

3. Taiwan's universities :
They made very few research on creativity, produced very very few sharp-witty or entertaining animations.

Wikipedia encyclopedia concluded that Taiwan government has not worked a lot on cultivating college potential ones in animation field, currently is far behind Japan, S. Korea, and even Red China.

This website "Taiwan Human rights" : world No.1 rankings Taiwan's Creativity home page

comment Alessi Mr Chin & NPM of Taiwan printed in <United News>, one of largest media in Taiwan, Aug. 2008 : Chinese language version

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

part of my critique-article printed in <United Daily News> of Taiwan

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