1.  Taiwan Soft Power

Taiwan failed to enter UK based Monocle's Soft Power Survey ranking lists of 2010 till 2016/2017,  Taiwan's soft power is behind Asian's "world top 20" nations , including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, China, India, UAE, all of them entered top 20 list at least once.    The Monocle's Soft Power Survey ranks nations according to their culture, politics, business, diplomacy and education rather than their financial or military power.    The Liberty Times of Taiwan, 4-6-2016:  The government took the lead to plagiarize, and ignored copy-rights, Taiwan became "an island of Plagiarism".

¡¹ Understand Taiwan   ―   Please click "see Taiwan in one minute" by cartooning !     (pro-hackers tried to damage this web-page at 6-10-2017)
¡¹  Review Taiwan   ―   review Taiwan !!

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

¡¹ Taiwan's soft power : Pls. click  Taiwan Soft Power,  Human Rights in Taiwan ,  Taiwan's Pavilion at Shanghai's World Expo. (China) 

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Tourism   Full analysis pls. click  Taiwan Tour&Travel

 "Formosa" means "a beautiful island", however, some media of both Taiwan and China (·s¶g¥ZNew Weekly) comment top point of interest in Taiwan is Taiwanese people itself. (an ambassador from S. America said so too)  

¡· World Economic Forum (WEF) 2017 <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 strong indexes such as "World heritage natural sites" as well as "World heritage cultural sites" (world top 5).   Taiwan has excellent scores on "Mobile Network coverage", "ATM", etc, but those least likely are main attractiveness to international sightseers that Taiwan needs most.  

¡· <the China Times> 5-26-2015: "We should pay attention to a poll on the net in Hong Kong, it says Taiwan is the most disappointed place for the tour,  Taiwan's night market is the only place being worthy of visiting." (<media commentary> scholar's view "±¼º£ªº¤å³Ð")

¡· UK's Economist Intelligence Unit ― ¡´ "Liveability Cities" report (Aug. 2015) ranks Taipei world No.60  ¡´ Mercer's "Quality of Living" ranks Taipei world No. 83, and gives another city Tai-Chung world No.99, ¡´ Monocle's "Quality of Life" top list includes no Taipei.    ¡´ According to 2009  ECA int'l "the Best Place to Reside"¡ATaipei ranks No.57,  Asia top 3 are Singapore ¡BHK¡BTokyo( both world No.15)¡C¡´ 2010 rank :  Taipei No.55¡B Singapore is still global No. 1.

 ¡»  2015 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report

http://reports.weforum.org/travel-and-tourism-competitiveness-report-2015

 ¡»  Country Brands Index 2014/2015

Taiwan's score :	Taiwan's score location - "Countries" (left lower place)
Taiwan locates in "Countries" category, a lowest area  ―   having below average perceptions in both the Status and Experience dimensions. Critera : ¡·tourism / Value for money, Range of attractions, Resort & lodging options, Would like to visit for a vacation, Food ; ¡·HERITAGE & CULTURE / Historical points of interest, Heritage, art & culture, Natural beauty; etc. ¡@	¡·¡§Country brands¡¨ ¡V Countries that have above average perceptions across both the Status and Experience dimensions and have measurable competitive advantages over their peers as a result. ¡· ¡§Experience countries¡¨ ¡V Countries whose perception strength is biased towards dimensions relating to Heritage & Culture, Tourism and Made In. ¡· ¡§Status countries¡¨ ¡V Countries whose perception strength is biased towards attributes relating to Value System, Quality Of Life and Business Potential. http://www.futurebrand.com/news/futurebrand-launches-the-country-brand-index-2014-15
¡· top 20 countries: Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Norway, United States, Australia, Denmark, Austria, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Finland,Singapore, Iceland, Netherlands, France, Italy, United Arab Emirates, South Korea. ¡· top 20 most influential cities:  NY, London, Beijing, Washington, Moscow, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Shanghai, Dubai,  HK, Singapore, New Delhi, SaoPaulo, Rio De Janeiro, LA, Rome, Toronto, Seoul, Mumbai ¡@

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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)	¡@	(3)	¡@
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Taiwan government logo	Western logo	Western logo	Taiwan government logo	Korea Seoul logo	logo by national univ.

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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)

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¡» best restaurants  comment restaurants in Taiwan ―  

      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,              

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      2.  According to CNN (2-29-2016) "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" , only two Taiwanese restaurants are selected (leMout Taichung (No.30) and Raw Taipei (No.46)), the number was ranked No. 9 in Asia, next to Singapore (10 restaurants selected )¡BHong Kong(9)¡BJapan(8)¡BThailand(4, but Gaggan got best award)¡BChina(3)¡BKorea¡BIndia¡BSri Lanka¡F Besides, only one Taiwanese restaurant selected serves Taiwanese food. (http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/29/foodanddrink/asia-best-restaurant-2016/index.html)  CNN (1-4-2017) "Best New Restaurants" included Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia Bali, Arab Dubai, ... but not any Taiwan's restaurants. 
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      3.  According to The World's Best Restaurants (2016) , Taiwan is not included in the list .    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World's_50_Best_Restaurants   http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/
        

      4.  Miele Guide (2012) :  No any Taiwanese restaurant is included in top 20 Asian restaurants list.

¡» 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. 

¡» Food - scandals

      Taiwan's food  safety scandals  :   black hearted food in Taiwan 
     ¡´  Taiwan administration's Dioxin ("poison of the century") control system crashed completely / FTV news, 4-22-2017.
        Major world media like 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.

       ¡´  Chang Gung Mem. Hospital professor Yin M.D. (®ï©v®ü, Doctor, Univ. of London ): Minimize the times of dining out to protect your health ! ( ref. to book <­¹«~¤£¦w¥þªº¦~¥N¦p¦ó¦Û«O>("how to survive in this bad food-security time", April 2016)) 

     ¡´  Dean of National Taiwan Normal University - graduate school of Chemistry,  Dr. Gaston J. C. Wu (¤Æ¾Ç©Òªø§d®a¸Û±Ð±Â)'s book <Those black-heart products toxin-experts never buy ("¬rª«±M®aµ´¤£¶Rªº¶Â¤ß°Ó«~")> (Nov. 2013): Most of the time I eat at home, and has never dined out in street-side shops / small-eat markets (¸ôÃäÅu), because those small-eat shops usually/always do not meet the minimum standards of cleanliness. 

     ¡´  Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taiwan Veterans General Hospital's physician Jiang So-San M.D. : Most 5 star hotel restaurants in Taiwan don't wash the vegetables ...  ref. to the book "­¹¦b¦w¤ß"  

Advertisement     a long time loser

My article in <the United Daily News> (Oct. 2007) comments Taiwan's ad. creativity has been low 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 even bit better than Taiwan).  Till early of 2017, Taiwan still only has small number of winnings in int'l ads creativity contests. 

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

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As for Taiwan's business ads. or TV commercials obtaining winning records in int'l ad. festivals, are not 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.

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

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.

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

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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.

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.

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Arts

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).

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Architecture    no aesthetical & creative astonishment

below are Taiwan's "shop-front" or "Face-valued" buildings :

An article by VIP professor in Taiwan major newspaper (2002) asserted  :  " Copy is humanism spirits" ¡B " 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 (based upon the same construction cost and land-space).

ps2:  another contrast 

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Film/movie

¡´ Taiwan's film industry got 3 major troubles :

(1)  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.   Shortage of  witty & creative idea led to Taiwan film industry's death.

         ¡ó  Taiwan's movies fail to create better humour like "Lost in Beijing" ( red Chinese film banned by CHN gov.) .
         ¡ó   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.  
         ¡ó  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: 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.

(2)   Taiwan government used to do political propaganda/comm. by using movies,  till now days 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.

(3)  Taiwanese spent little on arts, and taste not too good - many people prefer real things, like money.

¡´ 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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Cartooning

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.  

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ps: Taiwan has (only a few) world class cartoonists.

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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 -  ps2  ), 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.,

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( 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> 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.

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

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Medical

¡´ Taiwan only ranks world 45th position in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017 (based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990¡V2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study   2015),  some chronic disease items got very low or failure scores, e.g.,   Leukemia score 49,  Kidney disease 50, Gallbladder & biliary 57, Hypertensive Heart Disease 60,   diabetes mellitus 58, etc.  http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(17)30818-8.pdf
¡´ United Daily News (5-30-2017): The biggest problem of Taiwan's medical care is too short diagnostic time, without a completed examination in most cases, usually, patients are already in serious condition when symptom became clear. / Dr. Huang D.F., president of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center
¡´ FTV (4-16-2017, ¥Áµø) comments medical Doctors' social status is lower than before.   Taiwan's current social value system is rapidly changing the culture in medical circle.    Dean of NTU medical school (±i¤W²E) advised that physicians
always keep in mind a love-based, "patient-centered", and humanistic-care thinking  
¡´ The book "Exposing the truth of modern medical circle in Taiwan" ("»~¶E»~Âå", 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 ...
¡· for full text pls. ref. to Taiwan medical service

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Women's rights