1.  Taiwan Soft Power

¡¹ 1. Taiwan failed to enter UK based Monocle's Soft Power Survey ranking lists of 2010 till 2017/2018,  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.
Taiwan also failed to be listed in 2017's Soft Power 30 Study, compiled by PR company Portland Communication and University of Southern California.   The top 30 nations are 1  France  2 UK  3 USA  4 Germany  5  Canada   6 Japan  7  Swiss  8 Australia   9 Sweden  10  Holland  11 Denmark  12 Norway  13  Italy  14  Austria  15  Spain   16  Belgium  17 Finland  18 NZ   19 Ireland  20  Singapore   21 S. Korea   22  Portugal  23  Greece   24  Poland   25  China  26  Russia  27 Czech  28  Hungary   29  Brazil  30  Turkey.

   understand Taiwan  in 1 minute  !!       TAIWAN  in all aspects        review Taiwan          top rankings on internet !
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¡¹ 2.  Taiwan's cultural creativity  : ¡´ artists  ―  shortage of creativity & vivid imagination !   ¡´ government―lacking of forward thinking ...    

        ☉ The China Times,  headline news  at 12-24-2017:  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,  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...... 
        ☉ The China Times 8-15-2017:   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 

        ☉ 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:   The Liberty Times of Taiwan, 4-6-2016:  The government took the lead to  ignore copy-rights, Taiwan became "an island of Plagiarism".

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¡» Taiwan's soft power & cultural creativity ....   see below:

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)  

¡· The Washington Post at 1-5-2018: (The Chinese government...) "encouraging Chinese tourism to this island" (ps: during KMT in power ~ 2016 ).    New York Times at 2-22-2018: "The Chinese government has discouraged tourism to Taiwan...".   CTV news 3-9-2018 : beautiful island turns into killing island (traffic accidents), Taiwan's tourism might be a long dark night.   Apple Daily, opinion, 2-12-2018: lacking of monument elements, mature cultural creativity, and inexpensive tour-site hotels ...  shallow, careless, low-end quality led to an extremely low return visitor rate to Taiwan.   Apple Daily, Headline news 1-15-2018:  Taiwan tourism collapsed like a snow-slide, the number of tourists to Kenting National Park(¾Á¤B¿ß»óÀY) dropped 59%,  to Taroko National Gorge (¤Ó¾|»Õ) dropped 43%, etc, because of the number of Chinese tourists declined a lot and local people don't like those sites -  Apple Daily opinion 1-17-2018: expensive hotels, crowded traffic, getting ripped-off by greedy shops' ... UDN opinion 4-11-2018: tourism-related business everywhere are complaining of great hardship (»ô³Û­W). 

¡· 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.  

¡· United Daily, opinion, 12-30-2017 : Taiwan's foreign exchange earnings from tourism decreased 300 billion dollars (ps: NT 267 billions / The China Times,  10-4-2017).  To promote tourism in number of tourists, Taiwan's new mission ¡§New Southbound Policy¡¨  gave up the national principle of mutual benefit and equity, led to illegal drug trafficking and neighbor countries' anger, and illegal collectivized-workings by foreign "visitors".    Taiwan's advertisements only focus on "cheat eats" by using some widely-known stars.   All these remind us a Chinese tourists slang "you will regret for your entire life if coming to Taiwan".

¡· <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:

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Taiwan government logo	Western logo (Canada)	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   ―  

      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.  Michelin Guide Taipei was released at 3-14-2018, Taiwanese cuisine was not valued high, The number of stars Taiwan obtained is much less than those of Shanghai, HK, Macao, and Singapore.   Furthermore, unlike those in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taiwan's night-market, street food failed to won any Michelin star.

      3.   According to  "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" (2018) , Thailand Bangkok's Gaggan consecutively got in the first place,  the number of Japanese restaurants selected is 11, Hong Kong & Macao 10,  Thailand 9¡BSingapore 7,  Korea and Taiwan both are 3, but Korea won the 11th grade, the best ever position that Taiwan got in this year is the 15th  (RAW, 18th MUME,  47th Shoun Ryugin),  China got the 8th position.  https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/asia-50-best-restaurants-2018/index.html

      5.  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

      ¡´  5 star hotel restaurants scandals - A book (Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taiwan Veterans General Hospital's physician Jiang So-San M.D. ¦¿¦u¤s "­¹¦b¦w¤ß" (10-2014)) said many 5 star hotel restaurants don't wash vegetables ...  some 5 star hotels made sashimi raw fish slices by using fresh-water fishes, this may increase the probability to get cancer  (for details ¥xÆWÀ\ÆU  or  ¥xÆW¬ü­¹Taiwan Night Markets ) ; Epoch Times (¤j¬ö¤¸, 3-14-2017):Okura Prestige Tpe (¤j­Ü¤[©M, a 5 star hotel) sold expired frozen shrimps, molded taro (vegetable ¨¡) etc;   SETN news ( ¤T¥ß·s»D 5-16-2016): Some 5 star hotels in northern Taiwan sold black-hearted expired seafoods ;  LTN (5-17-2016): 5 star hotels Ambassador and Howard (°ê»«¡BºÖµØ) clarified this news;   Apple Daily (Ä«ªG¤é³ø 6-7-2016): Sheraton (³ß¨Óµn) 's white shrimps contained bleaching agent (º}¥Õ¾¯)¡A4 times higher than the legal standard¡ARanina (Spanner crabs ¦°ÃÉ) contained heavy medal Cadmium poisoning (­«ª÷ÄÝ镉) 14% higher than the standard...;  Apple Daily (Ä«ªG¤é³ø 7-2-'13): Taiwan's tourist hotels' food ingredients expired 2 years,  only 3 out of 21 hotels passed the security check and sanitary examination etc conducting by Taiwan Administration, e.g., Shangri-La's (tnn) did not separate their cutting tools for cooked foods and raw foods;    FTV news, 5-18-2017: 13 ingredients / materials expired in a 5 star hotel in Taiwan;  CTI TV news (5-17-2017, 19:33): What can we eat in Taiwan? people are uneasy for food here...    ¡³

     ¡´  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. 

     ¡´ Taiwan's food  safety scandals  :   black hearted food in Taiwan

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

¡» Taiwanese architects were forced to be "construction supervisors" instead of "designers" by the government's policy,  this  finally rouse architects' angers after enduring 10 + years,  most major public architecture projects went to international architects for "unjust treaties" made by the administration. / head-line news of The United Daily, 7-17-2017

¡» 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 

ps3:  It's a big joke and shame again that Taiwan government used the photo of Washington Dulles int'l airport (old Taiwan airport is a cheap-copy, very similar to Dulles) on Taiwan's new passport, and refused to admit mistake until night time. ¡·Apple daily, Head-line news, "Lose nation's face !!  Taiwan government tried to get rid of its responsibility", 12-27-2017.

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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
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¡´ 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
¡´  Apple Daily, 12-30-2017: Amending Taiwan's medical service law is criticized as "Decriminalization", patients in Taiwan will be difficult to put to the proof in their legal cases.   Apple Daily, Focus comment µJÂIµû½×, 12-29-2017:  Hospitals get rid of its responsibility (§K³d)?  Taiwan's medical service environment worsened (for amending medical service law). 

¡´ 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

¡´ The US subcommittee hearing (4-17-2018) Rep. Ted Soho,  Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific: Seems likely Xi will force the issue (unification) in his life time.

¡´   Eastern Taiwan's anti-aircraft military force needs to be improved soon, but in recent years, Taiwan has been limited to international reality and financial difficulties, therefore focused on main forces' (F16, IDF/F-CK-1, etc) functional improvement, instead of developing or purchasing new-generation jet fighters, Taiwan looks forward to having F35B, but it may take more than 10 years in the queue.  / brief - The Liberty Times, 2-5-2017.

¡´  New York times,  11-4-2017: ¡§(Taiwan) needs to resist a Chinese military attack for two weeks and wait for help from the United States or the international community,¡¨  echoing a strategy that has been at the core of Taiwan¡¦s defense doctrine for decades......Taiwan¡¦s armed forces, by contrast (Chn), have fallen way behind, struggling to recruit enough soldiers and sailors ¡X and to equip those they have.   A major obstacle is that countries that might sell it the most sophisticated weaponry are increasingly reluctant to do so for fear of provoking China,...The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 commits the United States to defend the island¡¦s sovereignty, providing ¡§such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary¡¨ ... US latest arms sales " short of the major systems that could give Taiwan a real edge."

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¡´  New York times,  5-18-2017:   Beijing¡¦s belligerence presents an existential threat to Taiwan, Chinese leaders have long vowed to take Taiwan by force if they deem necessary  ...  For years, the political establishment in Taipei has delegated responsibility for responding to Beijing to the United States.  Taiwan's leaders have gutted the military and continued to base defense planning on the assumption that the United States would always come to the rescue.  Policies put forward by the Kuomintang and the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party have left the military understaffed and in a state of low morale... Taiwan's active force down to under 200,000 (the exact number is classified). The nearly two million reservists exist in name only...   Taiwan¡¦s defense policies are largely a result of deep distrust between the military and politicians. The military has struggled with wide-range scandals/

 /  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/opinion    (ps: China's Baidu, 10-15-2017: Taiwanese reservists 3 million in total )
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¡´   The US Defense Gov. Report of 2017

¡@	¡@ Annual Report to US Congress (2017): Military and Security Developments Involving the People¡¦s Republic of China 2017 https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2017_China_Military_Power_Report.PDF ¡@
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¡´ØpUS Annual Report to Congress, 2016

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China

https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2016%20China%20Military%20Power%20Report.pdf

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¡´ Economist (special edition 2017): Taiwan will turn into a tiger again.   ¡´Taiwan declared no other air forces are allowed to show their muscle in Taiwan air space/ Apple Daily,  5-30-2016,...
     CTV evening news11-27-2016, United Daily News 11-30-2016: China's military aircraft-fighters (much stronger than TW air force) flied past around Taiwan and passed through 1st Island Chain, Taiwan air force did not intercept them. 

¡´ Taiwan lacks key-tech to make a coach (bus) / the China Times, 3-29-2017

¡´ Taiwan president beset by low approval rate because of weakness against foreign countries, even including Philippines, a backward country dared to hurt Taiwan, not to mention military strong ones, China, Japan, etc.  ref. to Forbes, 5-21-2013.

¡´ Taiwan politics belongs to corporations (not the people) and is controlled by the political parties.   <Foerign Policy> 2015.

   understand Taiwan  in 1 minute  !!       TAIWAN  in all aspects        review Taiwan          top rankings on internet !

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¡¹   3. comment Taiwan in all aspects

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¡³    4. Taiwan's economy

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        5. To understand Taiwan in one minute¡¹  

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¡@ ¡@ Taiwan, a pirate boat !!? ¡@

¡@  ¡´  <The Diplomat> (4-14-2016) :  Taiwan's illegal fishing is 'out of control', Green Peace criticized Taiwan government for knowing this issue but does little -   EU warned in 2015 Taiwan with a yellow card for illegal fishing.   (wait & see how TW nw law works) ¡´  Washington Post 2-22-2018 : Taiwan is No.2 fishing nation as measured by Global fishing Watch's Automatic Identification Sys., 2016.

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¡@ ¡@ ¡¹¡» ¡@	¡»		¡· ¡´  CTV evening news, 12-14-2017  19:19pm: Taiwanese fraud crimes are really all over the world.   ¡´ UDN opinion 12-24-2017: Taiwan became international nuisances & social harms ¡´ EBC  TV news 4-9-2017 6:54am: Taiwan is notorious for its fraud crimes all over the world, damaging the image of Taiwan ¡´    Taiwan largely sees these telecom frauds/phone scammers as an asset rather than liability... / comments by quora ¡´ ¡´ Taiwan's legal system is extremely tolerant of the scammers. Not matter how much money was involved in a scamming case  /  https://www.quora.com/Does-Taiwan-rely-on-the-fraud-industry-heavily,  /4-16-2016 ¡´ ¡´  Taiwan's legislators and judicial system don't have a sense of shame on int'l telecomm scammers issue  /  ref to United Daily News (Áp¦X³ø), commentary Opinion, 8-2016    ¡´  ¡´  Crime liability in China, or Japan, Germany is much more serious than that in Taiwan, China may give it  life imprisonment , Taiwan treats it  minor offense, converting Imprisonment into Fine.   Taiwan is a "low risk, high profit" country for fraud crimes ... / EBC TV news 4-9-2017 6:54am ps14
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¡· ¡´Taiwan's image  ―  notorious for being a major drug transit center & a major drug exporting country ("drug" - amphetamine, etc, ps13 ) ¡´ ¡´ Police of Japan and Australia already labelled Taiwan as "High Risk" illegal drug-exporting country ¡´ ¡´ Based on Japan's statistics,  Taiwan is its No.3 drug resource country ......  ref to The China Times, headline news, 4-4-2017 ¡´ ¡´   Taiwan was already reduced to be a kingdom of producing narcotic drugs.  (United Daily, headline news, 11-2-2017)  Taiwan's anti-drug is a phony show / CTN, 7-2017 ¡´ Philippines President Duterte (9-26-2017) : Triad supplying illegal drugs to PH is based in Taiwan, not China / inquirer.net  , UDN, opinion, 10-20-2017 ¡´ ¡´  Taiwan got bad records in The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG)  for the law and law-enforcement problems / UDN 4-11-2017 ¡´ Drug-abuse in Taiwan is too serious to stop / Apple Daily, Opinion, 5-15-2017;    50 packs (bags) of drugs were found in Taiwan's major air-force base / United Daily News 4-7-2017 ¡@

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¡¹ ¡@ ¡@	Does Taiwan Have democracy? ¡@	¡@
¡´   BBC UK, The SUN (2-13-2017): "BUS CRASH HORROR !" Taiwan's "safety standards need to be improved".   ¡´  China - People's Daily's Global Times (7-19-2016) editorial: Tourists're gambling their lives in Taiwan  ... click Taiwan travel  for details ¡´ Taiwan has had a poor aviation safety record/ CNN, Newsweek, 2-4-2015 ¡´  People's Daily (8-4-2016) editorial: Chinese not dare to visit Taiwan without safety assurance,  there's loopholes in law and regulation, careless mistakes in administration, not-good-enough system, etc ¡¹ ¡@	¡´ Taiwan politics belongs to corporations (not the people) and is controlled by the political parties <Foerign Policy> 2015. ¡´ ¡´ Now it seems hard to keep Taiwan's skin-deep democracy ... the people's "livelihood" was sacrificed for politics ...The United Daily - Opinion, 3-7-2017 ¡´ Taiwan's financial system is rotten ... / FTV news, 5-29-2017	¡@ ¡´ Food safety is one of biggest challenges to Taiwan / The China Times. 8-6-2016,  an interview to Taiwan president Tsai ¡´ Professor Yin M.D. (®ï©v®ü, Doctor, Univ. of London ): Minimize the times  of dining out to protect your health ! Beaviss : dummy ! there's no poison, addictives, MSG, lard oil, gutter oil,  added in these Chinese heritage arts - pork stone and cabbage jade  Butter-Head: so, we can eat these healthy foods now?!  ps4 a visual parody by Zola Zu¡@ ¡´ ¡´

¡¹  ps: The incidence rate of Taiwanese people suffering colon/rectal cancer was ranked world No.1,  many black-heart tainted foods containing Carcinogen (cancer producer)...../ 8-28-2015 apple daily.

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¡@ ¡@ Taiwan politicians buried people alive  ¡@ ¡@ in quakes of magnitude 6.0 ¡@

¡@ Taiwan government (including local gov.) has not well taken its fundamental responsibility of protecting the safety of people's life and property - ¡´ why are there so many tall buildings located on the fault-zone? ¡´ why are poor architectures everywhere on bad geologic grounds ? ¡´ why are those shit-hole politicians doing nothing and ignoring urban renewal so as to risk millions of old houses and human beings ??  ¡@ ¡@   (full text: https://udn.com/news/story/11321/2974813 Áp¦X³øªÀ½×¡þÂ_¼h±a¤W¦ó¥H«Ø¤F¨º»ò¦h°ª¼Ó¡H  2-8-2018,  https://udn.com/news/story/7338/2977079 ¤ÅÅý³n¸}¼Ó¦¨§|±þ¤H©R³´¨À 2-9-2018,  https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/daily/20180209/37928659ªá½¬ ³£§ó Äê¬F«È   2-9-2018)

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¡@  ¡´  USA Country Reports on Human Rights practices,    3-3-2017 & 2016, 2015 / One of Taiwan's principal human rights problems - domestic violence, Taiwanese women suffered  being raped (spousal rape).  Many victims did not report the crime for fear of social stigmatization.  Various nongovernmental organization (NGO) and academic studies estimated that the  total number of sexual assaults was seven to 10 times the number reported to police.   ¡´  Apple Daily news (12. 25. '14) reported that the percentage of  those Taiwanese male aged above 20 visiting porn business (2.33 million men per yr. ) ranked world No.1.

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¡@ ¡@ ¡@ ¡@ ¡@ †   Taiwan  ―   a piss boy polluting the environment       ¡´   Asian's biggest sewage treatment plant in Taiwan's New Taipei,  skipped the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and disposed dirty and disgusting water into the sea for probably 4-5 years, witnesses confirmed. / Next, front-page, 4-6-2017      ¡´  Taiwan administration's Dioxin ("poison of the century") control system crashed completely / FTV news, 4-22-2017                ¡´  "Wanna murder people?"  Official certification  for food (CAS) includes no Dioxin.    Pollution for12 yrs never end, Dioxin inside many people already over the limit probably, TW government has never done source-control, never stop contaminants (pollutant, e.g., plastic, inks from industry, fly-ash from incinerator, etc) going to our environment  / Apple Daily, head-page, 4-22-2017  ¡´ ¡@ ¡@

  

¡@ ¡@ Taiwan ! Save the ocean ! ¡» Daily Mail  (newspaper UK),  7-14-2017 comments it as "selfish" human beings , "Taiwan was once called 'Garbage island' and more conversation is needed" ......   Taiwan ignores environmental protection  (ocean garbage clean-up) of 90% coast-line of Taiwan island for large garbage-distributions... / UDN, 5-30-2017 ¡¹

¡» pic above: Daily Mail (UK) : Shocking underwater video from Taiwan shows ocean floor littered with plastic garbage ¡@ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4690526/The-bottom-ocean-filled-plastic-bottles.html  (news & video) ¡@

see further - Taiwan's dark side by cartooning ?  click below :
¡¹     understand Taiwan  in 1 minute  !!       TAIWAN  in all aspects        review Taiwan          top rankings on internet !

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Comment Taiwan            ¡¹   this site's world No. 1 in  2017~18,  2016,  2015,  2014,  2013,  2010~12     ¡¹

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¡@ pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword  "Understand Taiwan" on English Bing ,  tested at 1-11-2018, 9-29-2017, 5-19-2017 ¡@	¡@	¡@ pic: This websites-group was ranked No.1, 2, 3 on Bing by keyword by "comment Taiwan" ,  tested at 1-11-2018, 9-29-2017, 5-19-2017 ¡@

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¡@ ¡@ ¡@ ¡@ This sites-group was ranked No.1 by the keyword "understand Taiwan"  on Chinese Bing,  tested at 2-1-2018, 9-29-2017, 5-8-2017 ¡@ ¡¹ ¡@ This sites-group was ranked both No.1 and No. 2 by "comment Taiwan" on Chinese Bing,  tested at 2-1-2018, 9-29-2017, 5-8-2017 ¡@ ¡@ This sites-group was ranked  No.1, by  "Understand Taiwan",   as well as "review Taiwan",  "comment Taiwan", "introduction to Taiwan" on Yahoo search,  tested at 2-16-2018,  1-11-2018,  5-19-2017     ¡@

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pic. above: part of article commenting Taiwan's creativity was printed in <United Daily News>   : Taiwan's Creativity     comment Alessi Mr Chin & NPM of Taiwan printed in <United Daily News>, one of largest media in Taiwan, Aug. 2008  :  Chinese language version ¡@

a survey to find political persecutions in Taiwan

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PS : comment Taiwan Animation,  int'l contest winners  

anim

¡@   ¡¹  comment <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 ¡ÕStatues Que¡Ö. 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 . ¡@ ¡@ ¡¹  comment <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 ¡@ ¡¹  comment <After the rainy days>  a winning art 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.    ¡@ ¡¹  <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 officers 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.  ¡@

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a survey to find political crimes in Taiwan