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.
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.

¡¹  Understand Taiwan   ―  ¡¹¡¹¡¹  Please click  "To understand Taiwan in one minute"  by cartooning !  No.1 on Google  ¡¹¡¹¡¹    (pro-hackers tried to damage this web-page at 6-10-2017) 
¡¹    Review Taiwan   No.1 on US Google, 9-2-2017
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¡¹ Taiwan's cultural creativity  : ¡´ artists  ―  shortage of creativity & vivid imagination !   ¡´ government―lacking of forward thinking ...    

        ☉ 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:

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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

¡» 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 

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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

¡´  The US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices , released at 3-3-2017:   Violence & discrimination against women is one of Taiwanese principal human rights problems for years.   In 2015, the number of reporting for rape or sexual assault  is only 850 less than that in previous year.      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.  The annual value of production of Taiwan's sex industry's is at least USD 200 million.  Prostitution is violence against women / ref to <Prostitution : violence with no name>, "Prostitution et Societe", 2010, "Int'l Day for the Elimination of Violence against women", 11-25-2016 France.   Taiwan government is the main criminal to harm women's rights in large scale.

¡´   The US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices , released at 3-3-2017:   spousal rape, and domestic violence. Many victims did not report the crime for fear of social stigmatization, and 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.  Women were promoted less frequently, occupied fewer management positions,...

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Sports/Athletics

¡´  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¡FOther 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.

¡´   Taiwanese baseball team lost all games in 1st round and was eliminated in World Baseball Classic 2017, the leader of Athletics government stepped down.    Expert comments the system weakness is obvious but we just can't improve it, patriotism is no longer working on this issue ...

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

World Games Kaohsiung Taiwan & Deaflympics Taipei : comments/critics  click to see how they showed Taiwan's culture and creativity.¡¹

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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 most time, 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 ¡Bsilly "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
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	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)

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¡@                   pic left: This websites-group was ranked No.1 by keyword  "review Taiwan"  on US Google, 9-2-2017, top on English Bing pic right : This websites-group was ranked No.1, 2, 3 on English Bing by keyword  "comment Taiwan" ,  tested at 5-19-2017 ¡@ ¡@ This sites-group was ranked  No.1, by "comment Taiwan" on US Yahoo,  tested at 5-19-2017     ¡´  Facebook in Taiwan ¡@

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comment Taiwan / 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) 

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        2.  Taiwan's hard power

¡´   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.

¡´  LTN 3-5-2017  / military power -   China VS Taiwan

¡@	¡@	China (troops facing Taiwan Strait)	Taiwan
army ground forces	ground troops (¦a­±³¡¶¤)	400000	130000
	Field Army (¶°¹Î­x)	8	3
	war chariot, tank  (¾Ô¨®)	2800	1100
	artillery; cannon (¤õ¯¥)	3900	1600
Navy	destroyer warship (ÅX³vÄ¥)	16	4
	guided missile frigate(­¸¼u¨µ¨¾Ä¥)	40	22
	Amphibious landing/assault ship(¨â´Ïµn³°Ä¥)	28	14
	submarine  (¶Ç²Î°Ê¤O¼çÄ¥)	38	4
Air Force	fighter (aircraft) (¾Ô°«¾÷)	130	384
	bomber (ÅF¬µ¾÷)	200	0
	military transport aircraft (¹B¿é¾÷)	150	19
	special mission aircraft (¯S¿é¥ô°È¾÷)	75	25
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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

Taiwan Strait Military Balance in 2015, Naval Forces
	China	China	Taiwan
	Total	East and South Sea Fleets	Total
Aircraft Carriers	1	0	0
Destroyers	23	16	4
Frigates	52	40	22
Corvettes	23	14	1
Tank Landing Ships/ Amphibious Transport Dock	30	28	14
Medium Landing Ships	22	16	0
Diesel Attack Submarines	57	38	4
Nuclear Attack Submarines	5	2	0
Ballistic Missile Submarines	4	4	0
Coastal Patrol (Missile)	86	68	45

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Taiwan Strait Military Balance in 2015, Air Forces
	China	China	Taiwan
	Total	Within range of Taiwan	Total ¡@
Fighters	1,700	130	384
Bombers/Attack	400	200	0
Transport	475	150	19
Special Mission Aircraft	115	75	25

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Taiwan Strait Military Balance in 2015, Ground Forces

	China	China	Taiwan
	Total	Taiwan Strait Area	Total
Personnel (Active)	1.25 million	400,000	130,000
Group Armies/Army Corps	18	8	3
Infantry Divisions	12	4	0
Infantry Brigades	23	7	5
Mechanized Infantry Divisions	7	4	0
Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Divisions	2	2	0
Mechanized Infantry Brigades	25	8	3
Armor Divisions	1	0	0
Armor Brigades	17	7	4
Amphibious Armor Brigades	1	1	0
Army Aviation Brigades and Regiments	11	6	3
Artillery Brigades	22	9	5
Airborne Divisions	3	3	0
Marine Brigades	2	2	2
Tanks	7,000	2,800	1,100
Artillery Pieces	8,000	3,900	1,600

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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.

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¡¹   3. comment Taiwan in all aspects

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

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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.    

 ¡» Taiwan's economy & GDP

  ☉ https://tradingeconomics.com/taiwan/gdp

Taiwan GDP	Last	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Unit
GDP Growth Rate	0.15	0.94	5.64	-5.07	percent
GDP Annual Growth Rate	2.10	2.60	17.06	-8.12	percent
GDP	523.01	530.04	530.04	42.30	USD Billion
GDP Constant Prices	4034977.00	3997376.00	4034977.00	604229.00	TWD Million
Gross National Product	4310588.00	4594814.00	4594814.00	99800.00	TWD Million
Gross Fixed Capital Formation	870419.00	963504.00	964529.00	8907.00	TWD Million
GDP From Agriculture	46828.00	60392.00	72053.00	39800.00	TWD Million
GDP From Construction	94847.00	96112.00	121071.00	41088.00	TWD Million
GDP From Manufacturing	1206114.00	1138212.00	1275942.00	130647.00	TWD Million
GDP From Mining	3156.00	3744.00	15925.00	2701.00	TWD Million
GDP From Public Administration	271017.00	267595.00	280931.00	85791.00	TWD Million
GDP From Services	2559778.00	2686530.00	2686530.00	317742.00	TWD Million
GDP From Transport	116527.00	117446.00	119140.00	20691.00	TWD Million
GDP From Utilities	28535.00	29459.00	61237.00	5349.00	TWD Million

The gross domestic product (GDP) measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. The gross domestic product (GDP) is equal to the total expenditures for all final goods and services produced within the country in a stipulated period of time. This page provides - Taiwan GDP - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. Taiwan GDP - actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases - was last updated on August of 2017.

  ¡»  Global Wealth Report 2016 by credit-suisse Research Institute, Nov. 2016

Taiwan Country summary 2016
¡@	Population	23  million
¡@	Adult population	19  million
¡@	GDP	32,647  USD per adult
¡@	Mean wealth	172,847  USD per adult
¡@	Median wealth	63,134  USD per adult
¡@	Total wealth	3.0  trillion USD
¡@	US dollar millionaires	356  thousand
¡@	Top 10% of global wealth holders	8,727  thousand
¡@	Top 1% of global wealth holders	528  thousand

    ¡» comment Taiwan's scholarly articles on cultural creativity ('soft power') field:

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        4. To understand Taiwan in one minute¡¹  

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¡@ ¡@ 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) ¡@

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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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¡@ ¡@ ¡¹¡» ¡@	¡»		¡· ¡´ Taiwan is notorious for its fraud crimes all over the world, damaging the image of Taiwan  / EBC TV 4-9-2017 6:54am ¡´ ¡´    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 ¡´ ¡´ 50 packs (bags) of drugs were found in Taiwan's major air-force base / United Daily News 4-7-2017 ¡´ ¡´  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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¡¹   ¡» ¡@ ¡@ ¡@ †   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           ¡´   NO justice !  The courthouse judged enterprise's disposing 5000 ton cancer-producer strong acid and waste water into the river (color changed to dark yellow ) and endangering the natural environment  is no guilty !  / headline news of Apply Daily, 9-30-2015  http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20150930/36807420/      ¡´  "Wanna murder people?"  Official certification  for food (CAS) includes not 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  ¡´

¡¹  ¡¹  For more interesting contents pls click understand Taiwan !  ¡¹

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

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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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pic. above: part of article commenting Taiwan's creativity was printed in <United Daily News>   ps: 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 ¡@

ps:   professor's and team-mate's name are omitted.

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