Fat-meat-shaped rock,
China's treasure
Taiwan Cultural & Creative Industry (Taiwan SoftPower)
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animation ad. music product design arts cartooning movie architecture visual comm. tour |
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| "Taiwan is small, but our Soft-power is big ! " 、 "Culture makes Taiwan great ! " | |
| These voices just came from Taiwan government and major mass media, recently. | |
| How is Taiwan's "Soft Power" ? ( ps: "Hard Power" means military arms, etc ) | |
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good medicine tastes bitter |
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Animation (comment Taiwan's best awards in world's best contests)
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Taiwan's Top Institution(ps) |
animation |
World's top contest, prize & honors |
this site's comments |
| National Taiwan University of Science & Tech. |
Cubic Tragedy |
ACM SIGGRAPH
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experts won't feel unexpected : girl face-lifting results in Picasso's cubism <weeping woman>. details
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| National Yuan-lin University
of Science & Tech. |
Cubic Tragedy |
graduate school paper: "Picasso-inspired idea ..... contrary to our expectation" |
experts
won't feel "un-expected". ( details and see pics. below) |
| National Taiwan Univ. of arts | A fish with a smile |
Berlin international Film Festival, children's section, Special Prize of jury committee |
(1) for children. (2) elegant drawing style, but doesn't look like too much any city of Taiwan |
| National Tainan Univ. of arts | After the rainy day |
winning in UK |
Just like most Taiwan's films, boring
obscure-meaning codes, that most people
hard to understand or will make over-interpretation.
details |
| National Palace Museum | Adventures of NPM | (1) grand prize, 2008 Tokyo International Anim. Fair. (2) anim. goal : " bridging the gap between ancient artworks and modern audiences. |
(1) it's for children, not for modern adults. (2) the film is showing in children's center of National Palace Museum, Taipei Taiwan. details |
Tamkang Univ paper concludes Taiwan animation's 1st problem is creativity. Very few Taiwan's research're working on this subject. (Taiwan animation now is only expert at drawing tech.)
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2 examples among Picasso-Cubism inspired cartoons |
More clever Picasso-inspired ideas have already been developed long time ago, please click to see
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My article in <the United News> (Oct. 2007) mentions Taiwan's ad. creativity is lousy for a long time.
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Taiwan's most important ad. |
Taiwan's national ads : "UN for Taiwan" (Taiwan to join the UN ) , as an example :
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who said ? |
said what ? |
This site's comment |
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2007Taiwan government : |
UN for Taiwan ad. is "un-limited creativity" |
(1) series ads in recent years are old ideas. |
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National C.C. University, ad. professor book |
using puns in UN series is " very creative and witty idea" |
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Taiwan's int'l winning ad. |
As for Taiwan's business ads. or TV commercials obtaining winning records in int'l ad. festivals , are not all so original,..... or not very sharp-witty , i.e., making love with an insect symbolizes insecure sex, or stick out (very out) the tongue to make a funny face, ...... students can have this idea.
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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, the name is 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 Orwellian "1984". 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 puzzle - a tyranny in a free country.
Certainly, the <1984> despises human-controlled tyranny.
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Apple <1984> TV commercial |
<Brave New World> |
<Brave New World> Chinese translation book |
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(1) A
literature by A. Huxley (2) http://futuresteve.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/brave-new-world/ |
book cover |
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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 - seems to symbolize "Globalizing" phenomenon.
However, the idea "logo body" already appeared a number of times, i.e., <Your Logo Here, photos from S. Cal. 2004-2006>, and some logo tattoo works .......
With same material but more sharp-witty, more difficult ideas were also appeared in cartoon field at least 13 years ago, i.e., Japanese Yomiuri international cartoon contest (see pic. below).
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pic. left: logo camouflage tank, by Lin Hui , Yomiuri winner; right: "number" logos on athletes |
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Here is Taiwan's "Face" buildings :
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architecture |
This site's comment |
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Taipei 101 building |
rough appearance |
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Tao-yuan international airport |
1st Hall : copied U.S. airport. 2nd Hall : short of breadth of spirit, and arts atmosphere |
An article in 2002's Taiwan asserted : "No copy-rights in architecture circle"、" Copy is humanism spirits" 、 " How can we enjoy & bear those Taiwan's original style architecture !? "
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Can you tell which is US Washington Dulles int'l airport, or Taiwan Taoyuan int'l airport ? |
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Taiwan government logo、UN for Taiwan logo、state-run enterprises logo、Taiwan's university annual event logo ...... etc, wrong visual designs're everywhere.
Some examples are listed as below:
| (1) Taiwan government | (2) best university | ||
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| world logo appeared earlier | logo of Taiwan's government unit |
Asian metro's logo (appeared earlier) |
design by Taiwan's best university |
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(3) Famous cultural unit |
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left : ad UK, appeared earlier right: poster for Taiwan's toppest cultural institution (ps) |
ps: Both same idea "sharp knife tree, lawn", right pic. is ad. for <Creative Ideas Exhibition of Taiwan Cultural Industry, Taiwan>
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Film/movie
Taiwan's film industry got 3 major troubles :
(1) Taiwan government used to like political propaganda/comm. by using movies, besides, Taiwan government's movie policy already gave up to WTO, U.S., Hollywood.
(2) Taiwan can only makes some abstract symbols that attracts very very few people. Using Eastern exotic flavor's another very useful strategy for attending world film contest. No witty & creative idea led to Taiwan film industry's death.
☉ In 2008, Red China's erotic film is better than Taiwan's. i.e., Taiwan's movie can not create black-humour of "Lost in Beijing" till now.
(3) Taiwanese spent little on arts.
| per person per year | |
| movie | NT470 (about US 15) |
| drama | NT91 (US 3) |
| dancing show | NT65 (US 2) |
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According to < Country Brand Index> of 2007，Japan is the only Asian country ranking top 10, Red China is a rising star.
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Index |
rankings: ( underscore for Eastern nations) |
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"Arts & Culture" |
France, Egypt, India, UK, Greece, Red China, Russia, Japan, Spain. | |
| "Fine dining" | Italia, Singapore, Japan, US, UK, UAE, Malaysia, Spain, Argentina . | |
| "Friendly locals" | Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Thailand, Sweden, Fiji, Turkey, Arab, Austria | |
| "Best shopping" | UAE, Singapore, Italia, Japan, France, UK, Canada, Thai, S Korea | |
| "authenticity" | Red China, S Africa, Japan, Thai, Egypt, India, Peru, Morocco | |
| "Ideal for business" | Red China ranks No.1, Singapore and Japan rank top 10. |
No any Taiwan's ranking there !
"World Travel & Tourism Council", <TSA country reports>: Taiwan is
ranked world No.163 in relative contribution to national economics.
(official website 7. 22. 2008 )
<Apple daily> quoted recently : Taiwan's travel & tourism growth-rate ranking
world No.48, contri. to travel-Tourism GDP ranking world No.167.
pic. above: Teapot shows the hospitality under the hat (cover) , "Welcome to Taiwan" ad.
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Almost all juries withdrawn from <Courage World Cartoon Contest> (ranking world No. 1 for some years) seem to me, most likely are "politics related".
Taiwan government and university papers said animation needs creativity, but at present Taiwan doesn't have that environment.
Formula or cage-bird mind is not good enough for cartoon creativity.
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pic. left: Knokke Heist winner, appeared earlier.
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(1 ) Taiwan's best-selling cultural creativity :
Recently, Taiwan's best-selling & widely
known product , "Chinese 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.,
| ☉ Europe, Belgium rug Co. | installed a special compass in each product, its needle points to Islam's holy land instead of pointing South/North － this created a lot of business. |
| ☉ Japan | create a watch converting 114 world major cities' time to Islam holy land's time, with time-alarm function for Muslims' prayer. |
( 2 ) best-selling cultural products for int'l tourists
A major design periodical comments: <National Palace Museum>'s rich treasures is the key to success of Taiwan's Cultural & Creative Industry.
However, <NPM> seems to deny Taiwanese designers.
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<NPM> product |
short comments |
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Alessi "the Chin Family" |
(1) <NPM>
cooperates with Japan, Italy, so, NPM's products are not purely
Taiwanese or Chinese flavor. (2) Mr. Chin got "raising eyebrows" slant eye, it's western view-point, the Oriental usually don't draw that way. |
How about today Taiwan's "Chinese Creativity" ?? |
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"Jadeite
Cabbage" tray-pillow for |
(1) most
products directly use antique-art shape. (2) At least 20 years ago, various assorted dedicated vegetables and fruits glass chopsticks tray-pillow already are made-in-Japan best-sellers . |
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Don Dynasty ladies picture slippers |
just directly applied antique pictures on products. |
<NPM> should designs Chinese treasures, makes witty, humorous artworks, to represent Taiwan's modern arts. Western tourists suppose like to buy souvenir with Chinese culture & flavor - pure.
("mercenaries" cannot represent Taiwan to Olympics)
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<NPM>merchandises： |
Zola Zu's design ： |
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directly use antique pictures（or simplifies a little bit） |
I choose the theme : When East encounters West, Fine arts meets cartoons, to integrate 2 major cultures. |
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ps: "tech. oriented" product design like <idea> contest, <if> contest is not discussed in here
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Taiwan needs medicine, not cosmetic |
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Summary
(1) Not easy to upgrade "Made in Taiwan" to "Create in Taiwan", since very few experts in creativity.
(2) Most Taiwanese professors (PhD) do theoretical studies, don't have talent (some also not interested ) on witty creativity/design.
(3) Ph.D usually required for college teacher position, it's one criterion for Taiwan government to evaluate all schools. Un-talented teacher 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
officer 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" in major field , 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 i.e., movie as propaganda/comm. political tool.
(8) Taiwanese
youngsters love heavy slapstick 、silly
"Kuso" stuffs
(young-designers only policy is wrong).
Taiwanese adults' imaginative power is bounded,
thinking in a roundabout/evasive way, their tastes ....... pls. see 2 examples as below,
"professional"?
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artworks introduced by Taiwan's largest news: |
western artwork earlier |
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Merging Mao's photo & Tian-an-men Square |
Morphing Mao |
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fighter planes pass
ps: this painting price 10 times from 2005 to 2008 |
Sigma Delta Chi Award winner: (appeared earlier) |
to be continued, if necessary
Taiwan Creativity, comments home page
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Taiwan needs medicine, not cosmetic |
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ps2: Other researches : finger-pointing moon results in that ear will be cut (28.3%) , chopstick knock bowl results in being a beggar (22.3%), swimming in July (Lunar) results in un-luck (64.7%), whistling after sunset will encounter ghost (37%), pregnant woman using scissors will give birth to an abnormal baby(32%) - reported by <Apple Daily>5.29.2005 (largest and best news evaluated by university)
PS: Taiwan Animation, int'l contest winners
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★ <Adventures of National Palace Museum>
★ <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. (ps: another kind of comics take baby's body structure ) (2) Attendees might feel proud when recognizing (or figure out) Picasso's painting, so as to vote this film. (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 - 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 background. (5) Americans invest more money in their looks (beauty) than in education, around 1/2 the number of 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, but 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, so, I feel this idea more likely won't be against to experts' expectation.
★ <After the rainy days> winning in UK (1) A western saying : "Chinese are inscrutable", and many western juries, audiences favor stereotyped image of Eastern world - so, many Taiwan's films are on purpose full of exotic flavor, mysterious atmosphere, etc, or go even further : obscure/abstract codes, philosophical arts, poetry like a dream ......... (2) The "arts" are usually decoded to various meanings, depending upon audiences' knowledge and life experience ....... Picasso and a kid both can create same "art-work" i.e., displaying a M. Duchamp toilet, but the kid doesn't mean too much. An empty museum is a concept art, randomly shooting in the street is a Surrealism art. (quoted by John Carey, Oxford U. professor, to comment arts) (3) Famous Ad book <Visual Persuasion> (U. Penn. USA) mentions Surrealism is sometimes thought of as a representation of dream (lack of logic) imagery and a source of various hidden meanings. However, attempt to read these hidden meaning may run into a problem of over-interpretation. It's mainly an art of eye-grabbing visual paradoxes. (4) Most audiences only want entertainment,
instead of spending efforts in taking a boring philosophy class, or in escaping from a maze.
(6) Some symbolic tokens seem not so fresh, i.e., a flying graffiti, or fish soaring to the sky. Many times it seems to be easy : for instance, "graffiti" symbolizes rebellion, "flying" symbolizes set to free (or release from tyranny), so, combine both to get a flying graffiti. (7) Sometimes lyric stuffs may needs obscure (but not too obscure) codes, but, why does mocking-politics kind of film need camouflage? (8) <After the rainy day> is sort of "arts" animation. (9) For so many years, Taiwan government loves to do some political propaganda/comm. by attending int'l film festivals with this kind of obscure-meaning films, so that Taiwan fails to communicate with million times of world audiences, this style of movie already led to Taiwan film industry's death.
★ <A Fish with a Smile> (10 min. short film) Jury Committee Special prize, Children's Jury Short Film, Berlinale int'l film Festival 2005 (1) director : C Jay Shih, Alan Tuan, Poliang Lin (2) brief - "I once had a fish that was as loyal as a dog, as amicable as a cat, as attentive as a lover". This animation is kind of surrealism languages - deconstructed, inconsistent, hallucinatory, etc. (3) If you like this anim., also try "EEL", a Japanese made Cannes award winner. (4) The drawing style is elegant, however, this city looks like Euro's more than Taiwan's. (5) The nature of animation is closely related to poetry, poetry is related to thinking in nature. I feel university should produce some great theme 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 (because 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
: 2. Taiwan
government : 3. Taiwan's universities
: 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 Red China.
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comment Alessi Mr Chin & NPM of Taiwan printed in <United News>, one of largest media in Taiwan, Aug. 2008 : Chinese language version
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part of article comments in <United News> |
ps: professor's and team-mate's name are omitted.
