
Taiwan's culture (Chinese culture in Taiwan) ★ this site's world No. 1 in 2020~21, 2017~19, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010~12 ★ Top since 1998

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Taiwan	After De-sinicization	Taiwan has cultural heritage ?

UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage / https://ich.unesco.org/en/lists
ranks	Asian country	heritage items selected
1	China	40
2	Korea	24
3	Japan	20
4	Mongolia	15
5	India	13
6	Indonesia	10
7	Saudi Arabia	8
8	Cambodia	5
9	Philippines	4
10	Qatar	3
10	Malaysia	3
10	Pakistan	3
13	Thai	2
14	Singapore	1
14	Sri Lanka	1
14	Vietnam	1
14	UAE	1
18~2X	Myanmar, Laos, Nepal	0
	Taiwan	0
◆ Taiwan has been doing De-sinicization (getting rid of Chinese culture) , and has not been included in UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. The culture of Taiwan is a blend of Confucian Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese cultures. Politics continues to play a role in the conception and development of a Taiwanese cultural identity. (Jan. 2021, wiki) ◆ sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-hawker-culture-gets-nod-included-unesco-intangible-cultural-heritage-list-140941296.html 12-16-2020: Singapore’s hawker culture was officially approved on Wednesday (16 December) to be inscribed into UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The biggest thanks must go to the generations of hawkers for nourishing a nation’s stomach and spirits. Taiwan is proud of its night market culture, but was not selected. ◆ Washington Post, 2-17-2021:Today, 98 % of Taiwanese are ethnic Han Chinese... there has been a shift among younger generations who increasingly do not feel China’s emotional pull but rather embrace their home island’s history, and its Indigenous culture, as an expression of being distinctly Taiwanese. Indigenous artists (related to the Austronesian peoples) shine as Taiwan’s mainstream embraces its island identity.

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★ No. 1 "Taiwan cultural creativity" on Google, 2021-4-18, 2-18-2021, 2-11-2021, 1-1-2021, Dec. 3, 2020

BBC, 2-10-2021, "Why Taiwan has 'luck-improvement services' ": There’s a pervasive idea running through Chinese culture that things aren’t random, Stevan Harrell, emeritus anthropology professor at the University of Washington said, “There’s a belief in order: there’s some sort of order behind everything.” Many people believed in a simple maxim: “tian zhuding” (“heaven decides”).

Some higher power has plans for each person on Earth, traditional Chinese belief also holds that “heaven never seals off all the exits” – there is always a way out. “We call [this attitude of openness] ‘youbai youbaoyou’,” (有拜有保庇)“, It doesn’t matter if you believe in gods. If you pray, you’ll be blessed.” So, even the upscale Eslite Bookstore has a cosmological self-help section chock full of do-it-yourself fate-improvement guides.

People in the Chinese-speaking world seem particularly preoccupied with luck, from boarding gates to high-stakes baccarat tables and school exams to political races, (Even politicians are compelled to publicly try their luck, visiting temples to draw fortune sticks ...) Yet while many countries have their own superstitions and rituals. brief http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20210210-chinas-enduring-obsession-with-luck

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BBC, 2021-4-14, Crisps have a sacred role in Taiwan's office culture. ‘Kuai Kuai’, this savoury product end up assuming near-mythical protective properties... on or around vital machines in many of the island’s laboratories, banks and even hospitals to ensure the machines continue to do their jobs. the crisps, whose name means ‘listen to me’ or ‘obey’, ‘behave’ or ‘be good’ in both Mandarin and Taiwanese...The bags also cannot be used as amulets beyond their expiration date, so...usually swapped twice a year – Lunar New Year, and the Ghost Festival . Those in the tech world say the snack shouldn’t be consumed, otherwise you technically void its protective warranty. Kuai Kuai can even be found at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s premier research institute. bbc.com/worklife/article/20210414-the-good-luck-snack-that-makes-taiwans-technology-behave

US News & World Report 2021, Asian countries' world influence top 30 rankings
Cultural Influence	No.5 Japan No. 7 S Korea 11. China 12. UAE 15. Singapore 16. Australia 19. NZ 22. Thailand 25. India	Cutting-edge centers of art, entertainment and fashion
Quality of Life	6. Australia 10. NZ 13. Japan 16. Singapore 18. S Korea 23. China 24. UAE 28. Malaysia 29. Thailand	Through all phases of life, these countries treat their citizens well
Heritage	6. India 7. Thailand 10. Japan 12 China 23. Australia 25. Vietnam 26. Indonesia 28. NZ	A deep vein of history courses through these countries
Adventure	5. Thailand 7. NZ 8. Australia 17. Philippines 18. Singapore 25. Malaysia 28. Japan	popular travel destinations to fulfill your wanderlust
Agility	2. Australia 5. Singapore 6. S Korea 7. Japan 9. NZ 13. China 21. UAE 27. Qatar 30. India	adaptable, dynamic, modern, progressive, responsive
Open for business	6. NZ 11. Malaysia 12. Australia 14. Singapore 17. Thailand 20. Sri Lanka 21. Vietnam 22. Indonesia 25. Philippines 26. Japan	market-oriented countries

www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/influence-rankings

The China Times 12-24-2017 headline & focus news: Taiwan's culture like a mouse in circles still stay in same place, Taiwan's De-Sinicization policy gave up rich Chinese cultural background and history ... so as to lose advantage in cultural-creativity battlefield.

	pic.1 Taiwan VS Korea, in Publications, Movies, TV, Ads., Pop music , CTN 12-24-2017 (Korea -red bar, Taiwan - blue bar )
CTN comments that Taiwan's cultural & creative industry has nothing but slogans and many argues. The total value of Taiwan's cultural & creative production was far behind of that of Korea, Korea's value in publication is about 6 times larger than Taiwan's, Film industry 6 times, TV 3.5 times, Advertising 3 times, Pop-music 6 times bigger than Taiwan's, according to statistics by Taiwan government and reports by headline news of the China Times at 12-24-2017. CTN comments that Taiwan lacks of updated related laws and policy ― no focus, no direction, no institute, original creativity is not encouraged, the industry field is divided, without integrated marketing. Taiwan's De-Sinicization policy gave up rich Chinese cultural background and history ...... 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

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

Till 2020, Taiwan has not been included in Monocle's Soft Power survey top 25 ranking list and Top 30 Soft Power by Portland, etc, Taiwan's soft power is behind Asian's "world top 20" nations , including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, China, India, UAE.
for details : click Soft Power
　

world best surveys	Taiwan's rankings in top 25~30 list	comparison with other Asia & Pacific countries
2019/2020 Top 30 SOFT POWER by Portland	not included	No. 8 Japan, No.9 Australia, No. 17 New Zealand, No. 19 S Korea, No. 21 Singapore, No. 27 China
US News: 2020 Best Countries Overall The Best Countries in the World	n/c	No.3 Japan, No.5 Australia, No. 11 New Zealand, No. 15 China, No. 16 Singapore , No. 20 Korea, No.22 UAE , No.25 India, No. 26 Thailand, No. 30 Qatar
2018/2019 Monocle's Soft Power survey	not included	No. 3 Japan, No.8 Australia, No. 11 New Zealand, No.15 Korea, No. 19 China, No. 21 Singapore, No. 25 India
2018/2019 Soft Power 30 Study by USC Center on Public Diplomacy	not included	No.5 Japan, No. 10 Australia, No. 18 NZ, No. 20 S. Korea, No. 21 Singapore, No. 27 China
2017/2018 Monocle's Soft Power survey	not included	No. 4 Japan, No.9 Australia, No. 13 New Zealand, No.17 Korea, No. 19 China, No. 22 Singapore, No. 24 India
2017/2018 Soft Power 30 Study by USC Center on Public Diplomacy	not included	No.6. Japan, No. 8. Australia, 18. NZ, No. 20 Singapore, No. 21 S. Korea, No. 25. China
2016/2017 Monocle's Soft Power survey	not included	No. 3 Japan, No.6 Australia, No. 13 New Zealand, No.17 Korea, No. 20 China, No. 23 Singapore, No. 24 India
2015/2016 Monocle's Soft Power survey	not included	No. 4 Japan, No.6 Australia, No. 13 New Zealand, No.15 Korea, No. 21 China, No. 23 Singapore

★ According to a survey of 2020, Singapore ranks No.1, Japan No.7, Korea No. 9 on "enterprise", Japan ranks No. 5, China No.10 on "engagement", Korea ranks No. 5 on "digital", Japan ranks No.6, China No. 8 on "culture", No any Asian country ranks top 10 on "education" and "govt."
　

★ Best Countries overall in 2020: 1 Swiss 2 Canada 3 Japan 4 Germany 5 Australia 6 UK 7 USA 8 Sweden 9 Nederland 10 Norway 11 NZ 12 France 13 Denmark 14 Finland 15 China 16 Singapore 17 Italy 18 Austria 19 Spain 20 Korea 21 Luxembourg 22 UAE 23 Russia 24 Portugal 25 India 26 Thailand 27 Greece 28 Brazil 29 Israel 30 Qatar 31 Saudi Arabia 32 Malaysia 33 Mexico 34 Poland 35 Turkey

　

　

world's most livable cities ... includes Taiwan ?

Till 2020, Taiwan has not been included in the top ranking list of the world's most livable cities
　

world's most livable cities

world best surveys Taiwan's rankings
in top list comparison with
other Asia & Pacific countries

The EIU's Global Livability Index Ranking   2019 failed in the top 50 No.2 Melbourne, No.3 Sydney, No.4 Osaka (Japan), No. 7 Tokyo, No.10 Adelaide, No.12 Auckland (NZ),   No.15 Wellington (NZ),   18 Brisbane (Aus) ,    No. 38 Hong Kong, No. 40 Singapore,   No.57 Seoul (Korea), Taipei behind

Safe Cities Index (SCI) 2019,   EIU (Economist UK), NEC failed in the top 20 No.1 Tokyo, No.2 Singapore, No.3 Osaka (Japan), No.5 Sydney (Aus), No. 8 Seoul (Korea), No10 Melbourne, No. 20 Hong Kong 　

ArchDaily / The World's Most Livable Cities in 2019 failed in the top 20 No. 3. Auckland, New Zealand, 11. Sydney, Australia, No.15. Wellington, New Zealand , No.17. Melbourne, Australia

The EIU's Global Livability Index Ranking   2018 failed in the top 50 No.2 Melbourne (Australia), No.3 Osaka (Japan), No. 7 Tokyo (Japan) , No.10       Adelaide (Australia),   No.12 Auckland (NZ)    Wellington (NZ) ... ... (omitted), Taipei 58

The EIU's Global Liveability Index Ranking   2017 failed in the top 50 No.1 Melbourne, No. 5 Adelaide, No. 7 Perth,
No. 8 Auckland (NZ), No.11 Sydney, No.13 Tokyo, No. 14 Osaka, No.16 Brisbane,   No. 20 Wellington (NZ), No. 35 Singapore, No.45 Hong Kong, No.58 Seoul (Korea), No.60   Taipei

　　　

EIU (Economist UK)'s Global Liveability Index evaluates stability, healthcare, culture&environment, education,   Infrastructure

　

　

　

No. 1 "comment Taiwan culture" on US Bing, 10-1-2018

Food culture - Taiwan's cultural creativity on food

pic.: In World's Best Restaurants list, In Asia area, Australia, Singapore, Japan, India, Thailand, China, Korea are winners

According to Taiwan's government, Taiwan's cultures include 12 categories ― some are not today's Taiwanese cultures.

Taiwan cultures

Official views by
Taiwan's Government (GIO)

this website's view

The Aesthetics of Architecture

Major architectures of Taiwan :
◎ Taipei 101
◎ Taoyuan Int'l Airport (not GIO's rpt. )
◎ Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall,
◎ the Grand Hotel
◎ Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
◎ Main Stadium for the Kaohsiung
World Games
have all taken their place in Taiwan's skyline.

◎ Taipei 101's appearance is not exquisite enough, was commented by western experts as an ugly building.
◎ Taoyuan Int'l Airport looks like US Washington Dulles int'l airport. (ps: modified already, not reconstructed)
◎ Main Stadium for the Kaohsiung World Games is conceived of by Japan's Toyo Ito.
◎ Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, the Grand Hotel and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall are ancient Chinese style works.

Popular Food

Taiwan's cuisine includes eight main categories:

(1)Holo (also called “Minnanese,” or simply “Taiwanese”),
(2) Hakka, and vegetarian foods,
(3) the various cooking styles with long histories from the length and breadth of mainland China such as northern style, and below :
(4) the province of Hunan
(5) the province of Jiangsu
(6) the province of Zhejiang
(7) the province of Sichuan.
(8) Hong Kong (Cantonese)

According to Discovery US, Taiwanese cuisine is endowed with some of the best culinary skills from mainland Chinese, Japanese, aboriginal food, etc, and has developed horizontally (more diversity), but not developed upward to make exquisite food.

Taiwan's night markets ― street/road snacks are very popular to Taiwanese and red Chinese tourists.
Best-known night markets & popular stall-snacks include :
(1) Taipei ― Shilin (Deep fried chicken fillet stall, etc) night market
(2) Taipei ― NingXia (best oyster omelet in taiwan )
(3) Kaohsiung city ― LioHo (seafood soft-rice, etc)
(4) TaiChung city― FengChia (creative snacks)
(5) Taipei ― HuaHsi Street ('Snake Alley' sometimes serves bizarre : snake blood & meat, deer penis wine, turtle etc )
(6) Keelung city ― MiaoKou
(7) ILAN ― Lotong
(Perhaps some of them are not trans-fat-free ...till now middle 2011)

Taiwan's Chinese-cuisine restaurants:
(1) DinTaiFung(鼎泰豐) - but they admitted at May 9, 2012 that using MSG, as far as I know lots of Westerners don't like MSG.
(2) YinYih(銀翼): HuaiYang cuisines, 1951 till present
(3) Celestial (天廚): Beijing cuisine like roast duck (tel 02-25632380)
(4) PengYuan(彭園) : HuNan province cuisine (tel 02-25519157)
(5) ChinYuan(黔園) : Sichuan province cuisine (addr: 39 Ln.25, HunDin Rd.)
(6) RoonGi (隆記) : Shanghai cuisine 1952 till present (tel 02-23315078)
(7) Chili House restaurant (四川吳炒手) : Sichuan province cuisine (tel 02-27216088)
(8) BeefNoodle master(永康牛肉麵) (tel 02-23892369)
(9) 人和園 : YunNan, GuiZhou area cuisine
(10) ycyf.com.tw(億長御坊) - traditional cuisines (02-23930383)
(11) 5 star hotels usually have high class Chinese-cuisine restaurants.

Taiwan's "Pig's blood cake" was selected as "world's Top 10 weird food" by UK's <Virtual Tourist> in 2009.

Other widely known cuisines are stinky tofu (Western people think it tastes like athletic feet or some stinky cheese ), oyster omelet (so called Viagra for Taiwanese by Discovery TV program ), bubble tea/pearl milk tea (one store is popular in some city in Germany but bubble tea in Taiwan maybe too much sugar and ... top professor advised not drinking it )...

◆2015: 政府經歷最大的選舉挫敗後，不痛改前非，根據商業周刊No.1436(June 2015)評論: 「奇怪耶，食安只管金針乾、菜脯與蜜餞」，台大教授認為「完全沒有抓到重點」「三項都是非常低風險產品」。
◆2014: 國際主要媒體，如美國紐約時報與英國經濟學人雜誌，紛紛報導一再出包的食安風暴，是導致國民黨政府自1949年退守台灣以來，最大的選舉挫敗原因之一Major world media like The New York Times and The Economist (11.29.2014) comment a series of food safety scandals is one of few main factors causing the KMT, Taiwan's ruling party, has suffered one of its worst electoral defeats since Chiang Kai-shek and his forces fled to the island at the end of Chinese civil war in 1949.The New York Times (9.8.2014): the new scandal (Taiwan food-safety scare) shows that there is still not enough being done to eliminate lawbreaking production lines. TIME ( 9.8.2014): Gutter Oil' Scandal Raises Food-Safety Fears Once Again in Greater China.

Folk Beliefs

Folk beliefs in Taiwan are a positive reflection of the people's wish for harmonious interaction, coexistence, and co-prosperity among heaven, earth, and mankind.
They also reflect Taiwan’s reverence for the basic social virtues of loyalty, piety, fidelity, and justice. These ideas are the most valuable assets enabling people to live on this earth.

(1) Taiwan's national CNA (Central News Agency) reported an university's survey:
◎ 87.7% university students believe ghosts
◎ 64.7% believe : it's unlucky to swim in July (Lunar)
◎ 37% : Will encounter ghosts if whistling after sunset
◎ 32% : pregnant woman touching scissors will give birth to an abnormal baby
◎ 28.3% : Ears will be cut off if pointing to moon by one/two finger
◎ 31.9% : Chopstick plugging in bowl's rice will gather ghosts
◎ 22.3% : Will become a beggar if knocking the bowl

70% college students believe in religion, 35% of them are Buddhists.

(2) According to <The Ugly Side of Taiwanese> ( book author : G. Lee, published in 1988 & 1993 ) - details ref to publisher in USA : 714-8631618

One of Taiwanese character/traits : In bribery Taiwanese believe. Taiwanese believe "money talks", and treat religion as trading or bribery, nothing to do with soul and spirits.

(3) Recently, one of best-selling products are Chinese-God (fortune god, etc) toys.

Chinese Medicine in Taiwan　

Chinese medicine, a set of medical theories and practices that originated and developed in China over several millennia, is an important aspect of Taiwanese culture.

It consistently proves efficacious in restoring and maintaining the health of countless millions of people over the ages.

Useful for health (at least, good for Chinese)

Music

Taiwan’s popular music has been deeply influenced by the United States and Japan. Songs sung in Mandarin Chinese, Holo, English and Japanese comprise the mainstream of the pop music market today.

Musical styles today in Taiwan display an abundance of cultural diversity by incorporating not only local ethnic elements, but also musical elements from elsewhere in the world, such as rock ’n’ roll, hiphop and jazz.

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 Taiwanese music environment is money-oriented.

The Art of Dance

Taiwan’s myriad dance forms are intricately linked with the country’s ethnic composition and historical background, and each of the local dances draws their unique colors from the island’s rich cultural heritage.

Even Cloud-gate dancing shows are much less popular than Taiwan's heavy slapstick or funny actions in Taiwan's TV programs by funny actors/actresses.

An article in the United Daily News (Oct. 5, 2010) criticized Taiwan's TV programs ― commercial, programs are not quite OK , news programs are astonishing low class ...

Taiwanese people are rich (richer than Japan and Korea, according to IMF 2011) but spend very little on tasting arts, a statistics a few years ago is attached as below :

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

Chinese Calligraphy in Taiwan

the gentle art of Chinese calligraphy can soothe the heart and mind.

calligraphy also exists in the “cultural circle of Chinese characters”—namely Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia — but in fact each of these systems descended from ancient China.
Nomenclature aside, they all refer in essence to the same art form.

Taiwan remains the only place in the world to preserve classical Chinese characters

(1) Most youngsters in Taiwan don't practice enough so that they can't have good calligraphy by a soft, flexible brush-pen.

(2) Many Taiwanese people can't write excellent calligraphy by a pencil.

(3) The calligraphy by Japanese or Korean looks wild (lacks elegance), most of which are worse than those by Taiwanese or Chinese.

Pottery and Porcelain

During the 1960s, pottery and porcelain served as a channel for expressing creativity; and as artists poured their aesthetic viewpoints and original ideas into their products,

Today, the art of pottery and porcelain has already become Taiwan’s most flourishing and developed craft,

Taiwanese pottery and porcelain to possess rich and abundant connotations. Not only does it represent the continuation and development of the pottery culture of the Orient, but it is also a gateway into the pottery and porcelain culture of the world and a place where that global culture can be viewed in miniature.

(1) Pottery and Porcelain in InnGir city
looks not as luxurious as those by artists in France or Russia, etc.

(2) In Taoyuan int'l airport or National Palace Museum , I personally feel best pottery and porcelain are ancient China's style.
Maybe below is one example of modern Taiwanese creativity ― the present that ROC president Ma gave to Beijing China's envoy Chen Yunlin ( the most senior Chinese official visited Taiwan since the 1949 communist revolution).

Chinese Lunar New Year in Taiwan

“spring couplets” are paper scrolls and squares hung up around the house, inscribed with blessings and auspicious words, such as “good fortune,” “wealth,” “longevity,” and “springtime.” The paper squares are usually pasted upside down, because the Mandarin word for “upside down,” dao, is a homonym of the word “arrival.”

For children, the most exciting part of the holiday comes when they receive their hong bao (紅包), red envelopes full of cash.

(1) Chinese Lunar New Year still excite today's Taiwanese, but the atmosphere wore off.

(2) Today's children as well as gov. officials in both Taiwan and communist China receive lots of 'hong bao' (red envelopes full of cash) ― bribery.

Taiwanese Opera

Singing songs (ge zi 歌仔) was the most important form of entertainment in Taiwan’s early agricultural society.

Taiwanese opera is part of daily life in Taiwan, reflecting the thoughts, feelings, and aesthetics of the people.

Not popular any more, perhaps its exotic flavor or new-formed version attracts western tourists, but not most Taiwanese any more.

The Art of Tea

Aspects of the art of Taiwan tea—whether it’s the tea-flavor, tea water, tea sets, tea-serving techniques, tea connoisseurs, teahouses, tea refreshments, or tea feasts—have been developed to a consummate level in Taiwan. Thus, whether focusing on aesthetical theory or practice, every aspect of Taiwan tea can serve as a paradigm for both life and art.

(1) Having coffee is more popular than having tea in today's Taipei metro. ― you can see coffee shops everywhere like US's Starbucks, as well as Japan's Ikari ... but tea shops are fewer. ( Taiwanese're still used to drink tea, various bottled tea and instant tea are available everywhere )

(2) Green tea is good for against some cancers... but too many tea were imported from Vietnam (US army dropped lots of poison-bombs in Vietnam War, poison may stay there for long long years) - may be dangerous ...

Glove Puppetry

in the early 1960s, glove puppet shows were one of the island’s primary forms of entertainment.

Glove puppet performances integrate various aspects of culture, including dialects, folk music, carving, color painting, embroidery, and puppet manipulation techniques.

Taiwanese glove puppetry is constantly being reinvented.

... no longer Taiwan’s most important drama activity

Not popular any more in TV

Taiwan gov. info. (left column) are excerpt/extracts, you may read details from GIO website http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/ ; this page was updated Nov 10, '10

Taiwanese Opera, Glove Puppetry, Chinese Calligraphy in Taiwan, and Taiwanese dance are not popular to modern Taiwanese, so those stuffs are not today's Taiwanese mainstream cultures, their value probably lies in attracting international tourists by exotic flavors ( Taiwan needs to win world's heart by some real beef ).
Taiwan government's long-term strategy "focus on economy rather than culture" resulted in a "culture desert" status.

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pic. above: Zola Zu's 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. '08 : Chinese language version

Taiwanese culture in real life

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Tourism full analysis pls. click TaiwanTour & Travel
　

◎ WEF <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> of 2019 shows Taiwan had the sub-region's largest decline in competitiveness, Taiwan ranks 10th in Asia, Taiwan's prioritization of travel & tourism ranks world No.75 ; 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.

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Food - poisonous/ black hearted food in Taiwan for 20-30 years, click for details

◆ best restaurants click to see Taiwan restaurants (top rankings)
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◆ . Luc Besson's movie "Lucy" shooting in Taiwan particularly includes Din Tai Fung ― which is not only the most famous Taiwanese restaurant but also even a landmark of Taiwan, however,

● (1) Din Tai Fung admitted at 5-9-2012 having used Monosodium Glutamate / sodium glutamate (M.S.G.) as addictive in some foods there - and they won't change this policy so as to keep major cuisine (e.g., steamed bun/bao (小籠包), chicken soup) delicious (according to United Daily News 5.9.2013). According to National Health Research Institutes and United Daily News (8-15-2015) "Horrible foods for dining out": Taiwan's food (in restaurants, cafeteria, etc) problems include using MSG. Taiwan's 5 star restaurants like Sherwood Hotel announced any chefs using MSG will be fired. According to int'l medical studies, using Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is controversial. (ref to "The Dangers of MSG" : http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/the-dangers-of-monosodium-glutamate.htm) Some claimed it may causes asthma, headache, even brain damage. )
　

● (2) Din Tai Fung was suspicious of being involved in Taiwanese food scandal, Apple Daily (蘋果日報)10-10-2014 reported that one Taiwanese Dept. of Health found out Din Tai Fung imported some oil products from King's Cook which bought lard oil (mixing animal feed with cooking oil) from Ting Hsin Int'l. ( http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20141010/485241/ 台中市衛生局調查發現，鼎泰豐曾向購買頂新正義油品的台中金品調理(KingsCook) 公司進貨，恐中鏢。)
　

● (3) Din Tai Fung admitted having used G.M.(genetic modified) soy material(豆類) for a long time (until July 2015). The China Times, (3.29.2013) reported professor Kuo H. J. (National Taiwan University, Department of Agronomy) comments - Taiwan using G.M.(genetic modified) is "national scandal" (「國家級醜聞」), French scholar Seralini found G.M. foods may cause cancer with higher probability, BBC (6.6.2013)<Taiwan diet danger everywhere>: Taiwan is the only country eating cured products made by animal-feed, G.M.(genetic modified) soya beans. (主妇联盟说台湾是世界上唯一直接食用饲料级基改黄豆加工的豆制品国家。) But Din Tai Fung still used the "scandalous" G.M. stuff for 2+ years after the news being spread island-wide. Recently, CNN (7-24-2015) dropped Din Tai Fung down to No.20 position in Taiwanese foods list.

The Brand Personality ?

Din Tai Fung's Hong Kong branches were just eliminated their Michelin star
title at Oct. 31, 2014, (lost again in Dec. 2015)
Taiwan's Din Tai Fung never won any Michelin star title, but it is advertising itself a Michelin star restaurant by posters at front of largest Japanese mall, Mitsukoshi Dpt. Store in Taipei. (photo Aug. 22 2015)

Din Tai Fung USA website (http://DinTaiFungusa.com) has also been advertising a similar one in its front-page. (tests till present at 9-17-2015)

ps: the China Times analyzed losing Michelin most likely it's because of inconsistent quality problem. (http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20141031001358-260405)

◆ world awards 2019~2020:

pic.: In World's Best Restaurants list, In Asia area, Australia, Singapore, Japan, India, Thailand, China, Korea are winners

pic. above: Taiwan's restaurants were loser or behind in EATER's "world best restaurants awards", CNN "world's best new restaurants" and Economists EIU "Global Food Security Index".

◆. world awards ~ 2019:
● 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.

● 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、Singapore 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

● According to The World's Best Restaurants (2017) , Taiwan is not included in the list, Thailand got No.7, Singapore No.14, Japan 18th, HK 24th, Shanghai 41th. In total, 5 Japanese , 4 Chinese, 3 Singapore, 2 Thailand, 1 Korean, 1 India restaurant(s) entered top 100. http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners#t51-100.

◎

◆ Food - night markets
● Yahoo News, 12-16-2020: Singapore’s hawker culture was officially approved (Dec.16, 2020) to be inscribed into UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. But Taiwan's night market hawker culture was not selected ● China Times 7-15-2020, till now the govt. only work on night market's toilet room, the rest is far behind the standard int'l metro's needs... ● Taipei mayor Ko: Our night markets and markets are too dirty ! ● The best-known expert in toxic study, professor Yen: Minimize the times of dining out to protect your health !

● The United Daily (3-1-2017): Many Taiwanese night markets closed down due to lacking of distinguishing feature or quality, and the number of Chinese tourists sudden decreasing. Taiwan night market cuisines

◆ Food - scandals

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

● Financial Times (UK), 8-28-2020: Taiwan eventually eases restrictions on US pork and beef imports. Must bear in mind you may eat beef and pork with controversial Ractopamine from 2021 on, the cost of local meat is much more expensive. ● Reuters , 11-23-2020: Thousands of people took to Taipei's streets with much of the anger focused on the government's decision to ease restrictions on imports of U.S. pork.
"Taiwanese pigs don't eat ractopamine and yet you are asking Taiwanese people to?" ● Associated Press, 11-23-2020: The drug is banned by the European Union, but is legal in the United States... “I feel these days many who do business are not ethical. If they mix the U.S. pork with Taiwan pork and then sell it to us average consumers, we as individuals have no way to know the source of the pork.” https://apnews.com/article/global-trade-tsai-ing-wen-trade-agreements-taiwan-food-safety-cf76e2db33063462632bfd383e0b7dbf

● 83% of Taiwan's Michelin 2~3 star restaurants, and 33% of Taiwan's Michelin star restaurants, failed to pass sanitary/health inspection (kitchen things/equipment not clean, food materials on the floor, without staffs' health examination proof ) , but they passed second inspection, such as 3 star restaurant Le Palais, 2 star restaurants RAW、態芮-Tairroir、祥雲龍吟( RyuGin Taipei )、鮨天本(Sushi Amamoto). ref. to Liberty Times, 3-30-2020, Apple Daily 3-31-2020. Chang Gung Mem. Hospital Toxicology expert professor Yen Tzung-Hai M.D. (顏宗海, Doctor, Univ. of London ): Minimize the times of dining out to protect your health ! ( ref. to book <食品不安全的年代如何自保>("how to survive in this bad food-security time", April '16))

● Even Taiwan's Michelin 3 star winner Le Palais was found snacks containing Hydrogen peroxide (過氧化氫) and Benzoic acid (苯甲酸), besides, many tourism hotels / 5 star hotels were found food hygiene not up to standard, e.g., 5 star hotels used expired no-good ingredients, such as HsinChu and Taipei's Ambassador Hotel, The Grand Hotel, Regent Formosa, and so on, reported by CTV evening news, BCC , LTN (12-19-2019) https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/3014179 . ● United Daily 1-20-2020: Taipei mayor Ko: Our night markets and markets are too dirty ! ● Liberty Times , 1-6-2019 : Taipei City Hall's "Model Night Markets" project, aims at " Japanese tourists are willing to sit down to eat "，however, quite many stalls opposed, in that elevating the hygienic level and class increases their running costs...

● 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. 江守山 "食在安心" (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 台灣餐廳 or 台灣美食Taiwan Night Markets ) ; Epoch Times (大紀元, 3-14-2017):Okura Prestige Tpe (大倉久和, a 5 star hotel) sold expired frozen shrimps, molded taro (vegetable 芋) etc; SETN news ( 三立新聞 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 (國賓、福華) clarified this news; Apple Daily (蘋果日報 6-7-2016): Sheraton (喜來登) 's white shrimps contained bleaching agent (漂白劑)，4 times higher than the legal standard，Ranina (Spanner crabs 旭蟹) contained heavy medal Cadmium poisoning (重金屬镉) 14% higher than the standard...; Apple Daily (蘋果日報 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... ○

● 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. (殷宗海, Doctor, Univ. of London ): Minimize the times of dining out to protect your health ! ( ref. to book <食品不安全的年代如何自保>("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 (化學所長吳家誠教授)'s book <Those black-heart products toxin-experts never buy ("毒物專家絕不買的黑心商品")> (Nov. 2013): Most of the time I eat at home, and has never dined out in street-side shops / small-eat markets (路邊攤), 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 "食在安心"

◎

Taiwan's Food safety scandals

TW food

◎ 2015 :
Since its worst ever electoral defeats, Taiwanese government never does some soul searching and corrects the wrong, "It's weirdo !!, Taiwanese government only focuses on 3 dried products - dried daylily, dried radish, and preserved fruits (snacks)", NTU professor Wu K.Y. stated "Completely evading the crucial point", "those 3 items are very low risky products".
● Apple Daily 8-28-2015: The incidence rate of Taiwanese people suffering colon/rectal cancer was ranked world No.1 (2nd is Korea, 3rd Slovakia) , Taipei Medical University Hospital's director of surgeons expressed Taiwan's food scandals constantly happened in recent years, many black-heart tainted foods containing Carcinogen (cancer producer) is a factor causing high incidence rate.

◎ 2014 Taiwan food scandals
        ● The New York times (9.8.2014): The authorities in Taiwan are scrambling to control a tainted-cooking-oil scandal that has affected hundreds of manufacturers and raised fears about health risks posed in many commonly consumed food items... the new scandal shows that there is still not enough being done to eliminate lawbreaking production lines,” The Taipei Times said ...
          ● TIME (9.8.2014): Gutter Oil' Scandal Raises Food-Safety Fears Once Again in Greater China. A Taiwanese food-safety scare has spread to Hong Kong...
          ● Bloomberg BusinessWeek (9.8.2014): Tainted Lard: China's Latest Food-Safety Scare Comes From Taiwan       The case is the second major food-safety scandal by a Taiwan-based company in the past year,...The new gutter-oil scandal has “shocked local consumers” in Taiwan who expect more from their government, ...“I hope the law could be revised to impose tougher punishment on those who breach food safety regulations,”...
       ● The China Times (9.5.2014, head-page headline news): Disgusting ... Even pigs don't eat those tainted oil we Taiwanese ate !

ps: For full text pls. ref. to Taiwan food scandals.

◎

Taiwan's Food safety scandals 2013, 2014

★

Advertisement a long time loser

My article in <the United Daily News> (Oct. 2007) mentions Taiwan's ad. creativity has been lousy for a long time, In the past 10 years, Taiwan is about in the last place in Cannes Ad. festival, world best ad. contest. (Even Vietnam, Philippines, red China are bit better than Taiwan) Till 2020, Taiwan still only has small number of winnings in int'l ads & creativity contests.

Taiwan's most important ad.

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

who said ?

said what ?

This site's comment

2007Taiwan government :

UN for Taiwan ad. is "un-limited creativity"

(1) Those are quite old ideas.

(2) click to read details

National ChenChi University, ad. professor book

using puns in UN series is " very creative and witty idea"

◎

Taiwan's int'l winning ads.

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

◎

★

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

Taiwan's Top Institution(ps)	animation	World's top contest, prize & honors, and university's opinions	This site's comments
National Taiwan University of Science & Tech.	Cubic Tragedy	ACM SIGGRAPH People' Choice Award	Experts won't feel the idea, girl face-lifting resulting in Picasso's cubism a <weeping woman>, unexpected .
National Yuan-lin University of Science & Tech.	Cubic Tragedy	NYLU's graduate school paper concluded this animation as "Picasso-inspired idea ..... contrary to our expectation".	experts suppose won't feel this idea "un-expected".
National Taiwan Univ. of arts	A fish with a smile	Berlin international Film Festival, children's section, Special Prize of jury committee	(1) it's just a story for children. (2) elegant drawing style, but those pictures don't look like any city in Taiwan.
National Tainan Univ. of arts	After the rainy day	winning in UK	Just like most Taiwan's films, boring obscure-meaning codes, hence most people are hard to understand or may make over-interpretation.
National Palace Museum	Adventures of NPM	(1) grand prize, 2008 Tokyo International Anim. Fair. (2) anim. goal : " bridging the gap between ancient artworks and modern audiences.	(1) it's a story for children, not for modern adults. (2) the film is showing in children's center of National Palace Museum, Taipei Taiwan.

Tamkang Univ.'s paper concludes Taiwan animation's 1st problem is "short of creativity". Very few Taiwan's researches 're working on this subject - creativity. (Taiwan animation currently is only expertise at drawing tech.)

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

Picasso cartoon Cubism

2 examples (pic. above) let us learn Picasso-Cubism inspired cartoons already having existed long time ago
(<The World encyclopedia Cartoons>，中國戲劇出版社)

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

◎

★

Music/songs

Washington Post, 5-29-2020: On mainland singing competition shows, contestants often perform songs by Hong Kong or Taiwanese artists.

Taiwan's pop music was tamed by political pressure in the past, the "opposition culture" in Taiwan's music field was almost eliminated.

Today's music is in a money-oriented environment.

Very few people notes an usual case : two most popular singers, Wu-bai and S.H.E. (hottest in China too) sing 2 same-name songs, namely all the same as Chinese translation of "Brave New World" - a classic literature regarding man-handled white-terror tyranny. S.H.E. seems so happy and exciting while singing this song.

In contrast, Apple Computer's famous commercial <1984> comes from another white-terror literature "1984" written by Orwellian. Ad. research papers mention one reason it succeeds ( the most remarkable US ad campaign, although aired only once ) is that people are curious about the mystery/puzzle - a tyranny in a free country.

Certainly, the <1984> despises human-controlled tyranny.

Apple <1984> TV commercial	<Brave New World>	<Brave New World> Chinese translation book

everybody in a blue-smog (mock IBM CIS color) "jail" are under control by big-brother in a big screen . try http://Youtube.com !	(1) A literature by A. Huxley (2) http://futuresteve.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/brave-new-world/	book cover

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★

Arts

United Daily 10-31-2019: Plagiarism again in Taiwanese design field !! an art-work in Tai-Nan art festival copied UK's, another art-work on train (government's project) copied Russian's ...... All Taiwanese designers should respect themselves and take these cases as a lesson.

Apple Daily, opinion, 7-20-2018 : Taiwan ( Taiwanese everywhere) lacks of aesthetics accomplishments, particularly those in power can allocate resources have "really turn me off" taste (倒盡胃口), Taiwan's public art works are too vulgar to be endured (俗不可耐), and some are sort of cheap-copy works (仿冒竊).

Critics in UDN (10-24-2019) : Design field thinks culture & arts are nothing but decorative, fine arts belittle commercial arts, etc ... the arts should take the lead for the fusion of tech. and culture ( for details pls. read https://udn.com/news/story/11321/4122342 ) .

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.

logos body

pic. left: "number" logos on athletes, pic. right: similar idea intro. by Taiwan's major newspaper

◎

★

Architecture no aesthetical & creative astonishment

◆ Taipei Performing Arts Center was selected as one among "the transformative buildings set to shape the world" in 2021, in that the eye-catching building has a planet-like sphere protruding from one side - will undoubtedly serve as a contemporary landmark for the Taiwanese capital; however, some look-alike sphere buildings were already designed earlier ― all "plug" into a central cube.
　

Taipei Performing Arts Center

www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/insight/year-in-architecture-2020

slideshare.net/manishkhageeshrestha/desing-concept

ge.com/news/reports/sphere-of-turbulence-whats-hiding-inside-a

◆ 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


	pic. United Daily : Taiwanese architects protest "unequal treaty" which benefits foreigners

◆ United Daily 8-8-2020, editorial: Taiwanese government most welcomes international architecture works, but its double standard angers local architects who criticizing foreigners are not familiar at Taiwan's history and geo. culture.
(Chinese text: 國際競圖原意是希望帶動台灣建築師創作力，但後來在執行面出現不少問題，最普遍的就是國外建築師不熟悉台灣歷史、地理，就把既有想法塞進來。尤其，國際競圖機制往往埋著國內建築師與國外相比的兩大不平等條約。各級政府國際競圖時，為吸引國外建築師，將設計費率提高二、三倍至百分之十三起跳，更可議的是，近年又冒出「變相國際標」，鼓勵國內建築師事務所找國外建築師設計，若獲選，設計費就可從原一般造價費的百分之四到五，略增到百分之六點二，評分總分還可加分。建築界痛批把國內建築師當「文化買辦、仲介」。)

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

◆ below are Taiwan's "Face" buildings :

architecture	This site's comment
Taipei 101 building	Ugliest skyscraper in the world : NOT very exquisite & aesthetic appearance
Tao-yuan international airport	1st Hall : copied U.S. airport. 2nd Hall : shortage of spirit breadth and arts atmosphere.

An article by VIP professor in Taiwan major newspaper (2002) asserted : " Copy is humanism spirits" 、 " How can we bear and even enjoy those original designed architecture by Taiwanese, our own people !? "

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

ps2: another contrast

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

			ps: Taiwan eventually was ashamed of this stealing and modified its look recently ... already after many many years

◎

★

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)

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

◎

● Pic. left is the logo of Taiwan government, since 11-9-1993, next 3 are logo of Canadian Pacific Rail, since 1968.

In addition to cheap-copy suspect, Taiwan's official document states their logo "easy to identify and associate with Taiwan's brand ... a simple shape and modernized & internationalized, aesthetic design " ; but, exactly on the contrary, it's neither modernized, nor as aesthetical simple as CPR's logo...

◎

(3) Taiwan's cultural landmark

knife as tree, lawn, mountain

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

ps: Both use same ideas ― "sharp knife tree, dangerous gear-wheel lawn"
Pic. at right side is an ad. for <Creative Ideas Exhibition of Taiwan Cultural Industry, Taiwan>, Eslite bookstore ( Taiwan's pride, a cultural landmark of Taiwan)

◎

(4)

pic. left above: logo and emblem of KMT
presidential election 2019/2020

pic. left blow: a design for FCCLA (USA)
(ps: appeared earlier)

KMT denied it's a cheap-copying work,
but ROC design association
(中華民國設計師協會榮譽理事)
expressed "UP" is an obvious Plagiarism !

besides, Taiwan's head was cut out

ref. to LTN, 11-15-2019

◎

★

Film/movie Taiwan's film almost dead

● New York Times, 5-29-2020 "Looking for an Introduction to Taiwan’s Greatest Filmmaker?"

NY Times introduces Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s work : “Millennium Mambo”(千年曼波), ,“The Assassin”(刺客) , “The Time to Live and the Time to Die” and “Dust in the Wind”(風中的塵埃), etc. "Much of the acclaim for Hou rests on the implicit challenge that his movies pose to conventional narrative filmmaking. They are less rooted in story than in motion, space and time — the fundamentals of cinema. "
Cinephiles scoffed: Maybe Hou was simply too challenging, too singular and too uncommercial for any distributor here to touch... But scholar Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh noted that Hou himself likened his style to liubai 留白, the Chinese ink-painting technique of leaving space blank. full details pls. read https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/movies/Hou-Hsiao-Hsien.html

● Washington Post, 5-29-2020
Even today, Hong Kong artists and Taiwanese celebrities hold considerable cultural clout, working in the mainland and appearing and performing on variety shows and television dramas.

● France 24, 11-21-2020: Chinese cinematic talents used to dominate the Golden Horse nominations but China boycotted the event last year after a Taiwanese director called for the island's independence during an award acceptance speech. ref to: france24.com/en/live-news/20201121-two-hong-kong-political-films-win-at-taiwan-golden-horse-awards

● Till now 2020, Taiwan has submitted 46 films for Oscar consideration. Three Taiwanese films (The Wedding Banquet (1993), Eat Drink Man Woman(1994), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)) have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film ― all were directed by Ang Lee.

● Taiwan's film industry got 3 major troubles :

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

(2) 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. Lacking witty & creative idea led to Taiwan film industry's death.

         ⊙ Taiwan's movies fail to create better humour like "Lost in Beijing" ( red Chinese film banned by CHN gov.) .
         ⊙ Taiwan's all-time grossing film, <Cape No.7>, is not 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.
         ⊙ Taiwan's <You are the Apple of My Eye> of 2011 was 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.
         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.

(3) Taiwanese are rich, but spent little on arts, and taste not too good - many people prefer real things, like money. International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported 2010 Taiwanese GDP (USD 35,604) ranked world no. 21.(news 9/23/2011)

	per person per year (200X)
movie	NT470 (about US 15)
drama	NT91 (US 3)
dancing show	NT65 (US 2)

● TV soap opera series : Taiwan's TV opera series focus on "charming leading-actors/actress" (not giving importance to the content) to attract audiences, so, Korean, Japanese, red Chinese TV series are better & more popular. United Daily (12-28-2014): Taiwan's TV opera are not original. UDN (critique C2, 6-21-2015): Taiwan's drama crisis/ lacking of budge, passion, actor/actress.

● Variety show/program of assorted entertainment: this sort of shows were very popular and was the reason or excuse that Taiwanese people don't like going to theater and 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 ! BBC, 1-13-2013: Taiwan's pop culture leaps Chinese hurdles - Millions in China watch the Taiwanese variety talk show Kang Xi Lai Le - but not on television. it's not just a reluctance to embrace a different kind of TV humour. Chinese regulations forbid all types of Taiwanese talk shows from being aired in their original state. BBC, UK, 1-13-2013: Taiwan's pop culture leaps Chinese hurdles - Millions in China watch the Taiwanese variety talk show Kang Xi Lai Le - but not on television. it's not just a reluctance to embrace a different kind of TV humour. Chinese regulations forbid all types of Taiwanese talk shows from being aired in their original state.

◎

★

Cartooning

About 10 years ago, ROC on Taiwan government together with <The United News> system organized a Taiwanese team to participate in Euro's largest humour contest, ＜Kokke Heist Humour & Cartoon Festival ＞，only 3 artists (including Zola Zu) were selected.

Recently Taiwanese cartoon artists have shown little talents on Taiwan International Cartoon Contest sponsored by Taiwanese government,

Almost all juries withdrawn from <Courage World Cartoon Contest> (ranking world No. 1 for some years) , due to "seems political" reasons .

Both animation and cartooning need creativity, but at present Taiwan doesn't have that environment.

Taiwan youngsters like "Kuso" stuffs, however, formula/routine mind is not good enough for cartoon creativity.

◎

Japanese winning art in Knokke Heist, Belgium 1st prize work in contest held by MinSen Daily

pic. left: Knokke Heist winner, appeared earlier.
pic. right: Taiwan's 1st prize cartoon was sent to Knokke Heist and lost.

ps: Taiwan has (only a few) world class cartoonists : i.e., T.Y. Ju (Ron Chu) .

◎

★

Product Design

(1 ) Taiwan's best-selling cultural creativity :

Recently, Taiwan's best-selling & widely known product , "Chinese Fortune(or Rich) God figure toy", is based on Taiwanese superstition (Apple Daily: 88%of college students believe ghost existing ), and eagerness for money,

Taiwan's figure-toy design just simplified Chinese Gods' complicated appearance to little cute mascot, in contrast, int'l designs for gods are more witty, i.e.,


⊙ Europe, Belgium rug Co.	installed a special compass in each product, its needle points to Islam's holy land instead of pointing South/North － this created a lot of business.
⊙ Japan	made a watch converting 114 world major cities' time to Islam holy land's time, with time-alarm function for Muslims' prayer.

◎
　

( 2 ) best-selling cultural products for int'l tourists

A major design periodical comments: <National Palace Museum>'s rich treasures is the key to success of Taiwan's Cultural & Creative Industry.

However, <NPM> seems to look down upon the talent of Taiwanese designers.

<NPM> product	short comments
Alessi "the Chin Family"	(1) <NPM> cooperates with Japan, Italy, hence, NPM's products are not purely Taiwanese or Chinese flavor. (2) Mr. Chin got slant eye (or "raising eyebrows"), it's western view-point, the Oriental usually don't draw that way.	Taiwan's tourists guidebook/ pamphlets (pic. above) calls 5000 yrs treasures "Chinese Creativity" . How about "Chinese Creativity" in today's Taiwan ??
"Jadeite Cabbage" tray-pillow for chop-sticks to rest on	(1) most products directly use antique-art shape. (2) At least 20 years ago, various assorted dedicated vegetables and fruits glass chopsticks tray-pillow already were made-in-Japan (best-sellers too) .
Don Dynasty ladies picture slippers	just directly applied antique pictures on products.

<NPM> should designs Chinese treasures, and makes witty, humorous artworks to represent Taiwan's modern arts. Western tourists suppose like to buy souvenir with Chinese culture & flavor created by ourselves. "Mercenaries" cannot represent Taiwan to Olympics.

◎

<NPM>merchandises： slippers, mugs, etc with Don Dynasty Ladies Picture	Zola Zu's design ： (1) expo. in Europe like Holland, Turkey, and was printed in best-collection albums. (2) printed in <the China Times>.
directly use antique pictures（or simplify a little bit）	I choose the theme : When the East encounters the West, Fine arts meets Cartooning, to integrate 2 major cultures.

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

◎

★

Medical

● Guardian (UK), 10-31-2020: Now, Taipei's people browse, busk and greet each other with handshakes and hugs. It feels normal. However, Taiwan has already "exported" dozens COVID-19 infected cases to a number of foreign countries, not sure yet who should be responsible for this, according to United Daily, editorial, 10-31-2020
https://udn.com/news/story/7338/4977422?from=udn-catehotnews_ch2

● New York Post 4-25-2020 : Taiwan deals with CovID-19 with "a lot more authoritarian.", "almost everyone is tracked.". Taiwanese govt. responded at 4-28-2020 that Taiwanese would like to cooperate with our policy. But the truth is Taiwan's "Big Brother" already sneaked into numerous families in the name of Epidemic Prevention, by an injunction violating Tort Law and domineering over Constitution (凌駕憲法的侵權禁令) , without having noticed all nationals, in accordance with United Daily, editorial at 5-7-2020. The ironic thing is after lifting Coronavirus Lockdown, Japan doesn't trust Taiwan's Epidemic Prevention, and has not put "democratic" Taiwan on their welcome list, many other countries did same thing to Taiwan. The China Times, editorial (6-6-2020, 6-25-2020) analyzed one main reason is Taiwan rejects mass testing, even small-scale testing, the number of test per million people is 3000+, ranked world No. 138, about same level as that of African countries, even African Luanda tested double number of Taiwan's. A famous National Taiwan University M.D. expert endorsed for Taiwan's policy : there's no any CovID-19 in Taiwan, 3 weeks later, a Japanese girl staying Taiwan for 4 months was detected positive in Japan's airport. Therefore, those free flow of information can be suspicious and may endanger the world people. According to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, "somewhere between 25% and 50%" of people infected with the new coronavirus may never show symptoms or fall ill — but can still transmit the illness to others (4-15-2020, Business Insider). Bill Gates in the New England Journal of Medicine: The prevalence of asymptomatic transmission doesn't bode well for global containment efforts. All studies (CNBC 5-7-2020, Singapore's Blackbox Research and Toluna, Forbes 6-5-2020, 4-16-2020: The Deep Knowledge Group) concluded China is better than Taiwan on CovID-19 safety countries rankings. The China Times 6-25-2020 editorial: Taiwan has no same capacity and experience as Beijing does to face something serious, it will be horrible in case CovID-19 epidemic break out. https://www.chinatimes.com/opinion/20200624003961-262101?chdtv

● According to WEF<Travel and tourism competitiveness report> (released at 9-4-2019), Taiwan's Health & Hygiene score 6.0, is worse than that of Korea, Japan, Mongolia.

● Taiwan only ranks world 45th position in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017

Taiwan ranks world 45th in Lancet's Healthcare Access and Quality Index released in 2017

● FTV (4-16-2017) comments medical Doctors' social status is lower than before.
● The book "Exposing the truth of modern medical circle in Taiwan" ("誤診誤醫", 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 ...
◎ full text pls. ref. to Taiwan Medical services or http://Courageworld.ch/TaiwanHospitalsMD.htm

◎

★

Women's rights

● US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released at 3-11-2020 : In the new legislature, a record 38 percent of lawmakers were women. ABC Radio National, Australia, 2- 27-2020: 42 per cent of Taiwan's legislators (law makers) are women; it's the only Asian nation to have legislated same-sex marriage.

● US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released at 3-13-2019 pointed out that Victims of rape and domestic violence did not report the crime for fear of social stigmatization, and various nongovernmental organization (NGO) and academic studies estimated the total number of sexual assaults was seven to 10 times higher than the number reported to police. Some abused women chose not to report incidents to police due to social pressure not to disgrace their families. <The United Daily >, 3-16-2018: Taiwan's gender equality - A long long way to go ! Taiwan passed (United Nations already passed 30+ years ago at 1979) the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) , valid from Jan. 1, 2012, but, Taiwan's women rights status is still similar according to the US report released in 2013 ~ 2018, In 2015, the number of reporting for rape or sexual assault is only 850 less than that in previous year. The Gov. study showed (3-2-2019) the number of Domestic Violence in 2018 is 138637, which increases about 1% compared to previous year.

● The US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices , released at 4-20-2018

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, and domestic violence. Many victims did not report the crime for fear of social stigmatization, and various NGO and academic studies estimated the total number of sexual assaults was seven to 10 times the number reported to police.

women work: Women were promoted less frequently, occupied fewer management positions, and worked for lower pay than men, earning on average 83 percent of their male counterparts’ income in 2015... a survey in 2016 showed 3.5 percent of women have been sexually harassed at work, yet 80 percent of these cases went unreported.

● <The United Daily 聯合報>, 3-16-2018 (prime news edition)

         Taiwan president Tsai I. W. : Taiwan still have a not short way to reach gender equality (台灣離性別平等還有一段路要走)
         <The United Daily 聯合報>, 3-16-2018 (林志潔, professor and member of national judicial reform committee)
          The judge made mistakes again and again, Taiwan's gender equality - A long long way to go !

● The China Times <中國時報> 3-8-2018: according to investigation/survey, 80% female physicians met sexual harassment, ... a female physician of Cathy Hospital had different views and said the percentage of harassment to nurse probably higher because they are young and in lower status (8成女醫曾遭性騷擾, 女醫反應兩極 ... brief)

● <Apple Daily>, 4-3-2018: According to a survey by Taiwanese government, 180 thousands of career women suffered sexual harassment, only 40-50 thousands reported to their company, others chose to keep silence... <蘋果日報> 4-7-2018: The number of sexual harassment on campus reported is up to 1400 per year.

● The US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices , released at 3-3-2017 (new report of 4-20-2018 is about same) : 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,...

★

Sports/Athletics

● According to Wikipedia (May 2020), Taiwan in Olympics (summer) has won 5 gold 7 silver, 12 bronze, was ranked world no. 66.

● In 2016 Rio Olympics medal tally statistics, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) only got 1 gold, 2 bronze, ranks world No. 50, compare to previous years, 5 medals in 2000, 2004, 4 medals in 2008, 2 medals in 2012；Other Asian nations - China ranks No.3, Japan No.6, Korea No. 8, Australia No 10, N.Z. No.19, Iran 25, North Korea No. 34, Thailand No. 35, Indonesia No. 46, Vietnam No.48, Taiwan No. 50.

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

★

Publications

The number of new book publication keeps dropping to hit lowest in 18 years. Some say "Taiwan's literature us dead !".

★

religions

Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed in Taiwan and the country is host to a diverse range of religions – 26 in total are officially recognized, but people are free to follow other religions if they choose. Government statistics show that Buddhism is the most popular religion, practiced by around 35.1% of Taiwanese, followed closely by Taoism (33.0%). Christianity and Yiguandao are the third and fourth most popular religions, followed by 3.9% and 3.5% respectively. Approximately 18.7% of Taiwanese are non-religious. (worldpopulationreview.com/countries/taiwan-population)

★

languages & dialects

Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, and Hakka, became the major languages of today's Taiwan.

★

recreations

Karaoke, termed KTV (karaoke television), together with Pachinko, both are contemporary Japanese culture incredibly popular in Taiwan .

Massage is another very popular recreation to ease Taiwanese stress. Many Taiwanese like hot springs.

ps Culture of Taiwan ― Wikipedia

The Culture of Taiwan is a hybrid blend of Confucianist Han Chinese, Japanese, European, American, global, local and Taiwanese aborigines cultures, which are often perceived in both traditional and modern understandings. The common socio-political experience in Taiwan gradually developed into a sense of Taiwanese cultural identity and a feeling of Taiwanese cultural awareness, which has been widely debated domestically. Reflecting the continuing controversy surrounding the political status of Taiwan, politics continues to play a role in the conception and development of a Taiwanese cultural identity, especially in the prior dominant frame of a Taiwanese and Chinese dualism.

Cultural heritage

culture

China's cultural heritage in UNESCO world heritage list:

Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
Mogao Caves
Mount Taishan
Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian
The Great Wall
Mount Huangshan
Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area
Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains
Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa
Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, Chengde
Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu
Lushan National Park
Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area
Ancient City of Ping Yao
Classical Gardens of Suzhou
Old Town of Lijiang
Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing
Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing
Dazu Rock Carvings
Mount Wuyi
Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui – Xidi and Hongcun
Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Longmen Grottoes
Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Yungang Grottoes
Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas
Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom
Historic Centre of Macao
Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries - Wolong, Mt Siguniang and Jiajin Mountains
Yin Xu
Kaiping Diaolou and Villages
South China Karst
Fujian Tulou
Mount Sanqingshan National Park
Mount Wutai
China Danxia
Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in “The Centre of Heaven and Earth”

News at Nov 16, 2010 - According to the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a total of 13 traditional celebrations, healing techniques, crafts and culinary arts (i.e., The Chinese Peking Opera and acupuncture, Armenian cross-stone art, Colombian Marimba music and French gastronomic meal, the traditional art of Azerbaijani carpet weaving, the Kirkpinar oil wrestling festival in Turkey, and Castells human towers built during festivals in Catalonia.) were newly inscribed into the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List.

ps: Taiwan's food scandals again and again ... For full text pls. read Taiwan food !!

◎ 2015 Taiwan food scandals / Illegal import of banned (suspiciously polluted) food products to Taiwan from five prefectures in Japan (included in 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant incident) prohibited by Taiwanese authorities.
        ● Taipei Times, 3-26-2015: Taiwan review Fukushima food ban under Japan's pressure
        ● Apple Daily 3-26-2015: already imported 4 yrs, Medical experiments were made on Taiwanese human beings as if they were guinea pigs. (輸台4年 "拿人民當實驗")
        ● Liberty Times 3-25-2015: Taiwan's member of the Legislative Yuan/ parliament: It's a premeditated murder, a willful murder!!

◎ 2014 Taiwan food scandals
        ● The New York times (9.8.2014): The authorities in Taiwan are scrambling to control a tainted-cooking-oil scandal that has affected hundreds of manufacturers and raised fears about health risks posed in many commonly consumed food items... the new scandal shows that there is still not enough being done to eliminate lawbreaking production lines,” The Taipei Times said ...
          ● TIME (9.8.2014): Gutter Oil' Scandal Raises Food-Safety Fears Once Again in Greater China. A Taiwanese food-safety scare has spread to Hong Kong...
          ● Bloomberg BusinessWeek (9.8.2014): Tainted Lard: China's Latest Food-Safety Scare Comes From Taiwan       The case is the second major food-safety scandal by a Taiwan-based company in the past year,...The new gutter-oil scandal has “shocked local consumers” in Taiwan who expect more from their government, ...“I hope the law could be revised to impose tougher punishment on those who breach food safety regulations,”...
       ● The China Times (9.5.2014, head-page headline news): Disgusting ... Even pigs don't eat those tainted oil we Taiwanese ate !

◎ 2013 Taiwan's food safety crisis or "poisonous food" panic
Taiwan's food were found some very bad materials, e.g., Cloudy Agents Contaminated by Plasticizer, 'Poisonous (toxic) starch', maleic acid (an industrial material).
Ref.
Cover story of some popular Taiwanese magazines (in 2013) :
(1) <Business Weekly> no. 1334 ― "Eating in Taiwan, needs latest common sense" ! ("吃飯需要新常識" !)
(2) <Business Today> no. 856 ― "Fatal & horrible materials in Taiwan's food, the secret that restaurants' boss won't speak out" !("要命的恐怖食材, 餐廳老闆不敢說的秘密" ! "黑心醬油毒害全台夜市、小吃、餐館幾近淪陷"!)
(3) <Common Health Magazine> no.36 ― "How to survive in 'Poisonous (toxic) starch' storm in Taiwan" ! ("毒澱粉風暴下的生存術" )
(4) <Business Weekly> no. 1331 "Focus News" ― "Watch Out ! You are eating 'Poisonous (toxic) starch' all 24 hours", "Black-Heart food products on all the streets in Taiwan". ( "小心你 24小時都在吃毒澱粉", "...滿街黑心食品".)
Ref. 2
<Apple Daily News> editorial (6.1.2013) : "We grew up by eating poisonous food" (辣蘋果: "我們吃毒長大!" ): Taiwan food safety storm ― poisonous food with industrial materials, expired preservatives... Taiwan food problem now is a national security issue... government needs more active ...

Taiwan's culture (Chinese culture in Taiwan)
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