Taiwan Cultural & Creative Industry (Taiwan Soft Power) 

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

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

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

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 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) 

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

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, ...... are students level ideas.

Music/songs

An essay <China Tames Rebellious Side of Rock "n" Roll> in <New York Times>, likened today's Red Chinese pop music culture to the politically enforced conformity  of the Cultural Revolution, the core of songs is "have fun", culture has become an empty vessel, there are few hints of angst, alienation , or any but the mildest expression of teenage rebellion.

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

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

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

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

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

Arts

Many Asian countries have great ambition to do city-marketing by arts expo.,  there're 8 arts biennales will be taken place in Sept. 2008.

Taiwan is one of them -   <Asia Arts Biennale > was held till Feb. 2008.

Taiwan's largest news introduced (with a large-sized picture) an expo.  artwork  -  world brand's logos are spread on human bodies, this work seems to symbolize "Globalizing" phenomenon.

However, the idea "logo body" already appeared a number of times in,  i.e., <Your Logo Here, photos from S. Cal. 2004-2006>, and some logo tattoo works .......

More sharp-witty and more difficult ideas appeared in cartooning field at least 13 years ago, i.e., Japanese Yomiuri international cartoon contest  (see pic. below).

Architecture

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

An article by VIP professor in Taiwan major newspaper 2002 asserted  :  " Copy is humanism spirits" 、 " How can we enjoy & bear those original designed  architecture by Taiwanese !? "

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

ps2:  another contrast 

Visual Communication

Taiwan government logo、UN for Taiwan logo、state-run enterprises logo、Taiwan's universities annual event logo ......  etc,  "wrong way" visual designs're everywhere.

Some examples are listed as below:

(1)		(2)
world logo appeared earlier	logo of Taiwan's government	Asian (Korea) metro's logo (appeared earlier)	design by Taiwan's best university

ps:  Both are same ideas like "sharp knife tree, lawn"      
       right pic. is ad. for <Creative Ideas Exhibition of Taiwan Cultural Industry, Taiwan>, Eslite book store ( a cultural landmark of Taiwan )

Film/movie

Taiwan's film industry got 3 major troubles :

(1)   Taiwan government used to do 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/obscure 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.

         ☉  Taiwan's movie 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 CREATIVE, is not a witty comedy (some world best media position this film as comedy), but attracts lots of Taiwanese by some simple ideas( i.e., sort of slapstick) and culture elements.  
         ☉  Taiwan's <You are the Apple of My Eye> of 2011 is very popular in TW, HK and Chn, but most of it's boyish humors are not witty & stylish, this film attracts audiences by stoking collective memory of their youngsters age.

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

TV series : Taiwan's TV series focus on "charming leading-actors/actress" (not content) to attract audiences, so Korean, Japanese, red Chinese TV series are better & more popular.

Tourism

◎ According to 2009 ECA international "the Best Place to Reside", Taipei ranks No.57,  Asia top 3 are Singapore 、Hong Kong、Tokyo( both world No.15).
      2010 rank :  Taipei No.55、 Singapore is still global No. 1.
◎ According to < Country Brand Index> of 2007，Japan is the only Asian country ranking top 10, Red China is a rising star.   In 2011-2012, Japan no.4, Australia no.5, New Zealand no. 3.

◎ 2011-2012 World Tourism Rank :

◎ Best China cuisine in Taiwan : Din Tai Fung ―  branch in Hong Kong (not Taiwan) won one Michelin star.
     Best dish in Taiwan : oyster omelet (introduced in Discovery channel USA) ―  it is most typical Taiwanese food ( street snack everywhere in night markets), but not exquisite & elaborated food.    Chinese language intro. to Taiwan cuisines

◎ "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.  

◎ FOX news web-site (USA) at Nov. 27, 2011 selected Taipei as one of ten "Top Budget Travel Destinations" for food, hot spring, etc, the best time to visit Taipei is Oct. and Nov. for better climate.

◎  <Travel and tourism competitiveness report> Wikipedia: 2011 ranking - No.10 Singapore, no.12 HK, no. 13 Australia, no. 19 New Zealand, no.22 Japan, no.32 Korea, no.35 Malaysia, no. 37 Taiwan, no.39 China.
　

pic. above: Mr. Teapot shows the hospitality under the hat (cover) , "Welcome to Taiwan" ad. , 
                  "Taiwan .... Touch Your Heart !",  tour info. pls refer  http://taiwan.net.tw

Cartooning

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

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

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

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

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

Product Design

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

Recently, Taiwan's best-selling & widely known product , "Chinese Fortune(or Rich) God figure toy", is based on Taiwanese superstition (Apple Daily: 88%of college students believe ghost -  ps2  ), and eagerness for money,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sports/Athletics

Other Soft Power
Ps:  As for other items of Taiwan's soft power, according to world famous studies/surveys, Taiwan's press freedom (speech freedom) has moved backwards since 2008, Taiwan's human rights, women's rights, abuses of international/foreign workers, death penalty ( capital punishment ) etc need to be improved.   A few other cultural & creative industries like interactive game are competitive.
　

Summary

(1) Not easy to upgrade "Made in Taiwan" to "Create in Taiwan",  since Taiwan has very few experts in creativity. (government does not think highly of them)

(2) Most Taiwanese professors (PhD) do theoretical studies, don't have talent (some even are not interested ) on witty creativity/design. 

(3) Ph.D usually is required for college teacher position, it's one criterion for Taiwan government to evaluate all schools.  Un-talented teachers can't train students to be talented.

(4) Taiwan's society and people don't think important of arts, culture, creativity, etc.  

(5) Taiwan government official in univ. paper said Taiwan doesn't have that kind of environment for creativity.  
     Creativity needs freedom,  democracy, and people's independent personality,  government officers don't like creativity, which means extra risk.

(6) Taiwan should fight "diamond cut diamond" with western nations in major fields , instead of going backdoor (or side-door) by exotic local culture, Eastern mysterious flavor, obscure codes, etc.

(7) Taiwan government used to give less budget to cultural field, and use e.g., movie as propaganda/comm. tool.   Taiwan needs int'l friends, but uncreative films won't attract enough audiences.

(8) Taiwanese government kicks cultural creativity to the corner in most time, in that creativity seems no use for political election, but requires extra efforts on social controls/adm.

(9)  Taiwan's government prefers to use his own men.

(10) Taiwanese youngsters love heavy slapstick 、silly "Kuso" stuffs ("young-designers" policy is wrong).
     Taiwanese adults' imaginative power  is bounded, thinking in a roundabout/evasive way,  their tastes are lousy .......  pls. see 2 examples as below :

to be continued, if necessary

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  

Taiwan's Creativity       home page

comment Alessi Mr Chin & NPM of Taiwan printed in <United News>, one of largest media in Taiwan, Aug. 2008  :  Chinese language version

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