Print

Mail

wiki links

Fuss over festival is missing the point

The Kaohsiung City Govern-ment's boycott and protest against the Taipei City Govern-ment's upcoming "Taipei 2001 Cultural City of Asia-Pacific" (亞太文化之都) festival has recently been the subject of much controversy.

Apart from a political perspective -- which suggests that the event once more highlights the long-imbalanced development between north and south -- still deeper social and cultural perspectives are hidden behind the controversy. To be specific, the debate over the cultural event is not just about political concerns -- such as who is the event's official sponsor -- but instead is actually about the planning for and organization of Taiwan society.

To be fair, after coming to power, the DPP government is paying more attention to residents in southern Taiwan -- as evident by how the Double Ten Day's firework display, the annual lantern festival celebration and state banquets for visiting dignitaries had all been moved to the south.

Such actions, however, have led to both anticipated and unanticipated consequences. For example, is the DPP govern-ment's emphasis on southern Taiwan just that of a cheerful and noisy carnival, or is it an action that is accompanied by complementary measures? In other words, after giving face to the down-to-earth residents in the south, how the government will actually promote a better quality of life for people in less developed areas of the country is a primary concern.

Moreover, will the over-emphasis on the south lead to confrontations and hate among different regions? This issue should also be thoroughly handled by the government. After all, the glamourous lantern festival celebration in Kaohsiung City should not be taken as meaning Taipei City's festival has shrunk and fallen out of favor.

Similarly, Taipei's festival should not be taken to mean Kaohsiung's lowly political position.

Thus, to view the issue from a deeper social and cultural perspective, both the theme for Kaohsiung's lantern festival celebration -- change and upgrade (銳變與躍升) -- and the theme for Taipei's celebration -- a dynamic new century (靈動新世紀) -- should be taken as shared goals for the whole of society.

The Taipei festival not only serves as a declaration for Taipei City to get "on track" with international metropolises, but also serves as an opportunity to promote the integration of folk cultures all over Taiwan. If we continue to over politicize cultural events we will be reduced to regionalism. Such a result would only harm attempts at reconciliation among different areas and groups of people in Taiwan.

In a word, the lantern festival has long become a shared cultural event in Taiwan's folk society. The Taipei festival also has a significant meaning, as it is going to turn the Taipei City into an international metropolis.

Consequently, neither a holiday event held by Kaohsiung nor an international event held by Taipei should be interpreted only from a political perspective. Instead, they should be interpreted from different perspectives and should have multiple meanings, which could include religious, social or daily life themes.

The DPP government should certainly take the lantern festival and the "Taipei 2001 Cultural City of Asia-Pacific" festival as its starting points in building Taiwan as a folk society in the future. It should also regularly promote and develop local cultural events and festivals in different regions in order to construct a folk society -- which consists of modern, native and human characteristics.

Wang Shung-ming is an associate professor of social welfare at Chinese Culture University.

Translated by Eddy Chang
This story has been viewed 2286 times.