The rehearsal studio and warehouse of Taiwan's national treasure -- Cloud Gate Dance Theater (雲門舞集) -- in Bali Township (八里), Taipei County, was devastated by a fire last week. The finest of the troupe's work accumulated over 35 years was destroyed. This conflagration not only exposed the hardships suffered by artists working long-term in near poverty, but also highlighted the cultural oversight typical in many industrial cities and nations in a state of transition.
Taiwan's cultural policy is a typical example of many developing or newly industrialized countries: Culture is a means of propagating ideology or to promote the image that all is well. Since its main purpose is decorative, culture often lags at the tail end of national development projects and its budget is ridiculously small. Even if individuals or groups in the cultural industry receive a pittance of public funding, death is often preferable as they are frequently forced to work under torturous conditions to meet a deadline despite inadequate resources.
But the problems highlighted by the Cloud Gate fire go beyond the issue of cultural subsidies: They draw attention to the value that is structurally assigned to cultural policy.
National policymakers are disdainful of the arts and culture because they perceive them as mere cosmetics, overlooking the fact that they could be a driving force for development of a city or the country. Like a locomotive engine, culture can lead and promote new developments and bring in unlimited economic value. Indeed, it can forge a creative urban environment that gestates culturally rich lifestyles.
As one of the four Asian tigers, Singapore's distinguishing characteristic in its globalization strategy since the 1990s has been to re-evaluate the development potential of culture. After the departure of the colonial power, Singapore harnessed a cultural industry built around a strong ethnic Chinese identity that had resisted foreign powers and managed to gain independence, while at the same time imbibing and promoting the multicultural characteristics of a multi-ethnic society.
After the meteoric rise of China's economy, Singapore took advantage of its geographical and cultural proximity to China to transform and reinvent its identification with Chinese ethnicity, develop industries associated with ethnic Chinese culture, including immigrant history, costumes, architecture and food. Singapore established Chinese-language education centers and contemporary Chinese studies institutes, which are actively exported to the world at large. Over the past 20 years, Singapore has almost become the place where Westerners gain an understanding of contemporary China: In the English-speaking world, Singapore has obtained a unique right to interpret Chinese culture and produced limitless potential for development and tourism for the nation. Singapore's strategy to globalize its culture has also indirectly helped it define its position in the new Asia.
Some may have visited San Francisco, on the other side of the Pacific, and were entranced by its layered, winding and profuse urban sights. But prior to the 1960s, San Francisco was merely a derelict, run-down, mining town, much like Jiufen (
The habitation and cultural, creative activities of artists became the basis from which a flourishing San Francisco cityscape war born. Even more interestingly, the innovative climate of a city that has amassed the essence of counterculture movements and artistic energy has become an inspiration for Silicon Valley's abundant supply of outstanding technical talent.
Culture is not only good business. Aside from being the developmental drive for a new urban economy, it is also an expression of the national spirit and a force that defines its residents' identity. Singapore's globalized strategy has successfully allowed the politics of cultural identity to advance from being an expression of opposition to becoming an industry, whereas San Francisco's creative environment has forged a superb educational and cultural environment which people are more than willing to inhabit.
Groups such as the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre or the Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute (蔡瑞月舞蹈研究社), which are capable of artistically rendering the history of the human rights movement, as well as the ethnic and national identity of an immigrant society, should be considered national treasures that deserve to be preserved and encouraged. They should be appropriately installed in the urban network as a fount of creativity.
Producers of arts and culture are the genies of the nation's future development. It is through their magic that ugly industrial towns are made beautiful and transformed into a sustainable homeland. Only by thoroughly revising cultural policies can we make sense of the Promethean fire of Cloud Gate in the hope that it will help create Taiwan's next cultural hope.
Sabina Sun is a special lecturer at the National Taiwan University of Arts.
Translated by Angela Hong
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
RSS