The recent series of food scandals has invoked widespread panic among the public over the safety of everyday food. This crisis has also exposed a long-standing problem — officials’ incompetence and negligence in monitoring and safeguarding the nation’s food safety.
In addition to public outrage against implicated food production firms, on a wider scale, the food safety scandals have also severely hurt the nation’s international reputation as a food paradise, since this has been one of the aspects the government has actively promoted overseas in the past few years.
Until the outbreak of the latest food scandal, few people realized that one of the nation’s most appealing attractions for international tourists is the street food of night markets and food such as xiaolongbao (小籠包) in restaurants such as Din Tai Fung.
The diversity of mouthwatering local meals is one of the nation’s distinctive charms to foreign tourists and it will continue to be one of important elements for the nation in making an impression on foreigners.
However, it might be too meager, tedious and — to some extent — shallow, if the image of a country to the outside world is disproportionately built on one component, while other aspects are unintentionally missing.
Nowadays, as cultural and creative industries have become popular and part of a movement sweeping over society and taking a significant portion of the government’s budgets, it might seem odd that Taiwan, in terms of its international image, still falls short of providing a “core” image and value that could appeal and inspire foreigners’ imagination about this beautiful and dynamic island.
Given that bountiful amounts of taxpayers’ money have been poured into supporting cultural and creative industries, it seems inconceivable that the government does not yet have a clear picture in terms of what kind of image Taiwan should present on the global stage.
The Japan National Tourism Organization recently announced that the number of foreign passenger arrivals in Japan in the past 10 months had hit an unprecedented 11 million. According to World Bank statistics, visitors to Japan spent more than US$16 billion in 2012 and this number is estimated to be even higher in this year.
Similarly, as the wave of South Korean popular culture, or so-called K-Pop, has spread across Asia and extended its influence around the world, the mounting influence of international tourism to South Korea’s economy had also reached a historical peak of more than US$19 billion in 2012.
By contrast, the revenue from international tourists to Taiwan in the same year was US$11.7 billion, with 7.3 million international visitors, according to Tourism Bureau statistics.
These numbers show a significant gap between Taiwan and its two neighboring countries in terms of how a nation makes itself attractive to foreign tourists. These results also reveal Taiwan’s vital mistake in failing to undertake a far-sighted strategy in building its national image for heightened global awareness.
In a world of fast-changing global competition, the outcome of failing to develop the nation’s “core image” and to cultivate a “national brand” for global audiences could be consequential, since few people outside of Asia can tell the difference between Taiwan and Thailand.
There is virtually no comprehensive, overarching and sophisticated strategic plan to facilitate coordination between public and private sectors, as well as among different industries, to fully utilize the nation’s advantages in each industrial field under one consolidated theme of a national image.
Essentially, having a strong national image would provide an effective leverage for expanding Taiwan’s soft power overseas. Dexterously exercising soft power is particularly crucial for enhancing the nation’s economic competitiveness and fostering political survival among increasingly tough global competition.
What is soft power? As US political scientist Joseph Nye adequately defined: “It is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country’s culture, political ideals and policies.”
As Nye convincingly argued: “When you can get others to admire your ideals and to want what you want, you do not have to spend as much on sticks and carrots to move them in your direction.”
In other words, soft power is a form of subtle and delicate persuasion and manipulation, or the so-called third dimension of power. It is a way of winning hearts and minds without wielding military threats or alluring with economic rewards.
Exercising soft power is critically important for a small country like Taiwan. As a highly export-dependent economy without copious natural resources, Taiwan has no choice but to confront intense global economic competition. Furthermore, given the severe geopolitical environment it faces, the nation has few options but to develop its asymmetrical strengths and to maintain a dynamic strategic balance for securing its political existence.
Considering these conditions, there is no country more suitable than Taiwan to accomplish the full potential of soft power in every aspect of its international engagements.
Just like the US has been depicted as “the land of opportunities,” a birthplace of a modern lifestyle “American Dream” and a promising business playground nurturing many successful entrepreneurs and top-notch corporations, such as Steve Jobs’ Apple, Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s Google and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Japan has also distinguished itself through its bountiful and enchanting cultural richness and advanced technologies.
Even for South Korea, against the backdrop of the K-Pop phenomena, new waves of commercial assaults by its national champions, like Samsung and LG, as well as its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in various industries, such as cosmetics, fashion and garments, have also successfully enlarged its business reach across Asian countries and stretched out into other regions.
While the South Korean entertainment industry, sufficiently supported by its government, can proudly produce K-Pop sensations with all-look-alike stars and dazzling dances to renew its national image with a modern and fashionable edge, Japan has also launched its counterattack, namely, “Cool Japan,” by recognizing its popular cultures such as manga, anime, drama, J-Pop songs, video games, etc.
Until now, these idiosyncratic Japanese subcultures had been underestimated in their business potential and had been viewed as inferior to Japanese manufacturing goods such as electronic products and cars.
Nevertheless, with the triumph of K-Pop in creating enormous business profits overseas, the Japanese government has tried to catch up and set a new strategy by exporting its soft power through promoting Japanese lifestyle and subcultures along with embedded Japanese consumer products for extending their outreach overseas.
Compared with the latest artificially fabricated image of fashionable South Korea, or the solid cultural abundance of enthralling Japan, Taiwan’s national image to foreigners seems astoundingly monotonous and skimpy.
For instance, the government had used “Excellence Taiwan” or “MIT” (Made in Taiwan) as eye-catching phrases to symbolize Taiwan’s high-quality products.
These efforts not only failed to allure foreign audiences, but also fell short of distinguishing Taiwan’s unique characteristics from other countries. Most importantly, these terms did not capture the heart and soul of Taiwan.
So, the question is: How do you create an appealing image to touch the hearts and minds of international audiences and which also plays a pivotal role in facilitating the nation’s economic growth?
First, the government needs to unbiasedly assess the nation’s comparative strengths and weaknesses.
The next step is to identify the nation’s distinctive features in terms of its cultural uniqueness.
The third step requires mulling over encompassing interests by taking different industries into account.
The fourth is to efficiently utilize existing marketing capital, like popular stars or TV dramas, to maximize the leverage of cultural outreach.
The final step is to make the whole package, as a combined product, attractive and approachable.
So, what could be the idiosyncratic feature representing Taiwan’s core image? “Human touch” might be one of the images that captures hearts and minds of numerous foreign tourists.
“The most beautiful scenery in Taiwan is its people,” as this frequently quoted Chinese tourist observed, indicates that it might be wise to fully exert this human aspect of Taiwan, which people desire to experience and obtain in their daily lives.
Since the sense of “human touch” highlights warm and affable interactions between people, it can easily be translated into storytelling style through various forms, such as novels, movies, TV dramas and so forth, to present Taiwan’s bewitching attraction.
Meanwhile, if the government can take advantage of some stars’ far-reaching popularity, like Mayday, Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), to boost the nation’s image of “human touch” in every aspect of daily life, it will be even more appealing to overseas audiences.
Finally, a sophisticated and well-designed strategic plan, which incorporates various industrial interests, under the same theme of national image, is crucial for Taiwan if it is to renew its competitiveness in years to come.
An attractive national image will play a constructive role in improving the nation’s attractiveness overseas, which will facilitate the sales of its national products in foreign markets in return.
From a marketing strategy perspective, exercising soft power is to deliver a belief of value system and a better lifestyle, which can be transformed into countless packages of business opportunities, since people will voluntarily desire the things you want them to have.
A renewed national image will allow Taiwan to reflect its inner strengths, while avoiding the pitfalls of narrow branding.
Eric Chiou is an assistant professor at National Chiao Tung University.
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