Taiwan should increase efforts to foster creativity and boost the nation’s soft power in the face of China’s rapid development in the arts sphere, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said yesterday, urging the government to recognize China’s strength in this regard amid a recent frenzy over a Chinese TV show.
The show, I Am A Singer (我是歌手), is a Hunan TV contest featuring professional singers including well-known Taiwanese artists, such as Terry Lin (林志炫) and Aska Yang (楊宗緯).
It has become one of the most talked-about TV shows in China and created a media frenzy in Taiwan as Lin, Yang and several other Taiwanese singers boosted their popularity after appearing on the show.
Several TV stations in Taiwan replaced news and political talk shows on Friday night with a live broadcast of the show’s first season finale, prompting debate over whether the show was getting too much airtime in Taiwan.
In response to media questions about I Am A Singer’s popularity, Lung said that while it demonstrated China’s huge investment in pop culture shows and show business talent, it also reflected the strength of Taiwanese singers in terms of performance and songwriting skills.
“Many Chinese singers picked songs written by Taiwanese songwriters, so the show tells us that Taiwan is ahead of China and the Chinese community in culture and creativity,” she said on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Taipei Story House.
“What we should be concerned about is whether we will still be the best in 30 years,” Lung said.
She said the ministry will reinforce its efforts to create a better environment for local artists, and help local singers and musicians to shine on the international stage.
She also said the signing of a cross-strait agreement on intellectual property rights cooperation and protection during the fifth round of negotiations on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is crucial because the fruit of local artists’ creativity should be protected, and the ministry will work with artists to increase the economic value of their intellectual property.
“We cannot compete with China in terms of capital investment. We should think about how to maintain our competitiveness via other policies,” she said.
The National Communications Commission, for example, relaxed regulations on placement marketing last year to allow product placement and the sponsorship of TV programs, except for news and children’s shows.
The commission expected the measure to stimulate investment in local productions and market Taiwan’s TV content both domestically and overseas. Lung said the government should assess the limitation and relaxation of product placement policies so that local TV programs can improve their content.
As for local TV stations’ saturation coverage of I Am A Singer, Lung said the issue should be addressed by the commission, the authority responsible for managing television stations.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
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