In a bid to study the reasons behind the success of Denmark's creative industry, a delegation led by Council for Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀) arrived in Copenhagen on Monday for three days of talks with members of Denmark's cultural establishment.
The delegation, which is slated to leave for London today to continue its fact-finding tour of another leader in the creative industry, was hosted by the Danish Center for Cultural Development (DCCD), an autonomous body under Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In a speech Monday, Tchen pointed out the similarities between the two countries, noting that they are about the same size and both have a long maritime history. She was warmly greeted by Grethe Rostboll, the chairperson of the DCCD and former minister of culture, and on Tuesday met with the current Minister of Culture Brian Mikkelson.
The real work of the delegation began on Tuesday with a daylong seminar and discussion session at the Danish Design School. The ambitious program sought to cover broad issues related to the creative industry, from government policies to ways that urban renewal can serve as a greater force to bring the products of the creative industry into the community.
Given the complexity of the issues being discussed and the lack of detailed knowledge of the situation in Denmark on the part of the Taiwanese, and visa versa, there was not too much expectation of any substantive results within such a short time, although Tchen said that the ideas thrown up on Tuesday would bear fruit in the shape of substantive deals to be announced tomorrow.
In a friendly and courteous atmosphere, cultural representatives set about getting to know one another.
On the Taiwan side, these included Wu Jing-jyi (吳靜吉), head of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, Ping Heng (平珩), a director of the Performing Arts Alliance, Ray Chen (陳瑞憲), one of the top architects of Chinese decent, according to Asahi Shimbun and Margaret Shiu (夏麗虹), chairperson of the Association of Cultural Environment Reform.
Tuesday afternoon was set aside for group discussions, which while they did not produce any dramatic results, were, according to Ray Chen, a valuable process "of getting to know one another."
Peng Heng drew considerable attention when discussing the success of the Little Asia Theater event that she organized for a number of years.
"But of course, working with theaters from around Asia, we had the chance to try out small projects before moving on to bigger ones," to become more acquainted, she said.
The Danish response in this case served to underline the fact that while the delegation is here to learn, it also feels that it has much to offer.
Tchen emphasized that the only way to sustain the momentum created by the current visit is to initiate projects.
In the short term, there is the Images of Asia exposition to take place in August and September this year.
"We are discussing sending some of our young people to take part in the administration process of this huge event," Tchen said.
"This is only possible because of the close ties we have developed with the Danes."
The push towards upgrading the standing of culture that this current delegation to Denmark and the UK represents is in part the result of a priority being placed on cultural content being listed as one of the 10 projects of the Challenge 2008 national development plan.
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