New Taipei City (新北市) will hold two competitions next month to cap its annual multicultural music and film festivals, city government officials said yesterday.
The grand finals for a singing contest will be held on June 11, and two film screenings are set for June 18 and June 25, they said. Other activities, such as prize draws, will also be held to attract crowds, the organizers said.
The two festivals, now in their third year, are a major part of a series of activities aimed at integrating local and foreign residents, especially new immigrants, the officials said at a press conference.
New Taipei City has the largest population of foreign residents in Taiwan, with nearly 84,000 new immigrants from 120 countries, including 33,000 children.
In 2009, the city government began organizing different events to improve the public’s “global literacy,” said Lee Ming-fang (李敏芳), chief of the New Citizen’s Culture and Education Division under the city’s Education Department.
“Through these events, people can learn to respect and appreciate different cultures,” she said. “Being multicultural seems to be easy, but it is not. There are still some difficulties and obstacles.”
Many new immigrants’ children are reluctant to reveal their identities and some have asked their parents not to accompany them to school, Lee said, adding that some teachers had even made similar suggestions to the parents.
“Most locals still have this prejudice against people of different origin and think it is not something honorable,” she said.
However, with the increasing number of new immigrants, society is gradually changing, she said.
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