Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said yesterday that Taiwan Academy centers and China’s Confucius Institutes are bananas and apples that cannot be compared and that Taiwan has its own unique role to play in the international community.
Lung said Taiwan Academy centers, set up in New York, Los Angeles and Houston to promote the nation’s languages and culture, do not have to compete with the Confucius Institutes established by China around the world.
“Bananas won’t compete with apples to see which is redder, right?” asked Lung, adding that there was no need for bananas and apples to compare their shape or color.
“That’s how I view the differences between the Taiwan Academy and the Confucius Institute,” she said in an interview with the Central News Agency.
Lung said the Taiwan Academy does not have to compete with the Confucius Institute in size, as its value lies in the fact that Taiwan “is the only free and open society that grew out of the soil of traditional Chinese culture.”
“It is the one and only, and this is enough to make us proud,” Lung said.
However, she said that while Taiwanese should be proud of their culture, they should also be humble.
There are many countries with rich cultures and Taiwan’s role is to contribute its experience to the diversity of the international community, she said.
“That’s how I see the Taiwan Academy,” she added.
Asked if it is possible for Taiwan Academy centers to work with Confucius Institutes to promote Chinese culture globally, Lung said unless Taiwan no longer feels that China is a “threat,” such collaboration may not be possible.
Meanwhile, Lung said her ministry is looking at the possibility of establishing cultural centers in China to facilitate cultural exchanges between the two sides.
The Tourism Bureau has already set up offices in China, she said.
“If the cultural industry is important to Taiwan, then of course this is something that needs to be studied,” she said.
However, she said it will require a lot of coordination with the central government’s economic, mainland affairs, intellectual property and industrial agencies.
Taiwan has three cultural centers abroad — in New York, Tokyo and Paris. Lung said her ministry plans to set up eight more centers, but the locations are still being negotiated.
She added she hopes that in 30 years the interaction between Taiwan and China could be less motivated by politics and that both sides would enjoy a relationship based on mutual trust and goodwill.
Lung expressed the wish that Taiwan’s democratic values and “soft power,” such as its creativity, culture and the quality of its citizens, would influence China into becoming a freer and more open society.
On the other hand, she said Taiwan can learn from China’s “hard power,” such as some of its good economic decisions and its globalization efforts, which she said are often more ambitious than Taiwan’s.
“Can we seek to combine our soft and hard power to enter the international market? Of course this is a goal we can think about,” Lung said.
However, she said, before the two sides can talk about cooperation, there needs to be mutual trust and a willingness to “treat each other as equals.”
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address