On Sunday, Tchen Yu-chiou, chairwoman of the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA), will depart for Denmark and the UK with a delegation of some of Taiwan's best known artists in a exploratory tour of the operational structures of what is now popularly termed the "creative industry" in these two countries.
Among the delegates will be Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), probably Taiwan's most respected film director and chairman of SPOT -- Taipei Film House, Taipei's first arthouse cinema, and Edward Yang (楊德昌), whose most recent film A One and a Two (一一) has been lavished with praise by international audiences (but is yet to be released in Taiwan). In a press conference on Wednesday, Tchen pointed out that although cinema currently falls under the mandate of the Government Information Office (GIO) rather than the CCA, she feels that it is her duty to push ahead on a wider cultural front, and not allow the peculiarities of Taiwan's current arts administrative structure to get in the way of building bridges of cultural exchange with other countries.
Representatives from China External Trade Development Council (外貿協會), Industrial Development Bureau (工業局) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the ministry of Education and the GIO will also be with the delegation to provide input into what Tchen hopes will be substantive discussions that will form the basis for formal contracts in a number of fields related to the creative industry. Her highest priority is in the area of education, and discussions for three-month exchange programs with the UK are already underway. Tchen said the current visit would provide the opportunity to explore the possibility of longer programs, including masters degree courses in arts administration and related areas in which Taiwan is currently lacking. "But ultimately we want this to be an exchange, so that eventually we can have their students coming here to study," she said. A second priority is to establish an international network for entrepreneurs, a devise that will firmly place the ball of cultural financing in the private sector's court, and provide a forum for entrepreneurs from fields as diverse as dance, technology and capital markets to exchange ideas and make deals.
While it is two film directors who probably lead the rankings of international recognition, the delegation is packed with many other names that will be familiar to anyone with an acquaintance with the nation's cultural scene.
From the performing arts there is Wu Hsin-kuo (吳興國) of the Contemporary Legend Theater (當代傳奇劇場) who will be presenting a truncated version of his King Lear (李爾在此) in the UK. This powerful one-man show in which Wu plays all the roles, combines the story from the Shakespeare classic with forms and music drawn from Beijing Opera. Wu will also be on hand to talk about Snow in August (八月雪) in which he plays a leading role, and although it will not be performed, this massive work will be a topic for discussion as one of Taiwan's most high-profile cultural exports.
The field of publishing will be represented by PCHome and Cite publishing magnate Jan Hung-tze (詹宏志), who sees Taiwan as similarly placed in the Chinese-language publishing world as the UK is in English-language publishing. The visit to Denmark will focus heavily on design and branding, and architect Ray Chen, who designed many of the Eslite stores and Taipei's Idee shopping complex will also join the delegation to learn about the Danish design success story.
Although the visit was originally planned purely as a official visit, Tchen said she wanted to include representatives of Taiwan's arts world as a way of allowing for exchanges on a corporate level -- similar to that between Fnac and the Shinkong Group signed Tuesday -- with the government merely acting as a facilitator.
"We are now competing at an international level," Tchen said. "This is a moment of crisis for us [the cultural establishment], for we can so easily be marginalized from the international community. We must seek international investment in Taiwan's arts as the only way to survive. Part of the purpose of this high-level turnout for this trip is to establish international credibility and show the world that Taiwan has much to given, even as it has much to learn."
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