President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said she is looking forward to more democratic and diverse dialogue at the National Cultural Congress, promising that the advice received from the public at the congress would be incorporated into her administration’s cultural policy white paper.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Tsai called on academics and the public to engage in discussions and present ideas that can elevate cultural policies.
“We live in changing times and cultural policy needs new ideas and experimentation,” she said. “We have to upgrade our cultural policy as the nation transitions.”
Photo: CNA
A wave of digitalization and the increased footprint of foreign immigrants and workers have enriched Taiwan’s culture since similar congresses in 1990, 1997 and 2002, she said.
“We are all cultural citizens, each with the right to find the core values of Taiwan’s culture,” Tsai said.
“Taiwan is not large, but our cultural soft power does not lag behind that of the world’s major countries,” she said, adding that culture is the nation’s soul and bestows power when it has vitality.
Tsai, who attended the previous National Cultural Congress as then-head of the Mainland Affairs Council, said that the nation’s soft cultural power — including the opening ceremony of the Taipei Summer Universiade last month and HBO Asia’s TV series The Teenage Psychic (通靈少女) — “do not pale in comparison to that of other countries.”
“These examples show that we are becoming more international and if we can establish a more complete system, the younger generation will be able to find its roots here and in the process dig up an endless amount of subject material,” she said.
This congress is an important milestone and the advice of different sectors of society would be incorporated into a national white paper on cultural policy after a clear consensus is reached, Tsai said.
“We are inviting everyone to cultivate Taiwan’s culture together and this task is not going to end just because we have held a meeting today,” she said.
The congress is the culmination of cultural meetings across the nation from March to June that have helped the public to express their thoughts on the administration’s cultural policies.
Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said her discussions with groups and workers left her with a strong sense that many feel “the government’s support system is never adequate.”
The government’s cultural policy needs to integrate with everyday life, Cheng said.
Preparations for the congress had been under way for more than a year and it followed a “marathon” half-year of regional meetings, she said.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
RSS