The Ministry of Culture’s budget should be redrafted to allocate subsidies toward developing local talent, while increasing support for disadvantaged groups, Citizen Media Watch members said yesterday during a protest outside the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters in Taipei.
Protesters from six groups called for DPP president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to appoint a Minister of Culture with a subjective consciousness of Taiwanese culture, who is committed to supporting public television, advancing media access for disadvantaged groups, improving the working conditions of and offering education to workers in creative industries, and increasing the number of nonprofit performance venues and exhibit halls, particularly at historic sites.
“The amount of funding is important and how funding is allocated is even more important,” Citizen Media Watch convener Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said, adding that Tsai, in her cultural policy white paper, has failed to address how the nation should face the onslaught of globalization.
“Cultural workers are not fairy spirits who survive by eating wind and drinking dew,” Taipei Documentary Filmakers’ Unions secretary-general Huang Hui-chen (黃惠偵) said, calling for the ministry’s funding to be more than doubled from the current less than 1 percent of the national budget.
Campaign for Media Reform secretary-general Chang Chun-yen (張春炎) said the budget for the Taiwan Public Television Service should be increased to NT$3.5 billion (US$107 million) from NT$ 900 million so that it can provide a full platform for people from different disadvantaged and ethnic groups.
“Taiwan has always been a diverse immigrant society and only if we develop different cultures by enabling them to have a platform will Taiwan be able to develop a beautiful, colorful culture relative to other nations,” he said, adding that the ministry’s NT$6 billion subsidy for film productions should be consolidated under an independent foundation to ensure it is not used for “fireworks” and “gilding lilies.”
Activists emphasized the need to establish clear parameters for awarding ministry subsidies to avoid them being channeled to corporate foundations and foreign artists, adding that bureaucracy favors proposals that can be easily processed at the expense of artistic value.
“Many artistic foundations established by large corporations have been able to secure huge subsidies, crowding out original and experimental content from disadvantaged groups who truly need subsidies,” Association of Visual Arts in Taiwan representative Hu Yung-fen (胡永芬) said, adding that wealthy foundations hold an advantage in securing government grants because of their ability to hire substantial staff to draft proposals.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
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