Tue, Nov 29, 2016 page3

• Adviser urges new name for cultural association

  • By Chung Li-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Poet and senior presidential adviser Wu Sheng (吳晟) said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should, after becoming the head of the General Association of Chinese Culture, change its name to the “General Association of National Culture” or the “General Association of Taiwanese Culture” to reflect the nation’s multicultural past.

  The association should shift its cultural engagement efforts to an international rather than cross-strait audience, Wu said.

  Earlier this month, the executive committee of the semi-public association blocked Tsai’s election as the organization’s president, breaking the precedent that its head should be either the the nation’s president, or someone approved by the Presidential Office.

  However, the association’s general membership is to re-elect the executive committee next month and it is widely believed that Tsai will become the association’s president as a result.

  Sources said that Tsai will use the association as a channel to communicate with Beijing and she is to staff the association with trusted allies, including former National Security Council member Lin Chin-chang (林錦昌) as its secretary-general and council advisory member Fu Don-cheng (傅棟成), who is to assume a prominent position.

  Wu said former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) most glaring policy mistake was to “equate China with the international world,” leading to a policy of excessive linkage with China in culture and trade that resulted in Taiwan’s subordination to Beijing and the nation’s political dilemma.

  Wu said Tsai should avoid the mistakes of her predecessor and refrain from “pigeonholing” the association as a conduit for cross-strait affairs.

  “As a sovereign nation and a member of the international community, Taiwanese cultural engagement should be genuinely international,” Wu said.

  Taiwan’s culture has been marked by diversity throughout its history, with influence from Aborigines, Japanese, Europeans, as well as from the US, in addition to China, he said, adding that it is not proper to call it a Chinese culture.

  “When Tsai assumes the association’s presidency, she should begin by giving it an appropriate name. If it is not going to be named the General Association of Taiwanese Culture, we can at least settle for the General Association of National Culture,” Wu said.

  In 2006, then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) changed its name to the General Association of National Culture, but the association’s next president, Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), who was appointed by Ma in 2010, reinserted the reference to Chinese culture.

  Liu led the association to a period of collaboration with Beijing and Chinese academics, during which the association compiled the Chinese Linguipedia, a dictionary on Chinese language and idioms on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

  Lukang Cultural Foundation chairman Chi Wen-chang (紀文章), who recently applied for association membership, said he and many other advocates of Taiwanese culture are in favor of “the appropriate naming” of the association, with “Taiwanese” and “national” culture being viable alternatives to “Chinese culture.”

  “It is the hope of cultural activists in general that Taiwanese culture will help bridge the distance between our nation and the international community,” Chi said.

  “Tsai is not at all likely to conduct exchanges with China under pretenses, as former president Ma did during his administration,” said Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明), a professor of Taiwanese literature at National Chengchi University.

  The use of the name General Association of Chinese Culture during Liu’s tenure was an issue decided by Ma, and Tsai has plenty of time to consider a name change, Chen said.

  Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said electing a new association president is a priority, while changing the name of the association can wait until more pressing matters are resolved.

  The association’s management will assigned committee members and general members specific tasks, and will respectfully consult their opinions, Huang said.
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