The Taiwanese TV series The New World (新世界) will soon be broadcast in several countries, including some of the nation’s diplomatic allies, in an effort to expand Taiwan’s soft power, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
Henry Chen (陳銘政), head of the ministry’s Department of International Information Services, said the series is being dubbed in Spanish and English in preparation for broadcast in parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the US.
Airing the TV drama in other countries should help promote Taiwan’s culture and soft power, in line with the ongoing efforts of MOFA and the Ministry of Culture, Chen told a news conference.
Photo: CNA
Starring Mini Tsai (蔡黃汝) and Chang Ting-hu (張庭瑚), The New World is about the reunion of four childhood friends who grew up in the same village, but drifted apart over time. It has elements of suspense, crime and romance.
Such stories can find a place outside Taiwan, said Jasmine Huggins, the ambassador to Taiwan of Saint Kitts and Nevis, one of the English-speaking countries in which the series will be aired.
A quality series with a powerful narrative, The New World can help foreign viewers understand the culture of Taiwan and experience its beauty, Huggins said at the news conference.
The 2015 series is to be broadcast on 21 TV networks in 16 nations, including the Philippines and Indonesia, which are listed in the government’s New Southbound Policy, MOFA said.
Outside Asia, the TV drama is to be aired in Los Angeles, Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, four of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Caribbean.
It will also be broadcast in the nation’s allied Latin American countries of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, as well as in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador.
Since 2014, MOFA and the Ministry of Culture have launched three similar initiatives.
In 2014, they organized the broadcast of the 2010 Taiwanese TV drama The Fierce Wife (犀利人妻) on 10 TV networks in eight Latin American countries.
The following year, the 2014 Taiwanese romance drama The Way We Were (16個夏天) also aired in Latin America, and last year A Good Wife (親愛的，我愛上別人了) was broadcast in most of the same countries.
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