Written by Chun-Ying Wei. The latest addition to Taiwan’s cultural intermediaries, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency （TCCA, 文化內容策進院）, marks another milestone in Taiwan’s cultural diplomacy. The incumbent Minister of Culture, Cheng Li-chun 鄭麗君, has proposed the idea of creating a ‘national team’ to promote Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries.
Written by Chieh Hsiang Wu. After years of discussions, Taiwan’s congress has finally this year passed the Basic Law of Culture, which aims to strengthen the equal cultural rights of every individual and motivate citizens to participate in cultural affairs and policy making.
Written by Alexandre Tsung-ming Chen. During the last five years relations between the Vatican and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have developed at a dramatic pace. Many observers have been surprised at this series of events, even questioning whether the Holy See and PRC will normalise relations in the near future. Since the number of countries officially recognising the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan has fallen from 22 to 17 in the last two years, the Vatican-PRC diplomatic warming has caught Taipei’s attention and contributed to concerns of a diplomatic crisis.
Written by Tanguy Lepesant. Studies show that Taiwanese youths believe their quality of life as adults will be worse than their parents’ and that they are victims of “generational injustice”. They believe they have been deprived of their “right to a good quality of life” by their elders whom benefited from Taiwan’s economic miracle and accumulated wealth at the expense of environmental protection.
Written by J. Michael Cole. With Taiwan’s election campaign shifting into high gear, an escalating campaign of intimidation by one camp and a media consortium that backs its candidate threatens to seriously undermine the ability of journalists and political commentators, both local and foreign, to do their work. By doing so, that camp is hoping to impose its discourse on the process and to limit, if not silence outright, any criticism of its candidate and the proxies that are aligned with it.
Written by Chen-Yu Lin. 30 years since inception the Awards are still presented by the Ministry of Culture, but have also become a stage where musicians are free to make political statements.
