The historical factors related to Taiwan's particular cultural development have resulted in a society largely based on tolerance. The country has many unique cultural aspects. Not only are there Aboriginal cultures, but also a cultural influence from the early Minnan and Hakka immigrants. The country is also influenced by the Dutch, Spanish and the Japanese -- and the culture of those who followed the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to Taiwan after they lost the Chinese civil war.
Modern economics tends to overlook the sources of creativity found in a diversity of cultures. This creativity has developed against a rich cultural background. Figuring out how to make the Taiwanese people understand the rich cultural backgrounds that surround them, and turning it into an industry to improve our quality of life, is a goal worth striving for.
Economic development strategies put too much emphasis on productivity growth and ignore quality of life. The way in which local cultural traits have been ignored highlights the lack of effective, creative planning.
As average personal incomes increase, Taiwanese people pay more and more attention to quality of life, travel and leisure time. One way to encourage people to travel domestically and promote local economic development is to highlight the many cultural backgrounds within Taiwan. Proper marketing strategies would be a boon for the local tourism industry.
Taiwan is a society of unlimited vitality and rich with folk customs and traditions. The King Boat ceremony in Tungkang Township, Pingtung County; the Lantern Festival fireworks display in Yenshui, Tainan County; the Matsu pilgrimage that begins in Tachia, Taichung County; and the water lantern activities during the Pudu festival in Keelung are just a few examples. In addition, activities highlighting the Hakka Tung Blossom Festival, and the Aboriginal Harvest, Ancestral and Hunting Ceremonies are all well known by both locals and foreigners alike.
In order to improve the tourism industry and elevate the quality of life, the government should encourage county and city officials to give free rein to diverse sources of creativity and hold a multitude of different local traditional festivals, ceremonies and theme exhibitions in order to have each city and county develop at least one special attraction.
This would draw even more domestic and foreign tourists and create opportunities for local economic development. I think that by taking advantage of our cultural foundations, we could get tourism going and invigorate the economy.
Chen Lung-chu is the chairman of the Taiwan New Century Foundation, a senior researcher at Yale University and a professor of law at the New York Law School.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
RSS