Taiwan should increase efforts to foster creativity and boost the nation’s soft power in the face of China’s rapid development in the arts sphere, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said yesterday, urging the government to recognize China’s strength in this regard amid a recent frenzy over a Chinese TV show.
The show, I Am A Singer (我是歌手), is a Hunan TV contest featuring professional singers including well-known Taiwanese artists, such as Terry Lin (林志炫) and Aska Yang (楊宗緯).
It has become one of the most talked-about TV shows in China and created a media frenzy in Taiwan as Lin, Yang and several other Taiwanese singers boosted their popularity after appearing on the show.
Several TV stations in Taiwan replaced news and political talk shows on Friday night with a live broadcast of the show’s first season finale, prompting debate over whether the show was getting too much airtime in Taiwan.
In response to media questions about I Am A Singer’s popularity, Lung said that while it demonstrated China’s huge investment in pop culture shows and show business talent, it also reflected the strength of Taiwanese singers in terms of performance and songwriting skills.
“Many Chinese singers picked songs written by Taiwanese songwriters, so the show tells us that Taiwan is ahead of China and the Chinese community in culture and creativity,” she said on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Taipei Story House.
“What we should be concerned about is whether we will still be the best in 30 years,” Lung said.
She said the ministry will reinforce its efforts to create a better environment for local artists, and help local singers and musicians to shine on the international stage.
She also said the signing of a cross-strait agreement on intellectual property rights cooperation and protection during the fifth round of negotiations on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is crucial because the fruit of local artists’ creativity should be protected, and the ministry will work with artists to increase the economic value of their intellectual property.
“We cannot compete with China in terms of capital investment. We should think about how to maintain our competitiveness via other policies,” she said.
The National Communications Commission, for example, relaxed regulations on placement marketing last year to allow product placement and the sponsorship of TV programs, except for news and children’s shows.
The commission expected the measure to stimulate investment in local productions and market Taiwan’s TV content both domestically and overseas. Lung said the government should assess the limitation and relaxation of product placement policies so that local TV programs can improve their content.
As for local TV stations’ saturation coverage of I Am A Singer, Lung said the issue should be addressed by the commission, the authority responsible for managing television stations.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS