Nearly 4,000 spectators from different corners of the world braved torrential rain on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Taiwan Pavilion, which aims to showcase the country’s soft power, at the Paris Cultural Olympiad.
Queues began to form at the venue an hour before the 6pm opening, with many fans eager to get their hands on one of the 500 unique gift bags dubbed “Taiwan’s Louis Vuitton,” said the Ministry of Culture, the organizer of the event.
The bags, which contained Taiwanese beer, puffs and bubble tea-flavored ice cream among other souvenirs, were gone in one hour, the ministry said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture
Attendees were treated to performances by the creative chamber orchestra 3 People Music, the Eye Catching Circus, DJ QuestionMark and singer Abao.
“Starting today, Taiwan would reintroduce itself to the world through its cultural and artistic achievements,” Deputy Minister of Culture Sue Wang (王時思) said in her opening remarks.
Representative to France Francois Wu (吳志中) said he hoped the event would demonstrate to the world that Taiwan is not only a nation of freedom, democracy and semiconductor technology, “but also a country rich in culture.”
Taiwan is the best place in the world to study Mandarin, and learn about semiconductors and AI technologies, French Representative to Taiwan Franck Paris said.
In addition, Taiwan shares the values of freedom, equality and fraternity with all democratic countries around the globe, Paris said, concluding his speech with a cheer: “Go Taiwan!”
Visit to the Taiwan Pavilion at Parc de la Villette in Paris is free and would be open to the public until Saturday next week, from 5pm to 10pm.
The pavilion would showcase four themed experiences to shine a light on the nation’s freedom and multiculturism: “Voice of Freedom,” “Island Elegance,” “Cultural Exchanges Between” and “Taiwan and France,” the ministry said.
Visitors would also have the chance to see Nymphia Wind, the first Taiwanese to be crowned the “Next Drag Superstar” on internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race.
The pavilion would also project images and videos from a catalogue featuring about 300 Taiwanese artists who have works archived in the Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank, it said.
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