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The Ministry of Culture of Taiwan (Republic of China) was established on May 20, 2012.

As a member of the Executive Yuan, the Ministry oversees and cultivates Taiwan's soft power in the areas of arts and humanities, community development, crafts industry, cultural exchanges, international cultural participation, heritage, literature and publishing, living aesthetics, TV, cinema, and pop music.

The logo of the Ministry is an indigo-dyed morning glory. The indigenous flower symbolizes a trumpet heralding the coming of a new renaissance, in which cultural resources and aesthetics permeate all corners of the nation. The morning glory also represents the grassroots tenacity of Taiwan's diverse culture, a yearning for the positivity, simplicity, and warmth of earlier days, and a return to collective roots and values.

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  • Address: No. 439 Zhongping Road, 13 Floor (South Building), Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
  • Phone: (+886) 02-8512-6000
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Ministerial Departments

  • General Planning
  • Cultural Resources
  • Cultural and Creative Development
  • Audiovisual and Music Industry
  • Humanities and Publications
  • Arts Development
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Mongolian & Tibetan Cultural Affairs
  • Information Management
  • Personnel Affairs
  • Accounting
  • Secretariat
  • Civil Service Ethics
  • Legal Affairs

Subordinate Agencies

  • Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development
  • Bureau of Cultural Heritage

Affiliated Institutions

  • National Center for Traditional Arts
  • National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Management Office
  • National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
  • National Museum of History
  • National Museum of Prehistory
  • National Museum of Taiwan History
  • National Museum of Taiwan Literature
  • National Taiwan Museum
  • National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
  • National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute
  • National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra
  • National Human Rights Museum
  • Living Arts Centers in Changhua, Hsinchu, Tainan, and Taitung
  • Preparatory Office of National Railway Museum
  • Preparatory Office of National Children's Future Museum

Administrative Corporation

  • National Performing Arts Center
  • Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute
  • Taiwan Creative Content Agency

Overseas Offices

  • Tokyo
  • Hong Kong
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Bangkok
  • New Delhi
  • Sydney
  • Washington, D.C.
  • New York
  • Houston
  • Los Angeles
  • Paris
  • London
  • Berlin
  • Madrid
  • Moscow
  • Rome
  • Prague

The functions of the Ministry of Culture, as spelled out in the organization's organic law, include:

  • Researching, planning, and implementing cultural policies.
  • Setting in motion, overseeing, managing, supporting, rewarding, and promoting cultural construction.
  • Planning, supporting, rewarding, and promoting the preservation of cultural assets, establishment of museums, and development of local communities.
  • Planning, supporting, rewarding, and promoting the cultural and creative sector.
  • Planning, supporting, rewarding, and promoting the film, broadcasting, television, and pop music industries.
  • Planning, supporting, rewarding, and promoting literature, publishing, government publications, and other expressions of culture.
  • Planning, supporting, rewarding, and promoting the visual, public, and performing arts as well as aesthetics in daily life.
  • Planning, supporting, rewarding, and promoting international and cross-strait cultural exchanges.
  • Planning, supporting, rewarding, and promoting the cultivation of talented people in the cultural sector.
  • Other culture-related work.

Tasked with cultivating culture as an instrument of national power, the Ministry's main policy objectives are:

1. Ensuring the cultural rights of citizens

Cultural rights, like political, economic and social rights, are basic human rights to be enjoyed by every citizen. Administering and allocating resources to the cultural sector therefore requires paying attention to ensuring that grassroots organizations and disadvantaged groups are catered for. It also requires that resources be divided fairly between urban and rural areas.

All citizens must be empowered to participate in the cultural life of the nation, as inclusion is what creates bonds within communities, society and the nation at large. While cultural rights are the property of every citizen, society and the nation as a whole become the beneficiaries, as social cohesion is founded on having citizens engaged in their country's cultural life.

2. Creating an environment that fosters creativity

Cultural policies can more effectively shape a nation and help it achieve a higher ranking on cultural indexes. Cultural policies must be aimed at creating an environment supportive of artists and creators, such that they will be able to realize their full potential.

3. Building and maintaining cultural values

Cultural policies must make allowance for the preservation of cultural artifacts, heritage, and national memories. They also play a key role in promoting democratic values such as freedom, open-mindedness, and diversity. This must be true for every area of culture; from publishing negotiations, community development, and arts education, to international exchanges and cross-strait talks. All of these must be pursued with the enrichment of Taiwanese values in mind.

4. Bolstering the cultural and creative sector's competitiveness

Even as they train more personnel in the art of operating and managing a business, the cultural and creative sector must keep culture at the heart of all activities. Tapping into the commercial value of culture with the aim of bolstering the country's soft power and international influence brings a number of challenges. These include commercializing cultural and creative goods, developing new markets, cultivating talented individuals, and establishing the necessary mechanisms for global deployment.

To help the nation achieve these objectives, the Ministry will adhere to the following three fundamental objectives when developing cultural policies:

  • Staying true to the roots of culture
  • Building the nation's international image
  • Harnessing the power of technology

Cultural policy and its implementation must serve the people by helping to expand culture into the international realm and build the nation's soft power. Policies should also employ the latest technology to more effectively spread the knowledge of Taiwan's unique culture and customs both domestically and internationally.


Read more about our latest cultural directives here.

The Ministry of Culture was preceded by the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA), an antecedent organization established on Nov. 11, 1981. The CCA was tasked with planning the nation's cultural infrastructure, promoting the development of national and regional culture, and drawing up and implementing related policies.

The CCA was composed of three departments overseeing the nation's cultural policies and policy research, visual arts, performing arts, literature, history, international cultural exchanges, heritage preservation, community empowerment and aesthetics of everyday life, and cultural rights. It also administered 14 affiliated institutions.

With the rise of the greater China region in the 21st century, Taiwan (Republic of China) must contend with global competition, digitization, and industrialization. In addition are the numerous challenges posed by shifting trends in the Asian cultural landscape, and challenges associated with the rise of China.

In response, Taiwan is looking to its unique features and environment to implement long-term developmental policies that will carve out a space for its cultural sphere to thrive amidst strong competition.

On May 20, 2012, the CCA was upgraded to the Ministry of Culture as part of a larger governmental reorganization. This move served to rectify long-standing issues concerning personnel and resource allocation that had plagued the cultural sector.

As a result, agencies, and parts of agencies from across the government responsible for cultural issues have now come together under one organization. More saliently, the Ministry is working to create an environment in which cultural activities thrive, where cultural heritage is preserved, and all people — regardless of background or status — are given opportunities to express themselves culturally and become more culturally refined.

To achieve these goals, the Ministry will continue the work done by its predecessor in preserving cultural assets and promoting literature, community building, cultural infrastructure construction, performing arts, visual arts, the cultural and creative sector, and cultural exchanges.

To this, it has added supervision of the publishing, pop music, film, and broadcasting policy functions of the now-defunct Government Information Office (GIO), as well as the government publications affairs of the dissolved Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC).

The National Museum of History, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, National Museum of Prehistory, and the National Theater and Concert Hall, all of which were previously overseen by the Ministry of Education, have also come under the Ministry's supervision. A total of 19 agencies now fall under the Ministry's supervision, up from the 14 overseen by the CCA.

The Ministry will work to break free from the constrained modes of thinking and focus on departmental missions that in the past hampered cultural growth. Plans will be drawn up with flexibility, inclusiveness, and the necessity of integrating resources in mind.

The quality of aesthetics in daily life, shaping local culture, cultural dissemination, and the economic value of culture are all elements shaping the vitality of culture in Taiwan. These new measures will help society and related industries build on the present and achieve even greater integration and cultural wealth.

The Push for Cultural Fundamental Act


Abstract

Carry out cultural policy planning, cultural regulation studies and amendments, seminars, and feasible implementations in coping with the cultural policies; meanwhile encourage public participation in cultural affairs, and improve cultural administration by increasing the attachment of people in cultural policy-making.

1. Foreword

We aim to demonstrate the diversity and tolerance of Taiwan culture and value, and protect the rights of people to enjoy the freedom, creation and expression of culture and art through their lives; and to carry out civil cultural rights by enriching the cultural literacy and connotation of the overall society.

2. Goal

Push the legislation of Cultural Fundamental Act, and set up the fundamental policies and principles of national culture development.

3. Strategy

This Act was planned and has been implemented by the Ministry of Culture since December 2016; the ministry referred to relevant legislative cases of various countries and collected wide opinions, continuingly communicating with civilians, cultural groups and governments at all levels through all kinds of citizen engagement mechanisms. After the consultation with experts and scholars, 7 regional public hearings, 15 national cultural conference and regional forums, and the discussions at the 2017 National Cultural Congress Conference, the draft of the Cultural Fundamental Act was completed in January 2018, and was read the third time and passed by the Legislative Yuan on May 10, 2019, and was promulgated and implemented later on June 5 by Hua-Zong-(1)-Yi No.10800055641.


The Cultural Convention of Executive Yuan


Abstract

Cultural affairs are all-embracing, with the aim to coordinate and integrate cultural resources, undertake cross-ministerial cultural policies, introduce cultural thinking into the governance, the Ministry of Culture set up this Cultural Convention in demonstrating the achievements of all stages.

1. Foreword

In order to promote cultural development, embody cultural thinking in governance, integrate and interface cultural resources, and promote cross-ministerial cultural policies, the Ministry of Culture suggested the Executive Yuan to establish a cultural report based on the enforcement issued by the Executive Yuan on July 5, 2016.

2. Goal

Coordinate national cultural development policies, integrate the resources, interface cross-ministerial cultural development affairs, and promote non-governmental participation in national cultural policies.

3. Strategy

In addition to formal conferences, the task forces will be set up for specific issues, and can participate in the forums to take opinions from civilians to discuss on policy issues. When a conference is held, representatives of relevant agencies (institutions) and local governments, experts, scholars, non-governmental agencies, organizations, and children and adolescents shall be invited. It is expected to further root the cultural citizenship, and carry out major inter-ministerial cultural policies.

4. Implementation summary

(1) One convener of the conference shall be held concurrently by the President of the Executive Yuan; two deputy conveners shall be appointed by the President of the Executive Yuan on minsters of states; and one executive secretary shall be concurrently held by the Minister of Culture. The Cultural Convention shall hold 19 to 25 members, except for the convener, deputy conveners and executive secretary as ex-officio members; the other members shall be appointed (recruited) by the President of the Executive Yuan on the heads of relevant agencies, experts and scholars or private representatives which account for four to six seats. The term of the members is two years.

(2) The principle is to convene a conference every 6 months, and temporary conferences may be convened when necessary

National Cultural Award


Abstract

National Cultural Award: The highest national cultural honor that awards those who have made distinctive contributions to the maintenance and promotion of Taiwan culture; it is a lifetime cultural achievement award for individuals.

1. Foreword

The National Cultural Award is to be implemented in accordance with Regulations on the Conferment of the National Cultural Award by the Executive Yuan, R.O.C.

2. Goal

Regardless of the nationality, commend one to five honorees per annum.

3. Strategy

Those who have been assessed to be awarded will be publicly commended by the Executive Yuan; each honoree receives prize money of NT$1 million (US$34,485) and a medallion, and shall proceed relevant promotional activities.

4. Implementation summary

(1) Invite the relevant industry, government and academia to nominate for the Executive Yuan National Cultural Award.

(2) Conduct the preliminary review, secondary review and final review of nominees for the Executive Yuan National Cultural Award.

(3) The result of the final review of the Executive Yuan National Cultural Award shall be reported to the Executive Yuan for approval.

(4) Carry out the Executive Yuan National Cultural Award ceremony and relevant promotional activities.

(Official website: http://cultural-award.moc.gov.tw/)

5. Results

(1) National Cultural Award has been held for 39 years since the establishments in 1980, a total of 85 honorees have received the award to date.

(2) List of Winners:

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6. Future development

Through selection, commending, and promotional activities, the award recognizes the honorees’ contribution to Taiwan’s culture meanwhile increases the influence to the society, and presents the cultures of Taiwan for a better sustainable development.


Cultural Rights


Abstract

Enjoying a life rich in cultures is the fundamental right of people, the government must guarantee the cultural accessibility regardless of one’s identity, age, gender, region, ethnicity, or disability. Society of Taiwan is multicultured, encompasses and acknowledges the diversity and dissimilarity of various ethnic groups, embraces and appreciates the differences to eliminate the discrimination and prejudice. In deallocating the cultural resources, we aim for effectivity and equity to ensure the accessibility of each person and to minimize duplication of resources.

1. Foreword

In adapting to the development of diversified societies and ethnic groups, the ministry has been committed to the promotion of cultural rights policies for years, and dedicated to eliminating the cultural gaps through projects in achieving a better equity..

2. Goal

The promotion of cultural rights mainly aims to foster equal access to cultural rights of all ethnic groups and different objects, cultivate an artistic and cultural population, and encourage equal participation in cultural activities as the goal in bridging the cultural gap.

3. Strategy

In order to acclimate to the development of diversified societies and ethnic groups, the ministry has been dedicated to the support, promotion and research of performance arts, and guiding local governments to select and reward performance arts teams to showcase the cultural diversity in Taiwan.

4. Implementation summary

(1) Conduct the projects of granted private agencies and local governments, encourage engagement in cultural rights and multi-culture activities from all walks of life.

(2) Promote a friendly and equal rights plan in the ministry and all institutions and agencies for better vision.

(3) Research on multiple cultures and provide advices on cultural rights policies and development.

5. Implementation task

(1) Establish "Convention on Cultural Rights Promotions"

For better integration of resources, the ministry established "Convention on Cultural Rights Promotions" in 2017. The convention aims at resources integration, policies promotion, supervision and implementation for the ministry and subordinate agencies to promote cultural rights and equity. There are 6 ad hoc groups under the convention, including cultural facilities, art exhibition, publishing and reading promotion, film and television promotion, information service and regulatory review; the convention will carry out the projects through the above divisions in order to accomplish all governance goals.

(2) Carry out plans on "cultural accessibility and characterization"

Deploy the characteristics of the museums and institutions for different objects and groups (such as physical and mental disabilities, genders, juveniles, immigrants and aboriginals, etc.), plan related activities or measures to bridge the gap in cultural engagement for better cultural accessibility.

(3) Grant private agencies, guide local governments to conduct cultural activities on cultural rights.

The Enforcement on Subsidies for Cultural rights is revised to enlarge the subsidized targets (which includes women, physical and mental disabilities, disadvantaged, elder and young people, immigrants, aboriginals, and Hakka, etc.), and introduce multicultural concepts for the implementation. It is expected to encourage more private agencies and local governments to promote cultural rights with the subsidies, and demonstrates the multicultural characteristics for local governments to emulate in delivering the cultural rights.

(4) Continue optimizing "friendly service in cultural venues"

The ministry and subordinate cultural museums continue to optimize current software and hardware facilities for better friendly services in accordance with cultural rights related regulations; we aim to deliver holistic friendly services for different audiences during all cultural activities.

6. Future development

Cultural diversity is the most precious intangible asset of Taiwanese society, the focus of future development will be on the shared prosperity of multiple ethnic groups, cultural engagement and sharability in establishing the indicators of cultural equity and bridging the gaps; ultimately to achieve a balanced cultural diversity.

Annual Policy Plan 2020

Culture is created by people, therefore, with development of cultural citizenship and protection of their freedom of expression in mind, the Ministry formulates cultural policies, introduces cultural governance mechanism and regulatory framework, replenishes budget for cultural activities, carries out reorganization work, develops intermediary organizations, assures access of different groups to cultural resources, expedites cultural exchange between Taiwan and the rest of the world and creates a government support system for cultural governance that facilitates cultural development.

Cultural dimension is incorporated into national development efforts based on the concept of cultural governance and a government support system is created for cultural governance based on the core concept of "cultural democratization." The Ministry fosters cultural development through multiple grass-roots programs, from preservation of cultural assets, development of local knowledge to promotion of cultural experience and education. It enhances the art and cultural development ecosystem with improvements of art and cultural venues and its support for art and cultural creativity. In order to foster development of the ecosystem of cultural content industry, it sets up intermediary organizations, expedites application of technology innovation, and creates professional financing mechanism for cultural activities. Meanwhile, the Ministry liaises closely with foreign cultural entities for creation of a cross-border network for cultural exchange in order to keep abreast of development of foreign art and cultural ecosystems and promote MIT brand for promotion of Taiwan culture in the international community.

This Ministry, based upon the Executive Yuan's 2020 administrative policies, has formulated the 2020 policy plan in line with the medium-term administrative plan and the approved budget allocation in response to the economic and social changes in order to meet the Ministry's future development needs.

I. Annual Policy Objectives and Strategies


A. Create a framework of cultural accountability and enhance cultural accessibility


(1) Advance cultural affairs through a bottom-up approach

1. Assist local governments and civil groups organize cultural forums in order to collect opinions from various parties for research on cultural affairs.

2. Implement the "Cultural Fundamental Act" to improve the regulatory framework of cultural governance, establish national cultural policy agenda, harmonize various cultural policies and budget plans and actively pursue cultural diversity and diversification of cultural development.

3. Conduct research on the Culture and Arts Reward Act and review the labor rights of art workers and related insurance scheme for the proposal of related amendments to the Act.

4. Convene an Inter-ministerial meeting on cultural matters for coordination and integration of cultural resources of different ministries and enhance cultural awareness of government agencies in order to promote inter-ministerial cooperation and incorporation of cultural literacy into the administrative culture of the government.

(2) Organizational revamp plan

1. Systems of cultural governance shall be reinforced through reorganization of the Ministry and its affiliates for improvement of their performance.

2. In order to prevent excessive government influence on cultural creativity with its resources allocation, the Ministry's medium- and long-term programs will promote development of the arts and cultural economy with existing or newly established professional intermediary organizations (including administrative legal persons and public corporations) and roll out participatory governance and public accountability mechanisms.

3. In response to development in the communication industry and to create a favorable environment for sound growth of the nation's public media, the Ministry will, with an eye to the future, develop a public media system characterized by public service, industrial development and international professionalism and expand its service coverage. The existing public media resources, including Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation (PTS), Radio Taiwan International (RTI) and The Central News Agency (CAN), will see effective integration of their media resources to enhance the overall framework of public media services, to foster the development of the media industry and create synergy, thus enabling higher quality audio-visual services of the public media to the public.

(3) Promote cultural experience education program

1. Collaborate with the Ministry of Education to integrate inter-ministerial cultural and educational resources and provide cultural experience content with greater cultural value in school curriculums.

2. Encourage art venues, art groups and art workers with untapped potential to continue their development of cultural experience content.

3. Introduce support institutions with culture and arts education expertise to change various cultural experience content, and to provide more content suitable for teaching in schools to develop students' artistic literacy.

(4) Promote cultural equality

1. Implement the "National Language Development Act" to address the current crisis of sign language and languages of various ethnic groups in Taiwan, protect access of native language users in all ethnic groups to education, communication system and public services with the aim of creating a friendly environment for national languages so as to advance the sustainable preservation and development of multilingual culture.

2. Consider reduction of various restrictions that have been placed on people's participation in various cultural activities and improve cultural accessibility.

3. Include cultural components and the life experiences of the elderly in the long-term care (LTC), community-based care and museum systems.

4. In order to keep different languages in the country alive and facilitate their reinvigoration and development, the Ministry continues to subsidize the project for creation of the PTS Taigi Channel by Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation for production and broadcasting of high quality TV shows in Taiwanese to ensure access of Taiwanese –speaking people to such TV programs and promote cultural equality.

(5) Assist local governments with implementation of the "Arts and Cultural Venues Operation Enhancement Program"

1. Drive local cultural development by improving the operational capabilities of local venues to create a new ambience with improvement of facilities and increase the number of art lovers with promotional events and grassroots campaigns.

2. Roll out specialist art governance mechanisms to assist local governments in their efforts to upgrade equipment of local art venues.

3. Assist art and cultural venue operators with their professional development and strategic directions and increase art consumption.

(6) Rebuild Taiwanese Art History

1. Enhance the capacity of existing institutions, rebuild the collection, research and interpretation systems of Taiwanese art history, including review, examination, and in-depth, systematic research of the fine arts history, music history, crafts history, literature history, image history, architecture history and performing arts and audiovisual art history, develop diverse contemporary perspectives in contemporary art history and examine the context of art history.

2. Take a new approach to the examination of the relationship between local art and cultural knowledge and art development of Taiwan and systematically rebuild Taiwanese art history.

B. Preserve, revitalize and revive tangible and intangible cultural assets and restore historical sites

(1) Revitalization of tangible cultural assets and revival of historical sites

1. Turn tangible cultural assets into demonstration sites, select representative tangible cultural assets and improve the integration of research and survey of cultural assets during the initial stage of preservation for subsequent management and operation; implement historical site revival programs, with the approach of creating new environments with upgrade of facilities. Drive urban and rural development with cultural governance. Incorporate cultural technology into development of local cultural history and carry out cross-discipline integration of development projects of different ministries or overall development projects of local government to rebuild the link between the land and historical memory of people to revive the cultural ecosystem.

2. Create an underwater cultural asset preservation mechanism, carry out scientific survey sand research on underwater cultural assets, cultivate professional talent and conduct educational and information-sharing campaigns in order to increase the public’s understanding of underwater cultural assets and present complete historical context of Taiwan as an island country surrounded by sea.

3. Carry out the upgrade and improvement campaign of capital-based 4 museums, complete the restoration project of historical site the old railway department for its reuse and transformation into a museum, and improve exhibition services of the 4musems.

4. Set up photography culture center with renovation of the monument "Osaka Merchant Shipping Co., Ltd. (Osaka Shosen Kaisha) - Taipei Branch” according to its original appearance in 1937 and link the center and the surrounding cultural assets and urban space, in order to revival the historical site and people's memory via the establishment of a complete photography history.

5. Carry out the “National Museum of History Upgrade and Development Program “to improve and renovate the exhibition and collections space and corresponding cultural assets and facilities for creation of new “hotspot” of Taiwanese culture.

(2) Preservation of intangible cultural assets

1. Preserve and revitalize traditional performing arts, traditional crafts, oral traditions, folklore culture, and traditional knowledge, including government support for local festivals, and carry out the preservation and maintenance projects of intangible cultural assets and cultural entrepreneur’s incubation program for intangible cultural assets.

2. Implement the "Taiwan Traditional Theater Promotion Program" to help traditional opera troupes to find their cultural roots, assist them with cultivation of new practitioners and encourage troupe successors to preserve traditional performing art along with new practitioners. Carry out traditional opera talent cultivation program, launch traditional opera talent troupe-based training and performance program, assist a variety of traditional opera troupes in civil society with selection of long-term, troupe-based students and improve their performance skills by adopting a "training with performance" approach in order to preserve traditional art. Implement the "traditional art successor program," which helps art groups participating in the Important Traditional Arts Preservation and Learning Program of Bureau of Cultural Heritage and the students who have completed the training sharpen and preserve their traditional art skills through the "training with performance" approach and creative activities in the National Center for Traditional Arts, where they are allowed to use the center in I Lan for enhancement and preservation of traditional art performance and skills. .

3. Implement local arts and craftsmanship revival for local placemaking programs to preserve local crafts culture, using technology and inter-disciplinary knowledge to assist local crafts and traditional industries with their efforts to discover sustainable operation practices in their transformation into new craft business, with the aim to create local craft culture hotspots and opportunities and drive development of localized cultural development with such efforts.

4. After creating an underwater cultural asset preservation mechanism, increase liaison of art and historical workers, communities, schools, museums, local cultural venues with the platform of Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank for collection of local cultural and historical materials for research. Encourage the public to write their stories and create digital content like value-added applications with cultural materials.

5. Promote transitional justice by creating a research platform for Taiwan's human rights archives, preserve historical buildings the way they are in order to revive people’s memory, erect human rights memorials in the National Museum of Human Rights and liaise with international human rights bodies to further national democratization.

C. Establish an overall policy for cross-level cultural preservation and consolidation of the museum system

(1) Develop a 'cooperative' mechanism for the multi-level culture preservation

1. Implement the 37 sets of regulations under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, implement a cultural heritage and disaster prevention and protection program, and establish regional service centers to ensure the consistent maintenance of cultural assets.

2. Guide governments at all levels to implement a district-based cultural preservation program in order to introduce localized approaches in cultural preservation campaigns and allow local governments at all levels to exchange views and coordinate better as they handle cases in dispute.

3. Establish a local cultural reporting mechanism, hold annual e-meetings via the platform and propose participatory approaches.

(2) Integration of the museum system

1. Facilitate sustainable development, collection, research, exhibition and education of small-and mid-sized museums and local cultural venues featuring related themes of professional museums with the expertise and resources of professional museums.

2. Develop lesson plans that incorporate museum methodology into curriculum design, turning museums into institutions that record, display, extend and use local knowledge.

(3) Preservation and promotion of Tibetan and Mongolian culture

1. Promote Mongolian and Tibetan culture, education, vocational training, as well as academic pursuits, compile and publish academic papers and books on Mongolian and Tibetan subjects, liaison with Taiwan-based Mongolians and Tibetans for preservation of their culture and organize a variety of cultural exchange activities with Tibetan and Mongolian population.

2. Combine resources from all quarters to organize Mongolian and Tibetan cultural exhibitions and events, develop cultural diversity in Taiwan and strengthen link between local and Mongolian/Tibetan culture to enrich Taiwan's multicultural environment.

D. Acquisition and promotion of local knowledge

(1) Integrate resources of local communities: facilitate cooperation between community-based cultural workers, academic communities and local governments, and turn local schools, libraries, district offices, cultural and historical studios, community organizations, arts and cultural venues, museums, art galleries, cultural landmarks, bookstores and even home-stay facilities into "Cultural Hotspots" for dissemination of local knowledge.

(2) Create a local knowledge learning network: increase investment in cultural assets and exploit new technologies to expedite research, collection and promotion of local knowledge and launch an accessible and effective network for learning of local knowledge about local cultural history and industrial ecosystem.

E. Encourage young people to return to (or remain) in their home town for development of community-based organizations

(1) Facilitate liaison between local organizations and industries and use them as a platform for incubation of local culture promoters and creation of an environment conducive to bringing new blood into various social development projects, thereby enhancing the preservation of local knowledge and community governance to drive social transformation through community development via a 'bottom-up' approach.

(2) Through adoption of strategies like exploitation of private sector resources, cooperation with social enterprises and deployment of professional full-time personnel, enable community-based organizations to develop the capability of promoting local culture and become part of the "social safety net" that covers local industries, social welfare and medical care, community safety, cultural education, environmental and ecological protection, environmental landscaping and community care, etc.

F. Set up intermediary organizations and promote Taiwanese culture and lifestyle in the international community to market Taiwanese values.

(1) Establish the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, an administrative legal body, as an intermediary organization between the government and the private sector. Under the principle of "arm's length" and professional governance, create a common platform for resource integration and cross-discipline cooperation through an extensive professional support system, with the aim to drive development of local content industry ecosystem, facilitate development of application and cultural content industry in order to build national cultural brand, increase overseas business opportunities and accelerate implementation of international strategy to give Taiwan the right of cultural expression.

(2) Transform the Taiwan Film Institute into Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, now an administrative legal body, increase its service scope to cover films, TV shows, broadcasting content and other audio/visual materials and give it legal status, allowing it to better fulfil its functions of collection, restoration and preservation of cultural assets of audiovisual materials in order to create a diversified, all-inclusive interpretation system for culture promotion.

(3) Promote a two-track funding mechanism, strengthen step-by-step talent cultivation and coaching system and increase distribution channels.

(4) Promote Taiwan-specific values by increasing visibility of Taiwan culture and lifestyle in the international market

(5) Increase public sector procurement of cultural brands and improve brand visibility.

G. Boost the cultural economy

(1) Upgrade production and circulation in audiovisual industries

1. Production: first, improve talent cultivation in schools and public broadcasting system. Drive industrial development led by professional administrative legal persons, and introduce public accountability and participation mechanism with transparent process. Encourage the production of creative, high-quality, diverse content in domestic audiovisual content industry with subsidies. Develop innovative approaches for show production, and enhance technology and specification of home-made audiovisual content production. Encourage cross-platform, cross-border interaction and cooperation between audiovisual content enterprises, create new media platforms to improve content and increase international competitiveness.

2. Funding: through TAICCA's operations for its core missions of promoting investments in cultural content industry and diversification of financing resources, the Ministry will launch a sound cultural financing system, increase private-sector investments in the industry’s ecosystem and improve production specification and capacity.

3. Circulation: the Ministry continues to increase show time of MIT films in movie theater chains, their broadcasting channels and audiences. Through marketing strategies both at home and abroad, promoting the MIT film brand to increase its market size and development potential. For the television industry, the Ministry will work with the National Communications Commission (NCC) to enhance the visibility and quality of Taiwan-made programs, and increase their international competitiveness through joint marketing efforts of a national team made up with different players. With operations of "Northern Pop Music Center" and the "Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center", the Ministry assists small and medium-sized performance venues with their utilization and their equipment upgrades. Improve the mechanism of legal downloading with payment in the digital world, increase market access and facilitate development of domestic popular music performances market.

(2) Revitalize the publishing industry and foster growth in the comics and games industries

1. The Ministry turns publishing industry into a driving force of MIT cultural creation through the support for cross-discipline applications in the publishing industry and liaison between the performing arts and anime, comics and games (ACG) industries and the broadcasting industries and sharing of research achievements made by academic institutions.

2. Continue to reinforce the cultural diversity in publishing world created by independent publishing and brick-and-mortar bookstores and expand the overseas Mandarin language market using the advantages gained from the advantages of "The Most Liberal Cultural Publishing in the Mandarin-Speaking World".

3. For development of the ACG industry, the Ministry has set up Taiwan Comics Base to encourage artist exchanges, cross-discipline match-making, and exhibition and sales activities. It also implements the "Program for New Media Cross-Platform Content Production" program, increases the creation, dissemination, interpretation and use of MIT ACG content and adopts international practices.

4. Assist small and medium-sized business in publishing world with their response to development of digital technology with "digitalization" of the industry.

(3) Operate Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab

1. With cultural experimentation at the heart, support the generation of artistic creativity driven by futuristic imagination from artistic and cultural creativity to social innovation with this venue and create a platform for development of cross-disciplinary experiential knowledge. Promote international liaison for international collaboration to accommodate the convergence of various experimental creative energy and drive cultural development with such effort.

2. Incubate new-type cultural institutions featuring upgrade of facilities led by new cultural design, create three platforms for experiments in three dimensions, including "Contemporary Art," "Multi-media," and "Social Innovation" for art, technology and social development. The platforms are accessible to domestic and overseas artists and the public in order to encourage development and presentation of a variety of experimental plans, drive social innovation driven by cultural creativity outside the capital and introduce new genus of art creation.

(4) Pave for "Taiwan Culture Path"

1. With Taiwan's historical culture as the main theme, create a theme-based cultural route from the local culture out to the world; one which showcases Taiwanese culture by combining space, stories, education, science and technologies, etc. Establish a cultural route integration network platform and adopt a decentralized, bottom-up and public participatory approach. Through participation from both the professionals and the general public, construct a detailed profile of Taiwan culture through integration of diverse perspectives for pavement of culture path and application of local knowledge.

2. Integrate local resources and in-depth tourism resources in Taiwan and, with support of government policies that encourage return of youth to their home town and local placemaking, develop local economy that generate economic benefits and drive positive development of cultural tourism.

(5) Implement Cross-discipline Integration Flagship Program in the Fashion World

1. Construct a cross-discipline digital application ecosystem in the fashion world for the coordinated marketing efforts of the MIT brand for MIT fashion branding and export of the unique Taiwan lifestyle through integration of cross-ministerial resources and fashion industry development that feature unique cultural elements of Taiwan and cross-discipline cooperation between the fashion industry and original fine art and visual design, original music, tourism, audiovisual content and technology industries.

2. Set up an executive council made up from members from the Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to serve as a platform for preparation of Fashion Week and Fashion Awards scheme, which are launched to honor outstanding Taiwanese designers and uncover new generations of international talent. Turn Taipei into a fashion hub through the hosting of the Taipei Fashion Week to enhance the international visibility of Taiwanese brands. Subsidize cross-field innovation events in fashion world in order to stimulate new ideas and creative exchanges between fashion industry and other industries. Implement talent cultivation programs for development of talent needed by domestic fashion industry for entry into international market.

(6) Drive the formation of an industry cluster in the cultural content creation ecosystem with implantation of Phase II of Huashan 1914 Creative Park project:

1. Drive the formation of industrial clusters that can provide cultural experience services to the public and a variety of art shows in the cultural content ecosystem for public service, information sharing and cross-discipline cooperation and incubate content IP businesses that can produce the most forward-looking and representative audiovisual and AGG content with the aim to turn the Park into a pivot for the branding efforts of national cultural content and a IP demonstration site featuring strength of Taiwanese culture.

2. Adopt the strategy of facilities upgrade driven by new concepts in a variety of campaigns from industry developments research, MIT culture brand management, talent cultivation, cultural technology applications, cross-discipline cooperation, match-making of cultural enterprises in need of financing and their investors and increase of cultural entities’ market access in Taiwan and overseas. Revive cultural content production industry, drive innovation and upgrades in the culture industry, speed up the creation of a comprehensive cultural industry ecosystem, and create the most forward-looking and advanced cultural industrial cluster in the capital through operation of TAICCA, a professional intermediary organization.

(7) Organization of Creative Expo Taiwan

1. Creative Expo Taiwan is the largest domestic platform for innovative cultural products and image authorization transactions. In recent years, the Ministry has adopted a two-track approach for the operation Creative Expo Taiwan, making it not only an exhibition venue for product transactions, but also a space for cultural creativity and display, in order to facilitate development of cultural economy. The Expo also aims to drive development of cultural economy and create new momentum for cultural development by cultivation of cultural literacy and enrichment of its cultural exhibitions.

2. The Ministry increases visibility of high-quality products displayed in the Expo by attracting the attention of the public through incorporation of the components of everyday life into development of cultural industry and presentation of the results in the theme exhibitions. It also assists local brands to break into international market by using Creative Expo Taiwan as a platform to display innovative cultural products to increase soft power of Taiwan and competitive edge of domestic cultural industry.

(8) Promotion of "the Public Media Act"

1. In light of developments of communication industry, the Ministry plans to change the Public Television Act to the Public Media Act to provide the blueprint for future developments of public media for sound growth of domestic public media and creation of a public media system with public service, industrial development and international professionalism.

2. In terms of public service, the Ministry plans to increase the scope of public media services, produce more high-quality content that reflects diversity in social development, increase cultural diversity and promote cultural equality. In terms of industrial development, the Ministry plans to assist domestic content industry with its development and improve the overall production environment by sharing resources, technology and experience of public media. In terms of international professionalism, the Ministry plans to launch an international channel for release of news with a local perspective and form the conduit of exchange between Taiwan and the international community through active international communication and cooperation campaigns, while promoting MIT brand and export national cultural value to establish our authority for Taiwan-related matters in an attempt to turn the public media into the most reliable new Asian media brand around the world.

H. Implement cultural technology policy

(1) Follow the cultural technology policy agenda and design and execute various action plans in implementation of the policy of combining culture and technology to enhance cultural technological capacity.

(2) Produce cultural creativity: improve utilization and development of cultural technology in various cultural venues, cultural preservation and art and audiovisual content, pop music and ACG industries.

(3) Value-added applications: propose cross-field integration of cultural content technology applications to create additional value.

(4) Authorized acquisition: compile an inventory of digital assets to facilitate creation of a friendly environment for authorized operators and creators to leverage.

(5) Accessibility experience: apply advanced technology in the restoration of various cultural venues like cultural assets and museums and their story-telling services and create an art and cultural participation network and provide interactive musical experience.

(6) Drive creation of a new model of cultural economy: assist content providers to propose effective systematic IP development approaches, introduce technological applications, create cross-field network and introduce. Innovative commercial operation model to facilitate growth and development of cultural content industry

I. Multi-faceted development of cultural diplomacy


(1) "Localization" of international cooperation

1. Continue to strengthen ties and cooperation with Taiwan-based international cultural institutions, encourage international organizations NGOs to set up operations in Taiwan and encourage local youth participation.

2. Cooperate with local governments and the various national representative offices in Taiwan for development of international awareness and connection with international platform resources.

(2) International promotion of local culture

1. Promote primary domestic cultural brands and introduce Taiwan's contemporary art and important neo-classic works to the international community. Introduce MIT television shows and films to international audiences via coordinated marketing efforts of the “national task group”. Promote cross-strait cultural exchanges and industrial export and leverage Taiwan's democratic and multiculturalist features to cement Taiwan's solid brand advantage in the Mandarin-speaking world.

2. Cooperate with the Ministry of Economic Affairs for research on economic and trade regulations and/or research of agreements involving culture, and the overseas marketing of the cultural creativity industries.

3. Expand exchanges and cooperation with the countries of the New Southbound policy; gradually increase mutual trust and consensus through cultural exchange efforts like talent exchanges, immigrant empowerment programs and resource sharing and, in this way, build closer ties between people in Taiwan and the New Southbound Policy nations.

4. Promote upgrade of Taiwan's cultural festivals, foster national identity in local cultural and art events in the international community, promote cultural tourism and drive the prosperity of local industry.

II. Important Annual Programs

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2019 Annual Performance Report

I. Preface

Culture is created by people and cultural right is a basic human right. The Ministry has formulated its policy based on the core values of humanity to protect people's freedom of cultural creation and cultural participation as it establishes a public support system for cultural governance for implementation of its cultural projects. Cultural development is a long-term effort.

In the spirit of "international branding with localized practices," and through participation of the public and the bottom-up approach, the Ministry endeavored to achieve the 9 policy goals of 2019 in order to establish the national identity of Taiwanese culture, including creation of a public accountability system, improvement of cultural accessibility, preservation, revival, and reinvigoration of tangible and intangible cultural heritages, formulation of holistic, cross-layer cultural preservation policies, integration of the museum system, acquisition and promotion of local knowledge, encouraging young people to return to (or remain at) their home area, empowerment of community-based organizations, establishment of intermediary organizations, promotion of the national identity of Taiwan culture and lifestyle in international society, promotion of Taiwan values, development of cultural economy, implementation of cultural technology policies and enhancement of cultural diplomacy with a multi-faceted approach.

II. Budget and manpower of the Ministry

1. Budget and Expense Amounts in last 4 Years

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2. Information about Budget and Expense Amounts

(1) In 2019, the budget of 19, 813, 800, 000 was allocated to the Ministry and the expense was 19,117,220,000 (including payable of 446,270,000, encumbrance of 3,097,100, 000), and rate was 96.48%. In 2019, budget implementation rate of the Ministry was 96.92%, down 0.44% from 2018.

(2) According to the Second Phase of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Plan, the Ministry was allocated NTD 7,043,360,000 Special Budget, the total expense was 6,129,340,000 and implementation rate about 87.02%.

(3) In 2019, total budget of National Cultural Institution Operation Fund was 740,110,000, expense amount was 772,120,000 and the implementation rate 104.32%. In 2019, the amount of total expense increased due to the costs incurred from renovation work of the Revitalization of Historical Site - Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Service Upgrade Project, which was approved in previous years and the payment of compensation and litigation costs according to court rulings (contingent liabilities). In 2019, the budget implementation efficiency decreased 0.74% compared to 105.06% of 2018.

3. Staffing Statistics

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III. Annual Policy Objectives and Strategies and Achievements of Important Programs

1. Creation of a framework for cultural accountability and enhancement of cultural accessibility

(1) Advancement of cultural affairs through a bottom-up approach

a.) The Ministry collected different opinions of the public through citizen review arrangements, such as regular cultural forums in order to achieve consensus over cultural affairs and foster the value of folk culture:

     i.) In order to increase participation of the public in development of cultural policies, cultivate cultural citizenship and  handle cultural affairs with a bottom-up approach, the Ministry introduced the "Directives on subsidizing civil groups for organization of cultural forums" in order to encourage local governments and civil groups to hold cultural forums on regular basis in the spirit of "democratic review" to reach a consensus in society about overall cultural policies for the future. According to the third paragraph of Article 22 of the Cultural Fundamental Act, which was promulgated on June 5th, 2019, "local governments shall set up regular methods by which people can participate in the creation of cultural policy. They shall convene local cultural development meetings once every four years, and shall draft local cultural development plans." In order to encourage and increase participation of the public in development of local cultural development plans and introduce the mechanism for the public to participate in policy formulation, the Ministry amended the "Directives on subsiding organization of cultural forums" on July 2nd, 2019 to the relax the requirement on the deadline for local government to apply for subsidies.

     ii.) In 2019, the Ministry approved a total of NTD 13.92 million subsidies to 14 cultural forums organized by local governments or civil groups (including 4 cultural forums organized by local governments (New Taipei City, Changhua County, Taichung City, and Taitung County) after three rounds of selection. These forums are held for discussions of multiple issues, including audiovisual industry development, performing arts development, development of cultural path and cultural tourism, operation of mortar-and-brick bookstores, cultural heritage preservation and revitalization, animation and comics industry development, youth participation, etc.

b.) The Ministry enforced the Cultural Fundamental Act as a benchmark for national cultural policy planning to follow to safeguard the cultural policy agenda and promote cultural citizenship. The Cultural Fundamental Act, which was promulgated on June 5, 2019, establishes fundamental principles for national culture development and directions of government work, harmonizes a variety of cultural policies, promotes culture diversity, maintains cultural diversity and facilitates sustainable development of culture.

In 2019, the Ministry introduced the Regulations for Cultural and Arts Procurements and the Regulations Governing Arts and Cultural Procurements by Juridical Persons or Groups in Receipt of Government Grants in the spirit of Cultural Fundamental Act. It also conducted studies related to “Public media act’ and amendments of the Culture and Arts Reward Act, set up the cultural development fund, conducted cultural influence analysis and related case studies.

c.) The Ministry convened the Cultural Council of the Executive Yuan to better coordinate and integrate cultural resources of the different ministries, enhance cultural awareness of the administrative departments, promote inter-ministerial cooperation and incorporate cultural elements into overall administration of central government:

     i.) On March 14, 2019, the Executive Yuan approved the recruitment of members of the second Culture Council. The Ministry is now working on preparation of the 4th meeting of the Culture Council of the Executive Yuan. We plan to give presentations on cultural technology policy agenda, implementation of important national language development projects, and trial operation of public lending rights, a project launched by the Ministry and Ministry of Education through collaboration, etc.

     ii.) The Ministry presented the plans for several cross-ministerial projects to the Executive Council of Executive Yuan and asked different ministries to prepare their proposals for cross-ministerial cooperation programs, which have been implemented through cooperation and cost sharing.

In 2019, the Ministry implemented 6 cross-ministerial cultural programs along with Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Education, National Palace Museum, Council of Indigenous Peoples and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and shared costs of NTD 15.5 million for implementation of the following projects: the cross-ministerial project implemented along with Ministry of the Interior held emergency response workshops and firefighting drills at historical sites and buildings and carried out related fire protection practices campaigns.

The cross-ministerial project implemented along with Ministry of Education launched the campaigns for production of Taiwanese subtitles and dubbing of several cartoon and animation works, including Chibi Maruko-chan and Pénélope, in order to promote use of native language in everyday life. The cross-ministerial project implemented with Ministry of Education and the National Palace Museum implemented aesthetics experience projects in elementary and junior high schools, developed esthetics experience courses through cooperation with cultural and art venues, enhanced students cultural, art and aesthetics literacy and increased cultural accessibility.

The cross-ministerial project implemented along with Ministry of Council of Indigenous Peoples included talent cultivation for indigenous peoples and promotion of tribal and cultural development through training, on-site inspection and assistance campaigns. The cross-ministerial project implemented along with thr Ministry of Foreign Affairs held an exhibition organized by Taiwan Art Bank at the Embassy of the Republic of China to the Holy See for art exchange of the two countries and visibility of local artists.

(2) Organizational revamp plan

a.) The Ministry reinforced the cultural governance system through reorganization of the Ministry and its affiliates for improvement of their performance:

Considering that the Ministry's scope of operations has expanded significantly due to enactment of The Museum Act, Cultural Fundamental Act, Cultural Heritage Preservation Act and Development of National Languages Act, the Ministry decided to introduce several changes to its organizational structure after discussion in multiple meetings, in order to develop a cultural support system and adjust the roles of government, intermediary organizations and civil groups and organizational structure.

These changes include upgrade of the Bureau of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry to "Administration," creation of a single window system for operations related to cultural enterprises, integration of the policy planning and operations related to cultural enterprises operations and upgrade of the National Museum of Taiwan History and National Museum of Taiwan Literature from 4th-level government agency to 3rd-level government agency. The Ministry prepared draft amendments of related regulations for the aforementioned organizational adjustments and reported them to the Executive Yuan for review on Jan 2, and July 15 of 2019.

b.) In order to prevent excessive government influence on cultural creativity with its resources allocation, the Ministry’s medium- and long-term programs promoted development of the arts and cultural economy with existing or newly established professional intermediary organizations (including administrative legal persons and public corporations) and rolled out participatory governance and public accountability mechanisms:

     i.) The Ministry set up the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) (according to the Organizational Act of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency and the amendments of articles 5, 7 and 30 of the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Act, which were passed by the Legislative Yuan on December 25, 2018). The Organizational Act of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency was promulgated by the president on Jan 9, 2019 and took effect on February 12 of the same year. After promulgation of the Act, the first-term board of directors and supervisory board were set up on May 28, 2019 and TAICCA formally kicked off operation on November 8.

As an intermediary organization for liaison between government and civil society, TAICCA has undertaken eight core missions in four dimensions, including original content development, innovative technology applications, creation of cultural financing mechanism and increase of market access for local cultural industry, with greater flexibility of its operation as an administrative legal person.

The 8 core missions are promotion of cultural content development and technology applications, enhancement of the cultural financing mechanism, cultivation of talent and development of innovative entrepreneurship, support for production activities and facilities management of the cultural industry, improvement of international market access, promotion of MIT cultural brands in international market, assistance with copyright management and research on industrial development. These missions have been carried out to integrate cultural, technology and economic resources and drive cultural industrial evolution for development of the cultural economy.

     ii.) National Theater & Concert Hall, National Taichung Theater, and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) administered by National Performing Arts Center (NPAC), are three national theaters in northern, central and southern Taiwan. The tri-theater system kicked off all-year-round operation in 2019, which marked a new page of domestic theater operations. With government support, the NPAC introduced professional governance practices of an administrative legal person, cultivated professional talent, fostered balanced regional development, promoted cultural equality and drove development of domestic performing arts industry and improved access to the international market in 2019.

     iii.) In order to strengthen the functions and value of the Taiwan Film Institute, the Ministry actively upgraded its legal status and increased its business scope to cover TV shows and broadcasting content through its transformation into Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, now an organization specifically dedicated to the collection of national film and audiovisual materials and promotion of film and audiovisual culture. On December 31, 2019, the President announced that the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute would focus on development of both organizations and venues and facilities in order to become an important venue for restoration and collection of domestic film, TV, broadcasting and other audiovisual heritages, continue to undertake the missions of the Taiwan Film Institute and carry out a variety of international cooperation campaigns as a member of international organizations like FIAF and SEAPAVAA.

     iv.) After the construction projects of the Northern Pop Music Center and Kaohsiung Music Center project carried out by the Ministry are completed, their operations will be taken over by Taipei City Government and Kaohsiung City Government, which have set up Taipei Music Center and Kaohsiung Music Center to develop directions for their operations in future.

c.) In response to the development in the communication industry and to create a favorable environment for sound growth of the nation's public media, the Ministry will, with an eye to the future, develop a public media system characterized by public service, industrial development and international professionalism and expand its service coverage. The existing public media resources, including Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation (PTS), Radio Taiwan International (RTI) and The Central News Agency (CAN), will see effective integration of their media resources to enhance the overall framework of public media services, in order to foster the development of the media industry and create synergy, thus enabling higher quality audio-visual services of the public media to the public:

     i.) The Ministry subsidized the Central News Agency’s operations to provide news service to domestic and international news agencies, increase its international news coverage and facilitate exchange with international news media as it upholds news ethics, covers important domestic and international news, , and actively wield more influence through its website and social media. The Central News Agency ran the second-year campus campaign of selecting overseas correspondent candidates from young students.

It also cultivated news talent by providing lectures, regional training camps and practical workshops to college students and cultivated their international awareness for promotion of citizen's diplomacy with overseas internship. The Ministry also carried out the projects of Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and collection of digital news photos and completed high-resolution digital conversion of 200,000 films and 8,860 readings. It continued to improve the editing process and tried a variety ways of news coverage developed in the digital era through operation of the media lab created in 2018.

     ii.) The Ministry attempted to change Public Television Act to the "Public Media Act" and presented the draft amendments to the Executive Yuan in December, 2018. The Executive Yuan held two meetings on review of the amendments in January and February in 2019 respectively. The Ministry plans to present the proposal to the Legislative Yuan after it passes the review of the Executive Yuan.

(3) Promotio of cultural experience education programs

a.) The Ministry collaborated with the Ministry of Education to integrate inter-ministerial cultural and educational resources and provide cultural experience content with greater cultural value in school curriculums.The Ministry and Ministry of Education set up a cross-ministerial task force for discussion and deliberation over their cooperation, project execution details, resource allocation, etc. The cross-ministerial task force has held 7 cross-ministerial meetings and the Ministry has invited operators of art and cultural venues and teams from time to time for participation in and cooperation for implementation of cultural projects.

b.) The Minister encouraged art venues, art groups and art workers with untapped potential to continue their development of cultural experience content:

The Ministry laid down the directives on subsidizing selection of cultural experience content on March 1, 2018 and has encouraged art and cultural groups in civil society and art and cultural workers to participate in cultural affairs. From 2018 to 2019, the Ministry assisted with the development of 185 proposals. It worked with New Visions New Voices Theatre Company for implementation of the "what are you doing" drama education and performance campaign and helped children to develop knowledge about human rights issues with drama.

The Ministry also worked with the Ministry of Education and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) for implementation of project for aesthetics education on campuses in southern Taiwan and encouraged students of public senior high, junior high and elementary schools in 6 cities and counties in southern Taiwan (including Kaohsiung City, Tainan City, Chiayi County, Chiayi City, Yunlin County, Pingtung County) to visit the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) for experience and learning activities and enjoy professional music performance.

c.) The Ministry introduced support institutions with culture and arts education expertise to assist with development of diversified cultural experience content and more content suitable for school teaching in schools as an effort to develop students' artistic literacy and interest:

The Ministry set up a national research and development center in 2018 to organize empowerment events, arrange learning experience activities and provide suggestions about lesson plan modifications of subsidized teams. As the number of teams participating in the projects of the center increased, the Ministry set up regional research and development centers in northern, central, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan in 2019 in order to increase capacity of the R&D center and design empowerment events for different regions according to the nature of proposals submitted by regional centers and needs of participating teams. In 2019, a total of 431 schools (including 274 in non-urban and non-mountainous areas, 88 in remote areas, and 19 in extremely remote areas) and a total of 33,673 students participated in the cultural experience events, including campus visits of professional teams and student visits to cultural venues.

(4) Promotion of cultural equality

a.) The Ministry implemented the "National Language Development Act" to address the current crisis of sign language and languages of various ethnic groups in Taiwan and protect access of native language users in all ethnic groups to education, communication system and public services with the aim of creating a friendly environment for national languages so as to advance the sustainable preservation and development of multilingual culture:

     i.) The Development of National Languages Act was promulgated by the President on Jan 8th, 2019 and took effect along with its Enforcement Rules on July 9th of the same year. The Act aims to keep different languages in the country alive and facilitate their reinvigoration and development. Since 2018, the Ministry has laid down the directives on subsidizing creation of an environment that is favorable to language diversity and cultural creations and applications in local languages in order to create an environment favorable for development of multiple languages and facilitate creation in different languages and their applications. The Ministry approved 21 campaigns and 49 campaigns respectively for the aforementioned purposes.

     ii.) The Ministry implemented a multi-lingual guide service campaign for introduction by 14 venues under its administration and expanded the scope of the campaign by introducing multi-lingual guide service in their permanent exhibitions. It also assured access of different language users to public services with training of multiple language service volunteers and translators.

     iii.) The Ministry made the preparation for operations of Center for National Languages Research, including its services, organizational structure and human resources. It also conducted cross-ministerial negotiation and met with experts for their advice. The draft act for establishment of the Center was presented to Executive Yuan on September 18, 2019 for its review.

     iv.) The Ministry commissioned a team of experts to carry out initial planning and research on a national language database for review and analysis of various domestic and foreign languages for creation of the database and related copyright authorization and for their suggestions about the planning of national language database. The project was scheduled to be completed in May, 2020.

b.) The Ministry reduced the various restrictions placed on people's participation in the various cultural activities and improved cultural accessibility:

     i.) In order to improve people’s cultural accessibility to various cultural activities of domestic cultural institutions and cultural facilities, the Ministry placed barrier-free space design on the list of priorities for subsidies of the Forward-looking Project. It has also implemented the museum and local art venues upgrade program and the local art and cultural performance venues renovation and support program to improve barrier –free space design and services in domestic performance facilities.

In 2019, the Ministry subsidized renovation of local cultural performance venues all over the country and increased cultural accessibility of people in remote areas. The Ministry also subsidized replacement of chairs in performance halls of cultural centers in 14 counties and cities with funding from the Forward-looking Plan, including those of Nantou County, New Taipei City and Chiayi County, and provided barrier-free facilities according to the law in order to increase cultural accessibility of people.

     ii.) The National Performing Arts Center, an administrative legal person, has been dedicated to improvement of professional services of theaters as well as enhancement of cultural accessibility and cultural equality. Barrier-free facilities in the three venues under its administration all comply with current regulatory requirements. Their shows, guided tours and lectures have allowed people with different disabilities to embrace performing arts with subtitles and images. The Center promoted cultural equality of performing arts by creating a barrier-free environment in the spirit of inclusion.

c.) The Ministry included cultural components and the life experiences of the elderly in the long-term care (LTC), community-based care and museum systems:

     i.) In 2019, the Ministry continued to subsidize 28 organizations for their community-based intergenerational creation experiment campaigns in order to preserve local culture, revitalize local knowledge and pay salaries to young people who stay or return to their homeland for their participation in such local cultural campaigns. For example, the Kaohsiung City Xiaoxiang (Small Villages) Community Development Career Alliance worked with local community organizations on an audio tour featuring oral narration of local history by residents as part of audio tour arrangement in local communities.

It also played audio shows to local senior people in community-based care facilities. Bosco Lab Co., Ltd is another example, it promoted sustainable business practices along with local young people near Turtle Island. With the experience of community development and commercial operation, it implemented the campaign of cross-discipline cooperation between local communities, museums, private businesses and universities in order to drive the development of local economy and community governance.

     ii.) Museums administered by the Ministry provided senior people a platform of exhibitions on the theme of aging to increase attention and awareness of the public about aging society. For example, the National Museum of Taiwan History held multiple exhibitions, including "Dining: tastes of food and our memory" and "Silver dreams: life stories of senior people," which attracted a total of 100,000 visitors.

In addition, the Ministry also implemented the "Collection of senior people's memories of old times" campaign that interviewed 300 senior people over 65 years old for their food memories and launched an interactive game about lunch box memories and a platform for presentation of the project's achievements in order to revive food memories of senior people. Moreover, the National Museum of Natural Science held the exhibition "The trilogy of life: I am old now, sweet heart" in Taichung.

(5) The Ministry assisted local governments with implementation of the Arts and Cultural Venues Operation Enhancement Program

a.) The Ministry drove local cultural development by improving the operational capabilities of local venues to create a new ambience and increasing the number of art lovers with promotional events and grassroots campaigns:

The Ministry implemented art and cultural venues operation upgrade project (performance facility) in 2019 and granted subsidies to 26 venues in 21 counties/cities for implementation of the project. In addition to subsidies for their operations, the Ministry also increased the subsidies for projects for promotion of "youth theaters" and cross-region cooperation implemented by some local governments. A total of 12 young theater actor/actress talent cultivation projects carried out in 12 cities/counties received grants from the Ministry. The Ministry also granted a subsidy to the cross-region cooperation on theater shows between Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Chiayi City and Tainan City for integration and sharing of regional resources in order to increase the number of audience.

b.) The Ministry assisted local governments in their efforts to upgrade equipment of local art venues and introduce professional art governance mechanism:

The Ministry assisted art and cultural venues in different counties and cities with professional theater operation by introducing the service of curators or art directors for active transformation of these venues into professional facilities with art governance. Through the recruitment of the aforementioned art directors/curators, including Nesheng Yu (Tainan City), Yiwei Geng (Taoyuan City), Bosheng Lu (New Taipei City) and Tsunyo Wu (Pingtung County), the Ministry helped local art and cultural venues establish their missions and increase their design capacity of professional shows.

c.) The Ministry reviewed resources of existing cultural venues, selected venues with development potential and assisted them with improvement of their functions and art and cultural performance services:

With allocation of tangible and intangible resources, the Ministry not only assisted important cultural and art venues in different counties/cities with enhancement of their operation capacity, but also increased created synergy through resource sharing, strategic integration and division of labor among small and mid-sized venues, like Zhongli Arts Hall at Taoyuan City, Xinyin Cultural Center in Tainan City, Beigang Performance Hall in in Yunlin County and Kaohsiung Experimental Theater in Kaohsiung City. The Ministry also launched operation of new cultural venues, such as Taikang Cultural Center, which was opene to the public in April, 2019 and Shulin Arts Center, which kicked off trial operation in July 2019, in order to give local groups and people more opportunities of participation in cultural affairs.

(6) Rebuilding Taiwanese Art History

a.) The Ministry enhanced the capacity of existing institutions, rebuilt the collection, research and interpretation systems of Taiwanese art history, including review, examination, and in-depth, systematic research of fine arts history, music history, crafts history, literature history, image history, architecture history and performing arts and audiovisual art history, developed diverse contemporary perspectives in contemporary art history and examined the context of art history:

The Ministry introduced the approach of cultural collection and promotion based on research results to gain a wider, contemporary perspective of research and interpretation about Taiwan art history to avoid unilateral interpretation of the history and look at the interaction between local artist and the world in a new way. The Ministry mobilized resources of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan Music Institute of National Center for Traditional Arts, National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Center, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, National Museum of Taiwan Literature, and National Museum of History, and Taiwan Film Institute for implementation of the projects in the three dimensions of cultural research, collection and promotion:

     i.) Research dimension: collected and analyzed cultural archives and information for re-examination of the context of art history and worked with professional groups in civil society for implementation of projects including research on the national art archives and resource system, preliminary research and survey on aboriginal visual living art and material culture in Taiwan, research on re-creation of Taiwan music history and academic network, research on categorization and regional study of Taiwan craft history, survey of Taiwan literature and regional history and preliminary survey of TV and broadcasting history. The Ministry collected historical materials for analysis.

     ii.) Collection dimension: the Ministry collected over 30 important works of Taiwanese artists after its study on Taiwan's audiovisual art historical materials, which included over 2,000 pieces of fine art works, and carried out restoration and preservation of cultural relics of three writers, including Xiangzhang Li, Ruiming Lin and Jiangzhong Chen. Meanwhile, it also kicked off an artworks and related archives salvage, restoration and safekeeping campaign to preserve important works for enrichment of art history.

      iii.) Promotion dimension: the Ministry held exhibitions, concerts and workshops on Taiwan art history based on the aforementioned research results and collections and published related books and documentaries to present diverse views of Taiwan art history.

b.) The Ministry took a new approach to the examination of the relationship between local art and cultural knowledge and art development of Taiwan for systematic reconstruction of Taiwanese art history.

The Ministry assisted museums of fine arts in 13 counties and cities with their professional development and enhancement of professional collection spaces and facilities and provided support to local museums of fine arts creation around Taiwan with creation of collection systems and development of unique collection strategies.

Meanwhile, it also introduced professional operation approaches for enhancement of their environment, introduced service of professional curators or art directors and allocated funds for employment of professional manpower and implementation of professional governance practices in order to improve operation of cultural venues and facilitate their contribution to the rebuilding of Taiwan art history.

2. Preservation, revitalization and the regeneration of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the revival of historical sites

(1) Revitalization of tangible cultural heritages and revival of historical sites

a.) The Ministry turned tangible cultural heritage into demonstration sites, selected representative tangible cultural heritage and improved the integration of research and survey of cultural heritage during the initial stage of preservation for subsequent management and operation.

It also implemented historical site revival projects with the approach of creating new environments with upgrade of hardware resources facilities, drove urban and rural development with cultural governance, incorporated cultural technology into development of local cultural history and carried out cross-discipline integration of development projects of different ministries or overall development projects of local government to rebuild the link between the land and historical memory of people for revival of the cultural ecosystem:

The Bureau of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry implemented the historical site revival program, providing assistance to county and city governments with the integration of tangible cultural heritages and intangible historical and cultural memory. The project not only preserved physical cultural heritage, but also revived people's memory about local history through cultural governance campaigns.

As of December 2019, the Ministry had subsided 37 projects for revival of historical sites. The achievements made by these projects are as follows:
(1) In May 2019, the Christian historical site restoration project team discovered the remains of 6 European adults in 5 tombs during their archaeological excavation of Heping Island Project and unearthed the wall base of a Christian church, which proved that a Spanish church once existed on the island;

(2) The team of “historical site revival at downtown Taichung City” completed the restoration, greenification and beautification project for the corridor underneath the elevated railway for its reuse; the team of "revival of the historical site at the sixth fuel plant of the Japanese Navy and Chinese military dependents' village" project in Hsinchu used the aforementioned historical site as a base for community-based cultural events surrounding the historical landmark, a big chimney.

The team of "revival of the historical site at two Chinese military dependents' villages in Huwei, Yunlin County" completed the first phase of landscaping c and restored the houses and military cultural landscape of the Chinese military dependents' villages in a unique style. In December 2019, the Ministry Bureau of Cultural Heritage worked with 30 cultural project teams with substantial accomplishments for organization of the "History of Island‧Long River of Memory - A Journey between Space and Time - Regeneration of Historic Sites Exhibition at the Cultural Heritage Park."

b.) The Ministry set up a photography culture center with renovation of the monument "Osaka Merchant Shipping Co., Ltd. (Osaka Shosen Kaisha) - Taipei Branch" according to the its original appearance in 1937 for coherent design of the center and the surrounding cultural heritage and urban space in order to revive the historical site and people's memory via the establishment of a complete photography history:

     i.) The Ministry completed restoration of the main building of "Osaka Merchant Shipping Co., Ltd. (Osaka Shosen Kaisha) - Taipei Branch" on April 22, 2019, started the acceptance process on July 5th and completed inspection before formal acceptance on August 16th. The building is in renascent Asian style with has historical, cultural and artistic value. The Ministry brought back people's memory about the old times and promoted development of photographic art through photographic art exhibitions and exchange activities by working with adjacent cultural heritage and camera shops. In 2019, the Ministry collected 2,048 pieces of precious photographic art assets and contemporary photographic works and completed digital conversion of collections acquired in the past.

     ii.) On August 16, 2019, the Ministry delivered the detailed design layout for interior renovation of the National Center of Photography to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts for the construction work, which began on November 11, 2019 and was expected to be complete for acceptance in 2020.

c.) The Ministry carried out the "National Museum of History Upgrade and Development Program" to improve and renovate the exhibition and collections space and corresponding cultural heritage and facilities for creation of new "hotspots" of Taiwanese culture:

The Ministry carried out National Museum of History Upgrade and Development Program to enhance its space design, services and functions and management of operation activities for overall upgrade of its tangible and intangible resources. The Ministry also carried out three projects- National Museum of History Restoration and Reuse, Cultural Collection Warehouse Construction and Bank of Taiwan Dormitory Complex Restoration and Reuse- for implementation of the program.

In 2019, it completed the first-phase construction work of the National Museum of History Restoration and Reuse project, which began at the end of March, 2019. In September, 2019, it completed the review of the design for cultural collection warehouses and the design for restoration of the Bank of Taiwan Dormitory Complex for their reuse and completed the review of cultural heritage unearthed through archaeological excavation by the National Museum of History in November.

(2) Preservation of intangible cultural assets

a.) The Ministry preserved and revitalized traditional performing arts, traditional crafts, oral traditions, folklore culture and traditional knowledge through government support for local festivals, the preservation and maintenance projects of intangible cultural heritages and cultural entrepreneur incubation program for preservation of intangible cultural assets.

     i.) In order to preserve the skills of traditional art masters, the Ministry’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage commissioned the cultural stewards it designated to carry out traditional arts preservation projects. In 2019, a total of 19 projects were carried out for the aforementioned purpose. The Ministry implemented 3 projects for preservation and talent cultivation of important traditional performing arts and craftsmanship to keep important traditional arts of the country alive. In addition, the Ministry also assisted local governments with about 95 projects for preservation, revival, management and maintenance of traditional performing arts and craftsmanship. Other important achievements in this regard are as follows:

The Ministry held a certification ceremony and special exhibition of important traditional arts on July 20, 2019 and presented a series of lectures on intangible cultural heritage from February to December in 2019, in which a total of 2,087 people attended these events. in September and October, 2019, the Ministry carried out the "Traditional performing arts performance in mobile theater project," inviting national and local traditional performing arts stewards and art students who completed the training to give performance in 30 events during holidays, which attracted about 9,800 attendees.

It also ran a cross-border exhibition and exchange of traditional craftsmanship project at Chiang Mai in Thailand, a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art designated by UNESCO, invited domestic traditional craftsmanship stewards and art students receiving training in important traditional craftsmanship to participate in the exhibitions of Chiang Mai Design Week and provided workshops for international exchange, speeches and experience events.

     ii.) In 2019, the Ministry put three traditional activities (including Baimin in Matsu, Chiensuidke in Mamingshan and the traditional festival of Sandamiao Wang) and one important oral tradition (of the Atayal tribe at Dakake) on its list of important folk cultural heritage. It also developed six folk culture preservation projects for 2 traditional religious events in Kohu and Kinmen and 3 Matsu-related activities in Dajia, Beigang, Baoshatun and Yulin. It ran 15 campaigns for preservation of important folk cultural heritage, assisted local governments with compilation of the list of 161 folklore cultural activitie and carried out 4 campaigns for preservation of 3 oral traditions and 3 campaigns for preservation of traditional knowledge and practices.

     iii.) From October 5 to 13, 2019, the National Center for Traditional Arts held the 2019 Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival on the theme of the relation between traditional festivals in rural areas and intangible cultural heritage. It invited traditional arts teams that have their shows on the list of Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity compiled by UNESCO and masters of traditional craftsmanship from different countries to Taiwan to participate in 27 shows, 17 cultural experience events, 18 DIY experience events, 4 exchange activities in local communities in Yilan and craft skills demonstration and cultural market activities during the period. A total of 40,000 people participated in the aforementioned events.

b.) The Ministry implemented the "Taiwan traditional theater talent cultivation program" to help traditional opera troupes find their cultural roots, assist them with cultivation of new practitioners and encourage troupe successors to preserve traditional performing art along with new practitioners for preservation of traditional performing arts. It also prepared the Traditional Opera Successor Cultivation Program to strengthen the traditional performing arts ecosystem through cultivation of troupe successors and improvement of performance facilities.

In 2019, the National Center for Traditional Arts implemented the "Taiwan traditional theater talent cultivation program" which covered 4 projects, including the campaigns that assisted private troupes with subsidy for production of their "signature shows" and release of new works, selected traditional opera shows for "traditional opera dreamwork" program and transformed private theaters for the creation of a sustainable cultural ecosystem.

In 2019, the Ministry provided assistance to 50 campaigns for organization of 72 events, which attracted 26,971 people. Moreover, it also carried out a 2019 troupe-based training and performance campaign for cultivation of traditional art performers, which was an extension of NCTA-based training and performance for cultivation of traditional art performers, and covered different types of traditional operas, including Taiwanese opera, puppet show, Hakka opera, Chinese opera and Beiguan Opera.

A total of 12 teams and 58 art students received related training after passing the review. From November 10 to December 1, 2019, the Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center held 11 events for performances presented by young artists at its 3201 Multi Hall and its plaza and invited judges to assess their performance at the end of the semester. A total of 3,829 people attended these events to watch their performance.

c.) The Ministry implemented "local arts and craftsmanship revival for local place making programs to preserve local crafts culture, using technology and inter-disciplinary knowledge to help local crafts and traditional industries in their efforts to discover sustainable operation practices for their transformation into new craft business, with the aim to create local craft culture hotspots and opportunities and drive development of localized cultural development with such efforts:

The program was carried out by National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Center with adoption of the following three strategies:

     i.) Revival of local craftsmanship with promotional efforts: 6 projects for research and publication were completed. The Center held the "From Nature to Function – the Exhibition of Folk Crafts and Seasons" exhibition (from June 5 to November 3, 2019), 2 training events, which were attended by 133 people, and 2 DIY events, which were attended 27 people. A total of 20,032 people participated in the aforementioned events. In addition, the Center also launched a project for publication of 2,000 books on the subject of "Apparel – soft sculpture of bodies" and sold them through several mortar-and-brick bookstore chains, including Books, Eslite, Wunan and Govbooks and online distribution channels.

It authorized Bookworm Club Co., Ltd., a contractor, to publish digital versions and promote these books to drive sales through the online platforms run by the company or its business partners. The Center also established the knowledge system of apparel crafts through its sponsorship of three series of experiments on fiber used by accessories, rhea fiber and its applications and weaving skills and weaving machines, as well as publication and circulation of books on these subjects. Moreover, it assisted 5 placemaking project teams with their local craftsmanship development and helped local communities with their transformation by artworks created with local materials.

     ii.) The Center drove the development of local craft culture through the following campaigns:

        1. provided 6 training events to 124 people for cultivation of craft research and innovation talent;

        2. carried out the "craft fun "project that supported visits of 34 students from design related departments of domestic universities and 10 teachers to 7 craftsman institutions for learning of innovative craft design. A total of 34 products were designed and developed through the implementation of the campaign. In addition, a total of 127 innovative art crafts were produced due to implementation of 5 craftsmanship development campaigns.

     iii.) The Center increased diversity of craftsmanship and promoted local craftsmanship overseas; it held 41 events to promote craftsmanship and partnered external groups for promotion of craftsmanship through traditional festivals and celebrations and social media activities. The examples include three series of activities launched for celebration of Chinese New Year (from February 6 to February 9 of 2019), Mother's Day (from April 27 to 12 May) and twin children (from April 27 to May 31) , which attracted 8,000, 700 and 500 participants, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Center also held 11 exhibitions on local art crafts and local and foreign themes and participated in international exhibitions that displayed artifacts from Japan, France, etc. For example, the exhibition of Femi Flow: Creating Female Subjectivity in Art (from December 4, 2018 to May 26, 2019) attracted 26,985 visitors and their satisfaction of the exhibition reached 97%. This exhibition earned grade A given by Ministry of Culture after its assessment of its performance in terms of gender equality promotion in 2019. Through the arrangement of displaying 40 pieces of 20 sets of artifacts in Rmn-Grand Palais of Paris (from May 23 – 26 of 2019) and Belgium (from March 22 to May 12, 2019), the Ministry shared successful experience of product development by domestic craft designers and artists and forged the national identity of domestic craftsmanship by presenting their accomplishments of research and innovation and their artworks made with natural materials, green concepts and aesthetic beauty in international events.

The Ministry also carried out a young craftsmen cultivation project; six young craftsmen completed their coaching through implementation of the project, 2 of them received coaching for modification of their products and 4 of them received coaching for their branding efforts. One of their artworks entered the international competition TALENTE 2020 in Munich, Germany.

d.) After creating an underwater cultural asset preservation mechanism, the Ministry enhanced the connection among art and historical workers, communities, schools, museums and local cultural venues with the platform of the Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank for collection of local cultural and historical materials for research. It also encouraged the public to write their stories and create digital content like value-added applications with cultural materials.

     i.) The Ministry worked with the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Development Center of the Council of Indigenous Peoples for implementation of the project of "Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and value-added digital applications development for preservation of history memory of indigenous peoples in Taiwan." Through field surveys and oral interviews conducted according to museum methodology, the Ministry collected, analyzed and recorded cultural heritage related to indigenous culture and invited leaders in aboriginal tribes and experts to review the aforementioned cultural heritage.

In 2019, the Ministry completed such review of 1, 385 cultural relics, 67 buildings and 12 historic trails and interpretation of rendition of 893 materials, as part of its systematic effort to establish the framework of the knowledge base of indigenous peoples and drive their own rendition of aboriginal culture and preservation of historical memory.

     ii.) The National Museum of Taiwan Literature carried out the project of "Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and value-added digital applications development for the genealogy of Taiwan literary history 1920 – 1970" to establish the connection between its collection, descendants of literary authors and domestic literature museums. Through oral interviews with decedents of 7 writers, including Shichuang Han's son Liancheng Han, and lectures on history of Taiwan literary movements, the Museum spread the knowledge about Taiwan literary movements since the 1920s with 5 lectures on this subject between April to October of 2019. It also worked with Chia-Chi Senior High School for adaptation of a literary work into a drama based on the story of Shihao Lin and arranged rehearsal and performance of the show. The Museum held two workshops on April 10th and May 15, 2019 and presented the show at its literary experience center on June 16, 2019.

e.) The Ministry promoted transitional justice by creating a research platform for Taiwan's human rights archives, preserved historical buildings the way they were in order to revive people’s memory, erected human rights memorials in the National Museum of Human Rights and liaised with international human rights bodies to further national democratization:

The National Human Rights Museum continued efforts in collection of relics and interviews with survivors for preservation of historical memory about modern history and the White Terror period in Taiwan in order to uncover the truth in the nation’s pursuit of justice. The Museum also worked with civil groups in charge of preservation of related archives and historical materials to create a platform for search of related archives.

In 2019, the Museum completed the project for research and examination of the course of the 1979 Formosa (Kaohsiung) Incident, survey of the historical materials, oral interviews (2018 – 2019) about the incident, oral historical survey and research on peasant movement in Taiwan between 1979 and 1988 and compiled 10 research reports on the White Terror period of Taiwan History. In addition, the Museum launched different human rights promotion campaigns for teenagers and students and encouraged children of political victims or the general public to volunteer for human rights promotion for enhancement of human rights education.

In 2019, the Museum held 84 events for human rights promotion, including the workshop on cultivation of seed teachers for human rights promotion with picture books and the workshop on cultivation of seed teachers for human rights promotion and design of lesson plans. It also provided a series of lectures on diverse museums human rights education and slavery systems and held the 2019 Taiwan International Human Rights Festival.

3. Establishment of holistic policy for cross-level cultural preservation and consolidation of the museum system

(1) Development of a 'cooperative' mechanism for multi-level culture preservation

a.) The Ministry enforced the 37 sets of regulations under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, implemented a cultural heritage and disaster prevention and protection program, and established regional service centers to ensure the consistent maintenance of cultural assets.

     i.) After the amendments of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act took effect in 2016, the Ministry introduced amendments to 37 relevant regulations in 2017. In order to further enhance the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act and address practical issues encountered during the enforcement of the Act, the Ministry continued to introduce more amendments; the amendments to 4 orders and 16 orders were introduced in 2018 and 2019, respectively. In order to meet expectations of the public for increasing incentives for private cultural heritage preservation and improvement of government campaigns on such preservation, the Ministry held the National Cultural Congress in 2017, National Cultural Heritage Congress in 2018 and several meetings for discussion over amendments of cultural regulations. On November 6, 2019, it presented draft amendments of some articles of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act to the Executive Yuan for review in order to improve regulatory framework and established a sophisticated system for cultural heritage protection with the aim to create a "safety net" for preservation of cultural heritage preservation.

     ii.) The Ministry's Bureau of Cultural Heritage implemented a tangible cultural heritage disaster prevention and protection program to gradually increase the capacity of cultural heritage in terms of disaster prevention and protection through its efforts in three dimensions, including creation of a disaster prevention and protection mechanism, integration of disaster prevention and protection technology and enhancement of cultural heritage protection system. It also worked with the National Fire Agency and National Police Agency of the Ministry of the Interior, National Science and Technology Center and local governments for joint efforts for implementation of a variety of campaigns.

As of the end of 2019, it subsidized a total of 107 local government campaigns for improvement of cultural heritage disaster prevention and protection capacity and assisted 22 counties and cities with creation of professional service centers for local cultural heritage, increased disaster prevention manpower and brought about integration of the resources of the Ministry and National Fire Agency and National Police Agency of Ministry of the Interior. It held 5 meetings for liaison with Fire Bureaus and Cultural Affairs Bureaus of all local governments for national cultural heritage disaster prevention every six months, carried out 45 drills for cultural heritage disaster prevention with local governments and introduced the practice of installing patrol boxes at local cultural heritage in order to enhance monitoring at night time for reduction of damage to cultural heritages caused by disaster and lasting preservation of their value

b.) The Ministry guided governments at all levels to implement a district-based cultural preservation program in order to introduce localized approaches in cultural preservation campaigns and allowed local governments at all levels to exchange views and coordinate better as they handled cases in dispute. 

The Ministry Bureau of Cultural Heritage assisted Taichung City, Tainan City and Pingtung County with creation of institutions dedicated to cultural heritage. In, 2019 it continued to subsidize preparation work for creation of such institutions in Changhua County, Taitung County and Hsinchu. Currently, it is preparing draft regulations governing organizational charter of such institutions. The Ministry aims to address the long-term predicament of inadequate manpower faced by local governments for preservation of cultural heritage with organizational restructuring, service integration, recruitment of new staff and professionals and integration of cultural heritage services for creation of such institutions.

c.) The Ministry established a local cultural reporting mechanism, held annual e-meetings via the platform and proposed participatory approaches:

On July 25, 2019, the Ministry’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage held the 7th meeting for regular communication of institutions in charge of local cultural heritages and invited representatives of the Cultural Affairs Bureaus of all local governments and heads of institutions dedicated to cultural heritages to attend the meeting. In the morning of that day, the military dependents’ service department of Ministry of National Defense gave a presentation on preservation of military dependents villages carried out by Ministry of National Defense and its outlook, the Bureau gave a presentation on amendments of some articles of Cultural Heritage Preservation Act and delivered oral reports on case studies of cultural heritage in dispute, operation of archaeological sites and traditional folk art services.

In the afternoon, the meeting participants held discussion over 11 proposals presented by local governments, which included the doubts about value assessment of public buildings over 50 years old for their disposal specified in article 15 of Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, the format of announcements about cultural heritage, tax exemption measures, remedy mechanism and incentives for preservation of historical architecture.

(2) Integration of the museum system

a.) The Ministry transformed selected national museums into regional research centers in different fields and drove development of public and private museums of the same type or in adjacent areas with such transformation:
As of the end of 2019, the Ministry selected 11 public museums and libraries and local cultural venues for collaboration on collection, research, exhibition and education of local knowledge with museum methodology in order to build a network of museums featuring regional characteristics and specific themes. For example, National Museum of Prehistory focused on exhibitions and workshops which were held through collaboration with local indigenous villages and cultural venues in Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung in order to increase cultural accessibility of local people.

b.) The Ministry provided assistance in regard to establishment of private museums in micro, small and medium sizes, establishment of corporate museums or enrichment of their collections; The Ministry assisted some private museums with their registration. In 2019, three private museums, including Museum 207 in Taipei City, the Lin Family Garden Museum in Wufeng in Taichung City and Ju Ming Museum in New Taipei City completed registration according to the Regulations on Establishment and Reward of Private Museums. It also kept on asking other private museums whether they encountered any difficulties in terms of their applications for establishment in order to provide assistance with its administrative service or improve functions of local cultural venues.

c.) The Ministry facilitated the formation of the community-based Museums-Libraries-Archives Council network for promotion of community culture with support provided by museums to local cultural venues. In 2019, the Ministry approved the subsidies for 214 campaigns carried out by of 22 county/city governments for preparation, enhancement or collaboration for formation of an MLA network and assisted 254 cultural venues with their efforts in creation of a cultural environment and continued improvement of cultural facilities. It also replenished tangible and intangible resources of museums and local cultural venues according to the Museum Act and helped them set up platforms for consolidation and collaboration for integration of local cultural resources in order to preserve cultural diversity. The Ministry also enhanced the professional capacity and service quality of 5 museums under its administration.

(3) Preservation and promotion of Tibetan and Mongolian culture

a.) The Ministry promoted Mongolian and Tibetan culture, education, vocational training, as well as academic pursuits, compiled and published academic papers and books on Mongolian and Tibetan subjects and liaisoned with Taiwan-based Mongolians and Tibetans.

     i.) On April 27 and 28, 2019, the Mongolian & Tibetan Cultural Center of the Ministry held a young volunteer training camp at MTC gallery, helping the participating students understand and learn the concepts of cultural diversity, development of international cooperation and trends, and planning and practices of volunteer services. A total of 73 young students and NGO staff participated in the camp.

     ii.) The Ministry worked with the National Central Library, National Library of Mongolia, Taipei Trade and Economic Representative Office in Ulaanbaatar of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The Ulaanbaatar Trade and Economic Representative Office in Taiwan for organization of the exhibition of "Footprint of Mongolian civilization and memory of Mongolian empire – commemoration of the 750th anniversary of Phags-pa script creation," which was held at National Library of Mongolia from September 9th to November 9th in 2019. The Ministry not only participated in the organization of the opening ceremony of the exhibition and related events, but also donated books on Mongolian subjects published in Taiwan to promote cultural and academic exchange between Taiwan and Mongolia.

     iii.) In order to facilitate exchange between Mongolian and Tibetan people in Taiwan, the Ministry held traditional cultural activities of Mongolia and Tibet and family meetups and commissioned the Mongolian and Tibetan Foundation to carry out a community care project for Tibetans and Mongolians in Taiwan in order to strengthen communication and assistance to them.

     iv.) The Ministry provided grants, scholarships to Taiwan-based Tibetans and Mongolian students and financial reward to those with outstanding academic achievements to help them complete their education. It also gave scholarship to students taking Mongolian and Tibetan language courses and writing theses in Tibetan and Mongolian languages to promote learning of Tibetan and Mongolian and academic research of the two languages.

b.) The Ministry combined resources from all quarters to organize Mongolian and Tibetan cultural exhibitions and events, develop cultural diversity in Taiwan and strengthen links between local and Mongolian/Tibetan culture to enrich Taiwan's multicultural environment.

     i.) The Mongolian & Tibetan Cultural Center of the Ministry held a variety of themed exhibitions and film festivals at MTC gallery, inviting scholars and experts in different fields to give lectures and attend seminars on Mongolian and Tibetan culture. For example, it held a series of events on the theme of Khalkha Mongolian culture in September of 2019, including academic seminars, performance of Khalkha Mongolian dance troupe and photography exhibition and film festival on the natural and cultural landscape of Kalmykia. It also invited professor Murong Xi, a Mongolian poet, to give lectures, and His Eminence Gosok Rinpoche of Tibetan Buddhism, natural and cultural photographer Makalu Gau and the director of the Tibetan Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Zlabatshering, etc. to give themed speeches and introduction of films. In 2019, it organized a total of 15 events for promotion of Mongolian & Tibetan culture.

     ii.) On November 26 and 27 of November, 2019, the Ministry held the Tibetan Culture and Art Festival – concert of religious and drum music, in which accomplished Nepalese singer Ani Choying Drolma was invited to give a performance along with the internationally renowned U Theatre and aboriginal singer Iki. It also worked with ChuanDer Buddhist organization for arrangement of a 3 D photography exhibition "Tibet At a Glance:Special Exhibition of Tibetan Miniatures," which took place between December 21, 2019 and March 31, 2020 at the MTC Gallery.

     iii.) Through the integration of cultural assets owned by local communities and MTC gallery, the Ministry held 5 Tibetan and Mongolian cultural experience camps for young people in various religious and cultural venues and 138 students participated in the camp. It also worked with the Mongolian and Tibetan Foundation and Taiwan-based Mongolian and Tibetan groups for organization of Mongolian and Tibetan cultural and art events in order to promote cultural diversity and cultural equality. A total of 387 people from 10 groups participated in the events.

     iv.) In order to promote understanding and experience of Tibetan and Mongolian culture, the Ministry worked with the National Changhua Living Art Center on organizing an exhibition on Tibetan and Mongolian cultural landscape at Bagua Mountain between June 5 and July 28, 2019 and worked with Keelung City Cultural Affairs Bureau for organizing an exhibition on Tibetan and Mongolian cultural experience between September 11 and October 6, 2019.

4. Acquisition and promotion of local knowledge


(1) Integration of resources of local communities

The Ministry facilitated liaison among community-based cultural workers, academic communities and local governments and turned local schools, libraries, district offices, cultural and historical studios, community organizations, arts and cultural venues, museums, art galleries, cultural landmarks, bookstores and even home-stay facilities into "cultural hotspots" for dissemination of local knowledge.

     i.) The Ministry carried out the third phase community development project, which assisted local communities with acquisition and promotion of local knowledge with diverse approaches, such as cooperation between elementary, junior high and senior high schools for curriculum design to promote reading in elementary and junior high schools, incorporation of community-based knowledge into curriculum design of community colleges, incorporation of concepts of food and agricultural education into the arrangements of school lunches and research on community development and local knowledge. In 2019, a total of 164 schools, community colleges and libraries worked with local communities for production of 125 lesson plans, 47 picture books and 47 community newspapers. There were notable achievements in local knowledge preservation.

     ii.) The Ministry used museums and local cultural venues as a platform for development of cultural activities for creation of a cultural environment. In 2019, museums around the country and local cultural venues received 23.8 million visits, which meant that these museums and local cultural venues perform their functions of cultural preservation and management well.

(2) Created a local knowledge learning network


The Ministry increased investment in cultural assets, exploited new technologies to expedite research, collection and promotion of local knowledge and launched an accessible and effective network for learning of knowledge about local cultural history and industrial ecosystem.

     i.) The Ministry introduced the "memory bank collection and storage system" operating in integrated functional model to provide county/city governments, civil groups and museums administered by the Ministry the service of managing digital materials about local knowledge that they collected and stored. It also introduced Creative Commons licensing practices for copyright assertion of system users. Currently, a total of 60,000 materials are available for search and use for circulation of cultural content and promotion of local knowledge.

     ii.) The Bureau of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry continued to enhance data management of cultural heritage projects and improve management of knowledge about cultural heritages to develop detailed profiles of cultural heritage and acquire local knowledge about cultural history through tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Meanwhile, it provided the public easy access to National Cultural Heritage Database Management System for inquiries in order to promote local knowledge.

In addition, the Bureau also continued to uncover the historical context and characteristics of cultural heritage of local industries and endeavored to improve preservation and reuse of such cultural heritage. In 2019, the Bureau granted subsidies to 17 projects (including four cross-field railway art network projects) for transformation and value added creation of industrial cultural heritage and enhancement of cohesion within the cultural ecosystem created by local cultural venues in order to provide people the learning experience of industrial history and culture anywhere, any time.

5. Encouraging young people to return to (or remain in) their home area for development of community-based organizations


(1) Encourage young people to return to (or remain in) their home area

The Ministry facilitated liaison between local organizations and industries and used them as a platform for incubation of local culture promoters and creation of an environment conducive to bringing new blood into various social development projects, thereby enhancing the preservation of local knowledge and community governance to drive social transformation through community development via a 'bottom-up' approach:

     i.) In 2019, the Ministry subsidized inter-generational creation experiment campaigns of 28 organizations and commissioned 27 professionals to help the execution teams of these campaigns get more opportunities of getting support and recognition. It helped a total of 1,446 groups participate in development of 694 applications through revival of local knowledge and facilitated implementation of 287 urban-rural exchange and cooperation campaigns and 233 school-community cooperation campaigns. For example, a cultural creativity business in Taipei introduced a model of cooperative economy that integrated community care services and commercial operation in Wanhua in the spirit of charity work. A local community exchange association in Niuli community of Hualien County helped local senior people develop cultural creative products for green experiences characterized by their life stories and the community features through DIY workshops. The association also assisted local senior people with writing of their life stories and art design for the packaging of their products for their branding and marketing and development of community industry by local senior people through their empowerment. Yintung Community Development Association of Zhongxi District in Tainan City developed a feasible model for development of the silver economy in small-sized communities through integration of life experience of local senior people and local industries.

     ii.) The Ministry launched 2018 Youth Go Project (implementation period from December of 2018 to November of 2019) to provide incentives to action takers for

     iii.) their work. The Ministry approved 46 campaigns that addressed community issues and increased the value of cultural creativity through the creative participation of young people and promoted 450 events for themed courses, workshops and exhibitions. It also promoted participation of 177 like-minded social groups in initiatives and actions on public issues and commissioned professionals to attend at least 72 related events to provide a coaching service. To implement the 2019 proposal submission project, the Ministry held 8 events for empowerment of people making proposals and related presentations. A total of 187 proposals entered the competition and 59 of them were approved for grants in December. The project implementation period will last to November of 2020.

     iv.) The Ministry subsidized 24 campaigns to foster the cultural identity of indigenous peoples for implementation of the 2019 cultural development of indigenous villages project. It encouraged all quarters to work with young people for promotion and preservation of traditional culture of indigenous peoples, cultivation of the talent and empowerment of related organizations in urban areas and aboriginal villages in the spirit of cooperation and sharing according to the local cultural context of aboriginal peoples in different parts of the country.

(2) Empowerment of community-based organizations


Through adoption of strategies like exploitation of private sector resources, cooperation with social enterprises and deployment of professional full-time personnel, the Ministry enabled community-based organizations to develop the capability to promote local culture and become part of the "social safety net" that covers local industries, social welfare and medical care, community safety, cultural education, environmental and ecological protection, environmental landscaping and community care, etc.

In 2019, the Ministry subsidized campaigns in 7 counties and cities for arrangement of private sector participation in community-based cultural campaigns and encouraged private businesses to fulfill their corporate social responsibilities by providing commercial sponsorship, manpower support, technical assistance and other resources for collaboration. For example, the "historical heritages preservation in Zhuben + past glory of Beigang" campaign of Yunlin County was carried out by a local cultural enterprise, Young Full Sesame Oil Co. and Yuchang Oil company. In particular, "historical heritages preservation in Zhuben" partly took advantage of a facility provided by an independent bookstore to local people free of charge for learning the skills of tour guiding for historical buildings, cultural venues and local streets. The "past glory of Beigang" part was carried out by local store owners like Rifa candy shop and Yuanful pastry shop, providing visitors cultural experience and telling the stories of local industries through arrangement of local cultural tours in order to foster community relations and advance local people’s understanding of local history and culture.

6. Creation of intermediary organizations and promotion of Taiwanese culture and lifestyle in the international community to market Taiwanese values.

a.) The Ministry established the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, an administrative legal body, as an intermediary organization between the government and the private sector. Under the principle of "arm's length" and professional governance, it created a common platform for resource integration and cross-discipline cooperation through an extensive professional support system, with the aim to drive development of local content industry ecosystem and facilitate application and industrial development of cultural content in order to build national cultural brand, increase overseas business opportunities and improve publicity of MIT cultural content to give Taiwan the right of cultural expression.

     i.) As an intermediary organization between the government and the private sector, TAICCA took advantage of the operational flexibility of an administrative legal body as it endeavored to implement government policies through cross-platform, cross-disciplinary cooperation with the private sector.Focusing on original content development, introduction of technology innovation applications, creation of cultural financing system and increase of distribution channels, TAICCA has undertaken 8 key missions, including promotion of cultural content development and related technology applications, creation of a sound cultural financing system, talent development and innovative entrepreneurship, support for production capacity development and facilities management of cultural industry, improvement of international and domestic market access for cultural businesses, branding of national cultural identity to increase its international visibility, copyright-related assistance and research on development of cultural industry, in order to drive development of cultural industry and cultural economy through the integration of cultural, technology and economic resources.

     ii.) TAICCA made public announcements to encourage cooperation between the Ministry and general venture capitalists, platform operators, distributors and publishers for joint investment in IP development, content platforms, market access creation and commercial operation of cultural content entrepreneurship. It also facilitated private investment in the cultural industry in order to drive its sound development. In 2019, an investment in STUDIO 76 was approved for production of at least 30 original scripts and their IP-based works. This scriptwriting incubation project aimed to create the digital platform for establishment of a short video and drama production center in Asia and for cultivation of scriptwriting, production, fine arts and performance talent. The Ministry is currently reviewing the application for investment in the “alliance of theater chains” project, which will establish a professional film production company that makes movies with studio practices and provide one-stop services from production, release and showing.

b.) The Ministry promoted a two-track funding system, improved talent cultivation and assistance mechanism and increased distribution channel for MIT content industry:

     i.) Investment: in 2018, the Ministry launched a cultural content investment program with estimated investment of a total of NTD 10 billion in the cultural content industry during the first and second phases of its implementation to drive long-term industrial development. As of the end of 2019, the Ministry has carried out a total of 55 investment projects and facilitated investments of NTD 4.3 billion in the cultural and creativity industry, which has produced total output of about NTD 10. 23 billion. Financing: the Ministry recommended some cultural enterprises to the Small & Medium Business Credit Guarantee Fund for their loan applications that had loan-to-value ratio up to 80%. As of the end of 2019, a total of over NTD 3.5 billion for 384 loan cases with subsidies for their interest repayment had been approved. The Ministry has gradually introduced rating tools for assessment of investments in intangible assets in order to encourage private investment in cultural industry. In order to encourage public companies to support development of Taiwanese culture, the Ministry started to communicate with the Financial Supervisory Commission and Taiwan Stock Exchange (over promotion of culture) for introduction of related measures in 2017. In June, 2019, Taiwan Stock Exchange informed the Ministry of its consent to incorporate "facilitation of cultural development" into the social practice for "preservation of public welfare" specified in "Corporate Social Responsibility Best Practice Principles for TWSE/GTSM Listed Companies." In addition, the Ministry launched the CSR platform for promotion of cultural content in 2019 and has asked TAICCA to increase the scope of the platform's operations and create the mechanism of matchmaking (between cultural enterprises and their investors).

     ii.) Advisory and matchmaking services to the cultural industry: in 2019, the Ministry provided advisory and coaching services to 42 cultural and creative enterprises for over 6 months in order to improve their operations. It also held at least 49 events for on-site "diagnosis" and on-site visits of advisors, practical workshops and presentations on promotion of government policies. Moreover, least 600 times of the aforementioned advisory service were provided via telephone. After the establishment of TAICCA in June, 2019, the Ministry transferred its operations of talent cultivation to TAICCA, which has taken charge of planning and preparation for such operations. It will integrate its international network and cross-field resources in order to better meet the needs of cultural industry and push forward its development.

iii.) Distribution: in 2019, a total of 573 brands from 25 countries participated in Creative Expo Taiwan, which attracted over 5,000 domestic and international professionals and over 350,000 visitors and generated output of NTD 650 million.

c.) The Ministry promoted Taiwan-specific values by increasing the visibility of Taiwan culture and lifestyle in the international market:

In order to help domestic cultural and creative industry break into international market, the Ministry selected domestic cultural and creative enterprises designing and producing exquisite products for participation in important international exhibitions and shows in order to promote the national identity of local culture. The Ministry also arranged meetings between cultural enterprises participating in the international exhibitions/shows and buyers to increase the opportunities of their cooperation with international agents and distributors in order to increase international visibility of Taiwan cultural and creative industry and increase market value of local culture through branding of its national identity. To implement the 2019 Creative Industries | Fresh Taiwan campaign, the Ministry selected 22 enterprises for participation in three international trade shows, including NY NOW tradeshow, Maison & Objet Paris and STYLE BANGKOK. 145 distributors placed orders of total amount of NTD 128,031,800 through matchmaking efforts of the Ministry in these events.

7. Boost the cultural economy

(1) Upgrade of production and circulation in the audiovisual industries

a.) Production: The Ministry improved talent cultivation in schools and the public broadcasting system, drove industrial development led by professional administrative legal persons, and introduced public accountability and participation mechanism with transparent process. It also encouraged the production of creative, high-quality, diverse content in domestic audiovisual content industry with subsidies, developed innovative approaches for show production, and enhanced technology and specification of home-made audiovisual content production. The Ministry encouraged cross-platform, cross-border interaction and cooperation between audiovisual content enterprises and created new media platforms to improve content and increase international competitiveness.

     i.) The Ministry commissioned the PTS Foundation and Chinese Television System to provide professional courses, training, exercises, experience sharing, large seminars and workshops on high-definition TV show production techniques, including shooting, editing, color grading and image composition. With ultra-high-definition TV show production equipment which they acquired with subsidies from the Ministry, they cultivated over 1,000 talents for ultra-high-definition TV show production and spread of related knowledge. PTS Taigi Channel kicked off operation in July, 2019. In order to cultivate professional talent for Taigi TV show production, the Ministry invited famous screenwriters, directors, and professional Taiwanese (Taigi) teachers and performance groups to offer courses to university graduates with majors related to Taigi, as well as people working in the audiovisual industry in order to cultivate talent of directors, screenwriters and performance artists for Taigi TV shows.

     ii.) For the film industry, the Ministry improved a subsidy scheme for screenplay development and encouraged adaption of MIT novels and comic books. The Ministry held an event for matchmaking between excellent 31 scripts about diverse stories and their buyers and 29 film production companies participated in the event. The Ministry also cultivated talent for domestic film production with Short Film Grant scheme. In 2019, 17 short films were produced with the grant. It also sponsored production of various types of movies with the Long Film Grant scheme in a hope to produce blockbusters or critically acclaimed movies. The successful examples included "Detention" a thriller film with box office of over NTD 100 million, "The 9th Precinct," a fantasy movie with box office of over NTD 50 million, and "We Are Champions" a critically acclaimed inspirational sport movie, etc. In addition, the Ministry also encouraged film industry to apply digital technology for creations of special effect. In 2019, it successfully encouraged audiovisual content industry and digital technology businesses for production of special effects to make a total of over NTD 100 million in production and development of digital technology for special effects.

     iii.) For the radio and TV industry, the Ministry provided NTD 169,102,000 subsidies for production of a total of 27 TV series, television movies, variety shows, children’s programs and documentaries and grants to 5 new directors of
documentaries and television movies. In respond to the rise of global platforms for audiovisual content and development of 4K ultra high-definition TV content production, the Ministry continued to subsidize production of ultra-high-definition TV shows and cross-platform production of creative audiovisual shows on new media. In 2019, the Ministry provided total subsidies of 202,976,000 to support the production of 14 ultra-high-definition TV shows in order to encourage content innovations of domestic radio and TV industry, cultivate related technical talent and increase international competitiveness of ultra-high-definition TV content. In 2019, the Ministry provided a total of NTD 813 million subsidies to support cross-platform production of 9 creative audiovisual shows on new media in order to assist traditional media industry with their transformation in the digital era.

     iv.) For the pop music industry, the Ministry subsidized pop music production and release. In 2019, implemented the subsidy scheme for production and release of pop music albums in local languages, and encouraged music industry and bands to increase quality of pop music production; a total of 94 such projects received the subsidies. The Ministry also subsidized production of pop music shows released through new media applications in order to encourage audiovisual content industry to produce diverse creative audiovisual content and release it on new media platforms; a total of 20 such projects obtained the approved for the subsidies.

b.) Funding: the Ministry developed a sound cultural financing system through diversification of investment and financing resources to increase private-sector investments in the industry, expedite its fundraising and improve production specification and capacity.

     i.) For the film industry, the Ministry provided credit guarantee to movie companies through favorable loan arrangements in order to encourage financial institutions to provide loans to them. Meanwhile, it also subsidized interest repayment of such loans in order to reduce their capital flow pressure. In 2019, a total of 15 loan applications were submitted for financing purpose through the aforementioned arrangements.

     ii.) For the radio and TV industry, the Ministry continued to provide financial support to the industry through the two-track system of grants/subsidies + investment/financing in 2019. It discovered radio and TV programs with great market potential and international market opportunities among the subsidized works and commissioned TAICCA to solicit private investors for capital injection into production of MIT programs in order to increase international competitiveness and facilitate smooth transformation of domestic radio and TV industry. The Ministry also helped the audiovisual content industry fill the funding gap and ease the financial burden of loan interest repayment through favorable loan arrangements to the industry. In 2019, a total of 11 loan applications were submitted by the TV and radio companies for favorable loans arrangements.

     iii.) For the pop music industry, the Ministry continued to provide favorable loan arrangements to pop music and cultural content industry through favorable loan arrangements to cultural and creative industry in 2019. As of August of 2019, the Ministry had subsidized interest repayments of 12 borrowers. Since September, 2019, TAICCA has taken over the operation of aforementioned loan interest subsidies.

c.) Circulation: the Ministry continued to increase show time of MIT films in movie theater chains and their broadcasting channels and audiences. Through marketing strategies both at home and abroad, the Ministry promoted national brand MIT films to increase market size and development potential. For the television industry, the Ministry will work with the National Communications Commission (NCC) to enhance the visibility and quality of Taiwan-made programs and increase their international competitiveness through joint marketing efforts of a national team made up with different players.

     i.) In 2019, there were 119 cinemas and 915 theaters around the country and 729 theaters of 104 cinemas showed MIT films, which accounted for about 87% and 80% of all cinemas and theaters, up 6% and 9% respectively, from 2018. The Ministry continued to assist domestic film companies participate in big international events around the world, including those in Berlin and Cannes. In 2019, a total of 367 MIT films participated in these events, 44 films more than 2018. In particular, "Nina Wu" attended the screening of Cannes Film Festivals and its rights sold to buyers from 32 countries. The rights of "Detention," with domestic box office of over NTD 250 million, were sold to buyers from 11 countries. These were great accomplishments for the MIT movie industry. In 2019, MIT movies achieved success not only in Southeast Asian market, a traditional film market for MIT movies, but also in Japan and South Korea. The rights of several MIT movies, including "Detention," "Nina Wu," and "Deep Evil" were sold to foreign buyers. In particular, "Fall in Love at First Kiss" attracted 410,000 viewers in South Korea, setting a new record of viewers of Chinese-speaking movies in South Korea. These figures proved that the endeavors of promoting MIT movies in Northeast Asia through local film festivals have gradually increased their popularity with local people.

     ii.) The Ministry promoted national identity of local culture through the concerted marketing efforts of a "national team." It actively assisted the TV content production industry with its participation in international audiovisual festivals and matchmaking events through the two- track system of subsidy+procurement. It also encouraged entertainers and production crews to join the promotion effort by being part of the delegation in order to help expand the market share and cultural influence of domestic audiovisual content in emerging overseas market with such efforts. The Ministry observed the development of the domestic TV industry through their participation in international events in order to improve quality and techniques of MIT TV shows.

In 2019, the Ministry assisted a total of 614 TV shows produced by domestic TV industry with their participation in 9 international audiovisual festivals in Hong Kong, Cannes, Moscow, Vietnam, Shanghai, Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo and Singapore. Meanwhile, the Ministry held the Taipei International TV Market & Forum and inviting international buyers to attend the event for matchmaking for commercial transactions in order to assist the domestic TV industry break into international market, sell MIT shows in overseas market and facilitate international exchange and cooperation. In 2019, a total of 244 TV shows produced by 64 domestic TV content companies participated in this 3-day international event, which was attended by international buyers from 20 countries/regions and a total of 1,156 meetings were held for matchmaking purpose during the 3 days.

d.) The Ministry assisted small and medium-sized performance venues with their utilization and their equipment upgrades with operations of the "Northern Pop Music Center" and the "Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center" in order to increase the market access of MIT music and facilitate development of the domestic popular music performances market:

     i.) The Northern Pop Music Center at Nangang District of Taipei City and Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center at Kaohsiung Harbor No.11-18 Piers will play a key role in cluster development for talent cultivation, financing resources, art shows and exhibitions, distribution network, tourism and international exchange in order to drive development of domestic pop music industry and improve quality of performance venues at in Northern and Southern Taiwan.

     ii.) The Northern Pop Music Center obtained a use permit for the main building at northern part of the site on Jan 10, 2019 and construction was completed on February 15. On April 27, the Center put on a performance for testing purpose. It invited winners of the competition held by My Sound My Way music festival, including Caotun Boyz, Pehthiha and ZY Co, to give performance with established bands in the country, including Eggplant Egg and Fire Ex. The Center obtained a partial use permit for southern part of the site on Dec 11, 2019.

     iii.) The Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center obtained a use permit for its exhibition center on October 11, 2018 and the renovation construction was completed on December 2019. The construction of the main building (including the high tower and low tower and the large indoor performance facility) was almost completed, except a small part of finishing work. The Center is now applying for partial use permit.

(2) Revitalization of the publishing industry and facilitation of growth in the comics and games industries

a.) The Ministry turned the publishing industry into a driving force of MIT cultural creation through the support for cross-discipline applications in the publishing industry, liaison between the performing arts and anime, comics and games (ACG) industries and the

b.) broadcasting industries and sharing of research achievements made by academic institutions.

     i.) Since Taiwan Comic Base was opened in Jan, 2019, it has held a total of 45 campaigns for promotion of comic books and assisted comic artist Zuo Hsuan with sale of the audiovisual copyright of her work The Summer Temple Fair. So far, four groups of comic artists have worked in Taiwan Comic Base. In particular, creations that depict Taiwan's architectural heritage by artist Ace Ya have won a publishing contract and works of Arwen.H/Bankota Cheng have also been displayed at hotels through matchmaking arrangement.

     ii.) The Ministry worked with Academia Sinica on the Creative Comic Collection project for cultivation of data collection talent and organized Creative Comic Collection Data Workshops and presentation of achievements in this regard.

     iii.) The Ministry organized the 10th Golden Comic Awards & Connection+ event, held two themed meetings for commercial exchange and briefing and 167 events for B2B matchmaking of estimated annual transactions that amounted to NTD 6.9 million. It also assisted winners of Golden Comic Awards with their participation in Festival BD BOUM in France and International Comic Festival in Japan.

     iv.) In order to cultivate rising stars of domestic literary world, the Ministry continued to subsidize literary creations by young writers between 20 to 40 years old in order to encourage new creations in Taiwan’s literary world. In 2019, the Ministry subsidized creation of 39 literary works and 8 books written by the writers have been published and 12 books have won contracts for publication or audiovisual adaptation.

     v.) The Ministry has collected over 5,000 pieces of materials about local comic history and launched a series of campaigns for preliminary promotion of a national comic museum, including special exhibitions of political comic books, girls’ comic books and original copies of "Yong-jiu Grocery Store" by Guanmin Ruan. It issued an announcement of "Directives for Subsidizing Taiwan Comics Research" on September 17, 2019 and provided subsidies to 13 research projects.

     vi.) The Ministry promoted the reading experience on World Book and Copyright Day of 2019 with Taiwan Walks, a project that promoted reading with travel experience; it created 100 routes for the aforementioned travel experience and organized 174 events that promoted reading culture through travel experiences through over 400 diverse activities, including lectures, markets and book fairs.

c.) The Ministry continued to safeguard the “cultural diversity” of the publishing industry created by independent publishers and brick-and-mortar bookstores and expand the overseas Mandarin language market using the advantages gained from the advantages of "The Most Liberal Cultural Publishing in the Mandarin-Speaking World".

     i.) The Ministry continued to provide subsidies to projects that promoted development of brick-and-mortar bookstores. In 2019, it provided a total of NTD 12.26 million subsides to 42 projects of brick-and-mortar bookstores and related groups for organization of a variety of 1,457 art and cultural promotion events, which attracted over 110, 000 participants.

     ii.) The Ministry carried out the campaigns for operation of the platform for information related to international copyright of Taiwanese books and the training camp for cultivating talent of literary agents and copyright managers. In 2019, 33 books selected by Books from Taiwan project closed their overseas copyright transactions and 4 book were published for trial purpose. 13 European, American and Southeast Asian copyright holders visited Taiwan to provide copyright-related training to 27 people.The English website of BFT has been visited over 900,000 times.

     iii.) The Ministry asked some domestic publishers to participate in Singapore Book Fair and BookFest @ Malaysia. In Singapore Book Fair, they set up 10 booths at Taiwan Pavilion and held 4 events to promote Taiwan culture, 4 events to promote Taiwan literature and one forum for exchange of copyright-related information between Taiwan and Singapore. In BookFest @ Malaysia, they set up 12 booths at Taiwan Pavilion and held 4 events to promote Taiwan literature, one forum for exchange of copyright-related information between Taiwan and Malaysia and 5 activities at the main stage of the book fair.

     iv.) The Ministry introduced the Directives for Subsidizing participation in overseas book fairs in order to establish a mechanism for objective review of participations in overseas book fairs. According to the Directives, participants of overseas book fairs have to attend such events in a group; this group has to be selected through a competition after evaluation and the group selected for the subsidy granted for its participation in an overseas book fair has to work with the Ministry for promotion of books selected by the Ministry through their participation, marketing and sales activities in the overseas event according to the spirit of the Ministry's policies for promotion of domestic publications in order to enhance quality of curatorship.

In 2019, the Ministry provided subsidies to associations of domestic publishers and some publishers for their participation in Beijing Book Fair, Hong Kong Book Fair, South Chnia Book Festival, Beijing International Book Fair, Cross - Strait Book Fair and China Shanghai Children's Book Fair in order to help domestic publishing industry break into overseas Chinese book market.

d.) The Ministry set up Taiwan Comics Base to encourage artist exchanges, cross-field match-making, and exhibition and sales activities, implemented the "Program for Cross-Platform Content Production for release on New Media," increased the creation, dissemination, data collection and use of MIT ACG content and introduced international practices.

     i.) Since the opening of Taiwan Comic Base on Jan 24, 2019, it has held 45 promotional events and four groups of comic artists have worked here. It has facilitated the audiovisual copyright transaction of "The Summer Temple Fair," helped Ace Ya, a comic artist who created a comic book that depicts Taiwan's architectural heritage, win a publishing contract and assisted Arwen.H/Bankota Cheng with display of their works at hotels through matchmaking arrangement.

     ii.) The Forward-Looking Infrastructure Plan is expected to spend NTD 640 million on "Cross-Platform Content Production for Release on New Media" project to facilitate development of ACG industry between 2019 and 2022. The key achievements of the project are as follows:

        1. Providing financial support to some comics creators to assist them with publication of over 80 comics books, including a comic book on "medium of tiger god," "Yong-jiu Grocery Store," and "Sometimes in the City."

        2. Subsidizing the projects for adaption of text artwork to audiovisual works and games or derivative products or simultaneous development of such adaptation. For example, the animation based on comic book "Little Hero" launched its trailer and the animation was selected by Golden Horse Film Award scheme for sponsorship for its production. Other examples include adaption of comic book "Draca's Adventure" into a mobile game and family theater show with interactive AR technology and adaption of "Handsome Stewardess" into comic book and TV drama.

The Ministry also set up IP Lab to streamline cultural content production process, lower the production cost, introduce the latest technology from abroad. It also selected cultural content providers and schools for production of 16 forward-looking, experiential, cross-field works and assisted them with such production. The examples include production of "Space" MV by Tsing-Fong, multimedia production of 1661 KOXINGA Z with advanced digital technology of AR and VR, production of "The Abandoned Deity" movie with VR technology, and Costume Designer of Deity AR experience app, which allows the viewers to appreciate the craftsman's techniques of lacquer thread sculpture with 360 degree view.

As the end of 2019, the project had facilitated multi-media productions based on 13 comic characters with market potential, including animations of "Pigsy" and "Little Animation," board games of "Wulongyuan" and "Scrolls of Northern City," comic creation and game development based on "My Little Boys," development of board game based on the comic book of "The Apocalypse Of Darkness Warfare," and multi-media entertainment of "Monster Memory."

e.) The Ministry assisted small and medium-sized business in the publishing world with their transformation in response to development of digital technology with "digitalization" of the industry. The Ministry subsidized production and publication of digital and audio books by small and medium-sized publishers and the campaigns that promoted innovative operations and digital reading.

In 2019, 11 projects of "digital publications" received subsidies of the first category for production and release of 559 digital publications (including audio books) and 4 campaigns that promoted innovative operations and digital reading received subsidies of the second category for development of AI motion capture technology and IP applications, publication of interactive 3D books produced with AR technology, operation of platform for original audio works and development of reading passport apps for development of digital book industry. The Ministry also subsidized digital publication campaigns that had highly original features or offered considerable benefits in terms of talent cultivation, exchange and cooperation, including a competition of E-book writers, training for digital publishing talent, and participation in Digital Publishing Working Group of W3C and preparation of EPUB3 guideline in Taiwan, in order to increase digital capacity of people working in publishing industry. The Ministry also facilitated academia-industry matchmaking, participated in digital publication organizations and shared information about international development of digital publication with domestic publishers.

(3) Operation of Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab


a.) With cultural experimentation at the heart, the Ministry supported the generation of artistic creativity driven by futuristic imagination from artistic and cultural creativity to cultural and social innovation and created a platform for development of cross-disciplinary experiential knowledge. It also promoted international liaison and collaboration to create synergy through various experiments and innovation to drive cultural development with such effort.

     i.) The Ministry developed a new operating model featuring operation enhancement through organizational restructuring and partnered with professional intermediary organizations to create a platform for experiments on artistic creativity development. It commissioned Taiwan Living Arts Foundation to undertake professional operations and take charge of its administration of Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab in order to provide systematic support to facilitate freedom of artistic expressions and drive the development of arts ecosystem under the principles of "arm's length" and professional cultural governance.

     ii.) In 2019, Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab focused on work in four dimensions, including support for cultural innovation and research, increase of exhibition and performance events, access and utilization of cultural space and international exchange and networking. The project team carried out the "Creators" campaign to support youth creation, establish the national identity of local culture and facilitate collaboration among National Center for High-Performance Computing, IPLab and Digital Art foundation in order to improve the integration of domestic and international technology and cultural resources and drive experimental, cross-discipline, O2O media creations in the future.

     iii.) Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab is a new international organization that pushes for artistic innovation in three dimensions, including contemporary arts, technology and media and social innovation. After the Executive Yuan approved the first phase of the Public Infrastructure Plan (2018-2019), it had completed 7 international cooperation projects and organized over 200 events and a total of 28 teams had worked here as of the end of 2019. Moreover, it had carried out simple renovation of nine old buildings, including a former military building, in order to make space for its operations, including administrative activities, exhibitions, performance and experimental projects.

Meanwhile, the Lab also set up a 4D view virtual studio and DigiLog lab, enhanced the high voltage power supply system, demolished the wall and improved the landscape. With the approval of the Executive Yuan to implement the second phase of the project (2020 -2027), the Lab plans to introduce an operating model that features "partnership between one organization and three centers" for creation of a cultural ecosystem in order to drive development of contemporary arts, technology and media and social innovation through collaboration among the Ministry, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Science and Technology. Recently, it established a space planning committee for integration of opinions from various parities for its space planning and continued to implement the campaigns for international cooperation and exchange and recruitment of artist teams.

b.) The Ministry created a platform for cultural experiments related to contemporary arts, multi-media and social innovation, held a variety of events, including lectures, workshops, exhibitions, performance, and exchange activities and solicited project proposals to encourage development and presentation of different experimental plans:

In 2019, Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab served the function of a platform for experiments related to contemporary arts, multi-media and social innovation and held a variety of events, including exhibitions, performance, exchange, art festivals, public discussions, workshops and collaborative learning activities according to its annual plan. Its achievements are as follows:

     i.) The Ministry selected 15 cultural research or performance projects with experimental and exploration spirit, including 8 projects for support of local innovative research and 7 projects for on-site innovative research for the implementation of 2019 CREATORS program. The 2019 CREATORS program team also held two Open Studio events in order to help the public understand its achievements made at this phase.

     ii.) Contemporary Culture Lab worked with the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and Taipei Legend Studio to hold YAO-CHI CITY: Taiwanese Paranormal Literature and Contemporary Art Exhibition from July 5, to September 15, 2019 to display 34 cross-disciplinary works presented by professionals and teams in the areas of literary, artistic architecture and theater.

      iii.) From September 8 to 16 of 2019, Contemporary Culture Lab held C-LAB Summer Festival on the theme of Play Art, in which a total of 80 activities were provided, including interactive children’s playground at sand pit, markets, group creations, live broadcasting and summer night concerts. About 5,400 people participated in the festival and 100, 000 people watched the live broadcasting. 

      iv.) From October 5th to December 8th of 2019, Contemporary Culture Lab held "City Flip-Flop — Multiplex.Stained.Circulation" exhibition and implemented the City Flip-Flop international exchange project simultaneously for expansion of the network for cross-border cooperation.

      v.) Contemporary Culture Lab established C-LAB Taiwan Sound Lab on November 22, 2019 and signed a contract with IRCAM in France for a cooperation and exchange plan in the next 8 years. After the opening of C-LAB Taiwan Sound Lab, it worked with IRCAM for organization of the first C-LAB Sound Festival: Diversonics from November 22 to November 30, 2019. In addition, C-LAB Taiwan Sound Lab selected 6 local sound artists to visit France-based IRCAM for exchange activities in 2019.

(4) Paving the "Taiwan Culture Path"

a.) With Taiwan's historical culture as the main theme, the Ministry paved a theme-based cultural path to establish the national identity of local culture through integration of cultural venues, stories, education, science and technologies. It established a platform for cultural path integration and adopted a decentralized, bottom-up and public participatory approach. Through participation from both professionals and the general public, it constructed a detailed profile of Taiwan culture through integration of diverse perspectives for pavement of culture path and application of local knowledge.

      i.) The Ministry launched the platform for integration of cultural policies and cross-ministerial cooperation to pave Taiwan Culture Path in 2019. On May 28 and September 3, 2019, the Ministry held the first and second meetings for discussion over the platform. Bureau of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry worked with the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute to implement 4 demonstration projects about "tea culture," "Sugar Railway," "Alishan Forest Railway," and "revitalization of historical sites for reshaping of urban landscape" to pave for the "culture paths."

      ii.) The Bureau of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry outsourced the assessment and initial planning of the Taiwan Sugar Railway Culture Path project in July, 2019. On July 9th, 2019, Alishan Forest Railway was listed as a "significant cultural landscape" by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage and the Minister of Culture performed the ceremony to grant the status in person. Bureau of Cultural Heritage also planned to set up an office at Chiayi Cultural & Creative Industries Park for implementation of the "Alishan Forest Railway Culture Path" project. In August, 2019, Bureau of Cultural Heritage conducted the procurement for "revitalization of historical sites for reshaping of urban landscape" project. In March, 2019, the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Center commissioned professional Yuren Chen of National Taiwan University to carry out "Taiwan tea industry culture path" project. In May, 2019, a tea culture exhibition was held at Creative Expo Taiwan and cultural and historical surveys were launched simultaneously for review of available resources.

b.) The Ministry integrated local resources and in-depth tourism resources in Taiwan and, with support of government policies that encouraged return of youth to their home town and local placemaking, the Ministry developed local economies that generated economic benefits and drove positive development of cultural tourism:

      i.) The Ministry introduced the Cultural Fundamental Act on May 10th, 2019. According to Article 18 of the Act, "The nation shall draft policies on the development of cultural tourism to better make use of the nation's rich culture, spur the development of cultural tourism, and cultivate cross-disciplinary personnel to create an environment for sustainable cultural tourism." 

      ii.) The Ministry commissioned the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research to hold two meetings on September 19 and September 25, 2019 for solicitation of advice about cultural tourism. Practitioners, experts, and scholars from different regions as well as representatives of the Tourism Bureau of the MOTC and Department of Cultural Affairs of Taipei City Government and Taichung City government attended the meetings for discussion over issues related to cultural tourism development from different perspectives.

It also worked with the Department of Cultural Affairs of Miaoli County Government for interviews of local people in order to collect their opinions about its review of related practical issues. It also planned to outsource implementation of the Taiwan cultural tourism research project in 2020 in order to facilitate the formulation of domestic short-term, mid-term and long-term policies for cultural tourism development and create integration and support system through research, analysis and comparison of domestic and foreign policies about promotion of cultural tourism. The Ministry also enhanced governance performance of domestic cultural tourism through diversification of cultural tourism development strategies.

(5) Implementation of Cross-discipline Integration Flagship Program in the Fashion World

a.) In order to promote MIT fashion brands and export the unique Taiwan lifestyle, the Ministry integrated cross-ministerial resources and unique cultural elements of Taiwan for cross-discipline cooperation between the fashion industry and original fine art and visual design, original music, tourism, audiovisual content and technology industries to create a cross-discipline digital application ecosystem in the fashion world for the coordinated marketing efforts in MIT fashion branding:

The Ministry worked with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to launch Cross-discipline Integration Flagship Program in Fashion World with seven strategies. The Ministry was responsible for the following tasks: 

Organizing Taipei Fashion Week, creating a platform for promotion of MIT fashion, subsidizing cross-field fashion creations, cultivating fashion talent and preparing fashion award scheme. In order to effectively integrate resources of public sector and civil society and accelerate consensus building for government policy implementation, the Ministry invited experts from government, academia and industry to form the special force for promotion of cross-field fashion creations. The Ministry also organized Taipei Fashion Week in order to create a platform for exchange with the international fashion industry and subsidized cross-field fashion activities to help domestic fashion industry break into international market and increase its visibility in international fashion world in order to effectively increase market value of domestic fashion industry and promote MIT fashion culture.

b.) The Ministry set up an executive council made up from members from the Ministry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to serve as a platform for preparation of Fashion Week and the Fashion Awards scheme, which was launched to honor outstanding Taiwanese designers and discover new generation international talent and turn Taipei into a fashion hub through the hosting of the Taipei Fashion Week to enhance the international visibility of Taiwanese brands. It also subsidized cross-field innovation events in the fashion world in order to stimulate new ideas and creative exchanges between the fashion industry and other industries and Implemented talent cultivation programs for development of talent needed by the domestic fashion industry for entry into the international market:

     i.) The Ministry set up a task force for promotion of cross-field fashion creation, with the Minister of Culture as the chair, in order to effectively integrate resources of the public sector and civil society. It also created three advisory committees for Taiwan Fashion Design Award, Taipei Fashion Week and talent cultivation and international promotion projects and built execution panels to assist the project teams with variety of activities.

     ii.) The Ministry operated the Taiwan Fashion Design Award scheme for public acclaim for fashion workers with outstanding achievements and first-class MIT brands and encouragement to people dedicated to work related to creation and creativity. It planned to incorporate the first Taiwan Fashion Design Award into the activities of Taipei Fashion Week, an important event for MIT fashion brands and held the meeting eeking expert advice on March 6th, 2019. It has improved the award scheme and judges' activities.

      iii.) The Ministry held 2019 Taipei Fashion Week SS20 at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 3 and Songshan Cultural and Creative Park from October 4 to October 10, 2019. With the integration of resources of central government and several local governments, including Industrial Development Bureau. (Taiwan Fashion Talent Award and Taipei IN Style exhibition), Bureau of Foreign Trade (Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show),Ministry of Education (Scholarship Program for Overseas Study), Department of Cultural Affairs of Taipei City Government (big fashion shows, fashion market and international forums, Council of Indigenous Peoples (fashion of indigenous peoples), and Economic Development Department of New Taipei City (Fashion with heterogeneous materials), the Ministry organized a total of 24 fashion shows and 6 series of exhibitions; a total of 82 domestic designer brands participated in the Fashion Week to display 960 costumes and 82 international buyers (17 countries) attended this event, which was covered by 21 journalists from 16 international media and visited by a total of 44,176 people.

8. Implementation of cultural technology policy

a.) The Ministry followed the cultural technology policy agenda and designed and executed various action plans for implementation of the policy of combining culture and technology to enhance cultural technological capacity:

According to the Ministry's core vision of "cultural literacy cultivation to drive participation of the public in cultural affairs," the central government should actively help civil society grasp the opportunities created by the integration of culture and technology, facilitate cultural development through exploitation of technology and drive innovative development and applications of technology with thinking of humanities. The Ministry established the cultural technology policy agenda, which covers 2 visions and 6 implementation strategies, based on UNESCO 2018 Global Report "Re-Shaping Cultural Policies" and the "Culture is Digital" report published by UK government, according to the Cultural Fundamental Act. It made presentation on the agenda in the meeting for preparation of the executive council of cultural affairs meeting on November 22, 2019.

    i.) Visions: first vision - facilitate cultural participation through exploitation of technology, ensure cultural equality, promote cultural literacy in this digital era; 2nd vision – enhance local cultural production, promote national identity of local culture and develop the soft power of the nation through cultural initiatives.

     ii.) Implementation strategies: facilitate social innovation with exploitation of technology for cultural development, drive technology innovation, research and development through cultural initiatives, promote smart public cultural services, increase cultural accessibility and equality, develop national identity of local cultural brands, and improve digital governance and citizen participation in cultural affairs through digital technology.

b.) Production of cultural creations: the Ministry improved various cultural venues, preserved culture and drove development of development of cultural technology, cultural preservation and art and audiovisual content, pop music and ACG industries through combination of culture and technology:

     i.) The Ministry worked with the museums it administered to implement Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and related value-added digital application program in order to enhance cultural collection and research through exploitation of technology. For example, the National Museum of Taiwan Literature launched “Tales of Monsters,” a digital game based on its collection of domestic literary writers and developed with 3D modeling and VR technologies.

     ii.) The Ministry continued to do 3D scanning for recordation of national cultural heritage and upload the data to Taiwan Digital Asset Library for the public to access and use.

     iii.) In order to develop the ecosystem of cultural content industry, the Ministry launched the Cultural Content Technology Application and Innovation Industry Flagship Project, a four-year project, in 2016. Through implementation of the project, the Ministry has driven development of cultural content and cross-disciplinary cultural technology applications, assisted cultural IP owners with IP licensing and facilitated the matchmaking between cultural projects and lenders/investors.

     iv.) Through the implementation of the Directives on Subsiding Projects for Acceleration of Development of Cultural Content and Innovative Technology Applications and collaboration with the private sector, the Ministry encouraged cultural creations based on native materials with innovative approaches or technology applications, including systematic output of content creations, development of effective work model, introduction of innovative cross-disciplinary applications, development of marketing tools and cross-border collaboration, in order to significantly increase quantity of cultural production based on local stories and developed new model of cultural economy.

This project has made the following achievements through cross-field integration of resources in audiovisual content, literature, publishing, animation, pop music and cultural heritage sectors. In terms of story discovery, the Ministry helped the cultural industry create content with innovative thinking and technology applications. For example, production of a puppet show with special effects created by projection mapping, content development with AR and VR technologies, and creations of IP-based stories based on female legends in Taiwan history, including Huihsi Chen, Juhua Kao and Jui-yueh Tsai.

In terms of technology applications, the Ministry facilitated upgrade of the domestic content industry through content creations with exploitation of technology and innovative thinking. For example, exploitation of AI technology to accelerate production of subtitles in Taiwanese (Taigi), development of comprehensive marketing and investment assessment models through analysis of data collected from multiple sources, development of tools that accelerate production of audiovisual special effect and development of ticketing platform for social media users.

     v.) Cross-platform audiovisual shows on new media were launched in 2018. In response to development of content production released on new media and changes of audience’s viewing habit, such shows receiving subsidies were produced in a small number of short episodes and came in various types of shows. For example, Jungle Voice was a reality talent show on TTV and CTi Variety channels, which allowed the audience to vote for the candidates and interact with them via a mobile app, which increased the show’s exposure with cross-platform broadcasting. Other examples include Kimkong Puppetry Series 12:Genesis, Genesis on the online audiovisual content platforms of My Video and Friday, Taiwan Road Story on TV channel, YouTube and the official website of Da Ai, "Archives- PanSci," an innovative puppet show on popular science on the online platforms of Yahoo TV and YouTube, which was viewed 1,489,783 times and "MC is Coming" on KKTV and LINE TVV, which was viewed 374,825 times.

     vi.) The Ministry encouraged cross-industry cooperation for production of innovative performance and audiovisual content with special effects created by digital technology. In 2019, the Ministry subsidized 6 pop music projects on development of innovative audiovisual content with special effects created by digital technology, which have completed their demonstrative content development. In particular, "Inori" a short MV produced with VR technology and music of Kay Huang was part of the pop music project with cross-field collaboration between contemporary Japanese artist Miwa Komatsu and Taiwanese music producer Kay Huang. It was nominated for Venice VR, the official Virtual Reality competition section of the Venice International Film Festival.

     vii.) In order to streamline the cultural content production process, lower the production costs and introduce the latest technology from abroad, the Ministry also set up IP Lab, which created a 4D view virtual studio, introduced motion capture technology and installed the second Animated Virtual Camera system in Asia. The Ministry also commissioned Industrial Technology Research Institute to set up a team to provide operation and technical support for production of the demonstrative works. It also conducted the project for experimentation of IP-based creative 4D show and provided grants to some content production teams using 4D Views technology. It completed 16 campaigns ranging from audiovisual content, pop music with VR and A technology, contemporary arts, traditional music instrument, cultural exhibitions and cultural heritage preservation. These campaigns include MV of "Space" by Tsing-Fong, "1661 KOXINGA Z" produced with advanced digital technology of AR and VR, "The Abandoned Deity" movie produced with VR technology, and Costume Designer of Deity AR experience app, which allows the viewers to appreciate the craftsman's techniques of lacquer thread sculpture with a 360 degree view and the live piano playing with real-time multi-media show at Art Taipei.

     viii.) The Ministry implemented a project for integration of technology and culture with 14 campaigns of artistic innovation with technology and experimental productions, organized an International techno arts exhibition and selected three techno artists to launch their work in a scientific research lab of Industrial Technology Research Institute.

c.) Value-added applications: the Ministry carried out cross-field integration of cultural content and technology applications for value-added creations:

Through subsides granted to accelerate development of cultural content and innovative technology applications, the Ministry assisted the cultural industry with the development of a platform for creations based on stories with local cultural characteristics, such as providing subsidies to Mirror Fiction, Vocus and power of Content, in order to encourage content creations through operations of these online platforms. It also developed a brand-new "story industry chain" by deploying an IP management and authorization system. So far, the Ministry has developed 120 applications for cross-field authorization and facilitated circulation IP-based works to increase the market value of cultural content with cross-field applications.

d.) Authorized acquisition: the Ministry compiled an inventory of digital assets to facilitate creation of a friendly environment for licensing of enterprises and creators:

The museums administered by the Ministry carried out digital conversion of their collections and related materials collection. As of the end of 2019, they had provided the public access to over 140 000 pieces of information, prepared descriptive information and digital images about their collections, established the rights of these collections and provided related information via the iCollection website and Open Data Services website. The aforementioned endeavors not only allowed the public to browse and download the data for non-profit purpose, facilitated promotion of the collections and increased their visibility, but also drove value-added innovations and applications of the collections. In future, the Ministry can increase government operation efficiency and transparency and optimize government services through its collaboration with the civil society for integration of government resources and creativity of private sector in order to increase the economic benefits of the applications developed with these collections.

e.) Accessibility experience: the Ministry applied advanced technology in the restoration of various cultural venues like cultural heritages and museums and their story-telling services, created an art and cultural participation network and provided interactive musical experience:

     i.) The Ministry created the data collection and storage system of Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank for collection of culture-related digital materials gathered from institutions administered by the Ministry, city/county governments and culture-related civil groups. The parties using the aforementioned materials can set up a variety of websites on different themes with them and grant authorization of the captions via the platform of Creative Commons for continuous accumulation of materials related to cultural memory. So far, a total of 82 parties have used the system and accumulated over 100,000 pieces materials. From September to October of 2019, Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank worked with Wikipedia for the campaign of collecting information about people's memory about historical heritages.

     ii.) The Ministry launched the Consolidated Cultural Archives System, completed data entry for all the collections of all the institutions it administers and gradually provided important cultural collection institutions the access to the system. The Ministry of Culture launched the iCollection website to provide the public easy access to its collection for browsing and guide the system users with authorized use of its digital collections. The website also offers the link to the interface of Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank for users to access its rich digital collections, which are available to the public through downloading via the Open Data Services website of MOC. The Consolidated Cultural Archives System stored over 800,000 pieces of data provided by 36 institutions that contributed to cultural collection system. Over 580,000 pieces of data without doubts about authorization were accessible to the public and over 450,000 pieces of data were accessible to the public via the Open Data Services website of MOC.

     iii.) The Ministry worked with the museums it administers to implement Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and related value-added digital application program to enhance their collections, research and development of technology applications. For example, the National Taiwan Museum improved its guided tour services in different languages to people with different disabilities with exploitation of Beacon and GPS positioning technology and launched immersive interactive exhibitions of 3D animation of "Kangxi Taiwan Maps" and VR360 animation of "The Tale of Cloud Leopard and Formosa Black Bear." The National Museum of Prehistory devised the plan of its transformation into a "smart museum," published an AR picture book on the history of indigenous peoples in Taiwan and developed the exhibition model that provide multiple types of experience. It also introduced a management decision-making system based on big data about visitors’ behaviors and satisfaction levels in order to understand visitors’ behaviors.

     iv.) The Bureau of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry applied high-precision multiple sensor technology for development of a 3D computational model of its cultural heritage with their 3D records in order to assist cultural heritage management institutions with their preservation of cultural heritages through survey and assessment of historical sites and buildings and related cultural materials.

f.) The Ministry drove creation of a new model of cultural economy through assistance to content providers with their proposals of effective systematic IP development approaches, introduction of technological applications, creation of cross-field network and introduction of Innovative commercial operation model to facilitate the growth and development of cultural content industry:

     i.) In order to increase the importance of 3D models in development of audiovisual, animation, AR, VR and game industries, the Ministry created the Taiwan 3D Digital Asset Library. So far, 466 models have been developed and cloud information about 35 cultural heritages have been integrated. Through operation of the online platform of the Taiwan Digital Asset Library, several historical sites that no longer exist, including Kikumoto Department Store, Zhonghua Market and Fort Zeelandia, have been "revived" to drive development of the cultural economy and applications of urban aesthetics. The website platform adopts Creative Commons licensing practices, which authorize sharing of the content through the licensing scheme that follows Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike principles and release the content under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 approach (not including the patent rights and trademark rights).

     ii.) The Ministry has implemented the Cultural Content Technology Application and Innovation Industry Flagship Project since 2017 and facilitated private investments of NTD 1,118,560,000 in development of applications through integration of culture and technology in order to drive growth of cultural content industry.

     iii.) In 2019, The Ministry held the second Culture Tech Next forum to facilitate exchange of domestic industries and spread of related knowledge through experience sharing of famous international enterprises, display of related applications and Cultech Match (matchmaking between young entrepreneurs and the investors). This event expedited the arrangements of over 15 international cooperation campaigns for introduction of international practices to the domestic cultural industry.

9. Multi-faceted development of cultural diplomacy

(1) Localization” of international cooperation


a.) The Ministry continued to strengthen ties and cooperation with Taiwan-based international cultural institutions, encourage international NGOs to set up operations in Taiwan and encourage local youth participation:

     i.) With the Ministry’s efforts, the branch office of Living Arts International in Taipei City, the first international cultural NGO, was set up in August 2018 at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, with an eye on Southeast Asia. The Ministry worked with several international organizations, such as the British Council and Helvetas, an international organization in Switzerland, for a variety of cultural exchange and cooperation projects in order to expand the cultural network and promote collaboration between cultural work practitioners and related organizations.

     ii.) With the Ministry’s efforts, the Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM) established FIHRM – Asia Pacific National Human Rights Museum administered by the Ministry, in September, 2019, as an important platform to promote human rights in Taiwan and expedite cooperation between Taiwan and FIHRM and other related organizations.

b.) The Ministry cooperated with local governments and various national representative offices in Taiwan for development of international awareness and connection with international platform resources:
The Ministry worked with Taiwan-based offices of foreign governments for a variety of cultural events and exchanges as follows:

     i.) The Ministry worked with the Czech Economic and Cultural Office for invitation of the Trick Brothers, a circus in the Czech Republic, to Taiwan for exchanges. From May 3 to May 9 of 2019, it presented 7 shows at two facilities of Taipei 101, the gym of Nanhua Elementary School at South District of Tainan City and the plaza of Tainan Art Museum. A total of about 1,730 people attended their shows, which were covered by the domestic media 12 times.

     ii.) The Ministry worked with the French Office in Taipei for the organization of a Taiwan-France cultural workshop and the event of "La Nuit des Idées" in 2019.

        1. Taiwan-France cultural workshop on the theme of Culture X Tech was held at Nanmen Park National Taiwan Museum between May 30 to 31 of 2019 for the discussion of cultural governance in the digital era. VIP guest speakers, including Nicolas Orsini, Digital Innovation Department director of the Ministry of Culture in France, were invited to participate in the event for exchange with domestic experts and scholars in a series of forums and dialogues attended by about 100 people.

        2. The event of La Nuit des Idées on the theme of "facing the digital waves" was held at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab on Jan 31 for the discussion between Paula Forteza , a French Member of Parliament, and Taiwan's Digital Minister Audrey Tang and legislator Yu-jen Hsu. A roundtable forum attended by about 200 people was held during the event for discussion of related experts.

     iii.) The Ministry worked with the Slovak Economic and Cultural Office Taipei for the organization of the 6th Central European Film Festival at universities, fine arts galleries and cultural venues around Taiwan between May 16 to July 31 of 2019. A total of 1,271 people attended 10 events of the festival.

     iv.) The Ministry worked with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce for the organization of the second "Spanish Day" at No. 4 Warehouse of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park from March 30 to 31, 2019. A total of 4,923 people participated in the two-day event, which received 23 media coverages.

     v.) The Ministry worked with the European Economic and Trade Office f6r the organization of the European Film Festival at 35 venues of cultural and art performance facilities, theaters and college campuses in 16 counties and cities between November 29, 2019 and Jan 19, 2020.

(2) International promotion of local culture

a.) The Ministry promoted primary domestic cultural brands, introduced Taiwan's contemporary art and important neo-classic works to the international community, introduced MIT television shows and films to international audiences via coordinated marketing efforts of the “national task group”, promoted cross-strait cultural exchanges and industrial export and leveraged Taiwan’s democratic and multiculturalist features to cement Taiwan's solid brand advantage in the Mandarin-speaking world:

     i.) In order to assist the domestic cultural and creativities industry break into the international market, the Ministry gathered and selected exquisite cultural and creative brands for participation in important international events as a "national team" and arranged their visits to potential buyers during these events to seek opportunities for cooperation with international agents and distributors in order to increase visibility of domestic cultural and creativities industry in international market and increase market value of MIT cultural brands. In 2019, Creative Industries | Fresh Taiwan campaign selected 22 cultural enterprises for participation in three international events, including NY NOW tradeshow, Maison & Objet Paris and STYLE BANGKOK. 145 distributors placed orders of total amount of 128,031,800 through matchmaking efforts of the Ministry.

     ii.) In 2019, the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Center formed the "national delegation" for participation in 4 international events based on the concept of "The Top of Craft," including the Global Tea Fair China (Shenzhen) Spring, International Tea Expo of West China, Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Industry Expo and China (Beijing) International Tea Expo. The Ministry led the delegation of representatives from 15 craft businesses to participate in each of the four events in order to increase visibility of the local craft industry through concerted efforts of individual participants.

     iii.) In order to establish national identity of domestic audiovisual creations, the Ministry formulated audiovisual cultural communication policies that went in three directions. The first direction was empowerment of private organizations with the operation of TAICCA, the second was change of the Public Television Act to the Public Media Act for expansion of public TV and broadcasting system and the third was creation of an international OTT platform for domestic viewers and launch of national audiovisual transmission platform (non-linear) through the integration of civil society's resources in order to increase distribution channels in international market, develop brand identity of MIT audiovisual content and promote Taiwan culture and values in international society.

     iv.) The Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development of the Ministry continued to assist domestic TV content production industry with their participation in international events and matchmaking meetings and their expansion in overseas market through concerted efforts of "the national team." In 2019, it assisted domestic TV content production companies with their participation in several international events in China, including Filmart in Hong Kong, STVF in Shanghai and CITV to facilitate in cross-strait cultural exchange, export MIT audiovisual content and demonstrate soft power of Taiwan through presentation of rich cultural diversity and the values of freedom and democracy characterized by mutual respect.

In 2019, 30 groups of performing artists were selected to participate in international music festivals for performance and exhibitions at "Taiwan Pavilions" and promotion of international exchange through concerted efforts of the "national team." The aforementioned music festivals included 2019 SXSW, in which Small and Medium Enterprise Administration of the MOEA and the Ministry set up a booth at Taiwan Pavilion, and MIDEM in Cannes, France, in which Taiwan Pavilion exhibited works produced through collaboration of music, culture and technology industries facilitated by the first-time cooperation between Cultech and the Taiwan Pavilion to demonstrate the soft power of Taiwan in regard to music and technology. In order to support the New Southbound policy, the Ministry carried out the campaign of assisting the pop music industry with expansion in the Southeast Asian market in 2019 for commercial exchanges in Malaysia and the Philippines and matchmaking between performance artists and show opportunities. It selected 6 performance artist groups to perform at "Taiwan Night" and successfully completed the matchmaking between 7 Taiwanese investors and local pop music companies.

b.) The Ministry cooperated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs for research on economic and trade regulations and/or research of agreements involving culture, and the overseas marketing of the cultural creativity industries.

     i.) As a member of several international economic and trade organizations, including WTO, TiSA and APEC, Taiwan has endeavored to join international economic and trade agreements based on the "Cultural Exception" principle. The Ministry presented the report on the assessment of the cultural impact from joining CPTPP to the Office of Trade Negotiations of the Executive Yuan and the Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs on October 17, 2018.

     ii.) In order to safeguard Taiwan’s cultural autonomy and diversity, the Ministry incorporated the "Cultural Exception" principle into the Cultural Fundamental Act, which took effect on June 5, 2019 after it was passed by the Legislative Yuan, as a guideline for government efforts in promotion of international cultural exchanges and economic and trade cooperation.

c.) The Ministry expanded exchanges and cooperation with the countries of the New Southbound policy, gradually increased mutual trust and consensus through cultural exchange efforts like talent exchanges, immigrant empowerment programs and resource sharing and, in this way, built closer ties between people in Taiwan and the New Southbound Policy nations

     i.) In 2019, the Ministry organized a series of events for the Southeast Asia Advisory Committee (SAAC) and invited 15 SAAC members from 11 countries and domestic and foreign cultural leaders to attend them for cultural exchange. Since the first SAAC was set up in 2015, a total of 92 lectures, forums and film festivals on the theme of Southeast Asia have been held for the public in order to implement cultural work of New Southbound policy.

     ii.) The Ministry subsided 9 campaigns for promotion of cultural exchanges with Southeast Asian countries, implemented the Taiwan culture gardener team cultivation project, which subsided 11 youth teams for their visits to New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asian countries for cross-border art and cultural exchanges, and subsided 5 campaigns for cultural exchange with West Asian and South Asian countries.

     iii.) The Ministry worked with the Council of Indigenous Peoples to organize the book launch party for translation and new books on Austronesian Cultures in 2019. It subsidized several campaigns for promotion of local aboriginal cultures.

        1. It subsidized some aboriginal artists for their participation in YIRRAMBOI -Frist Nations Arts Festival in Melbourne, Australia in order to give performance and exhibitions during Taiwan week of the event.

        2. It subsidized Lan a Cultural and Educational Foundation to implement the campaign for promotion of Tao and Ivatan languages and cultures of Orchid Island of Taiwan and Batan Island of the Philippines and promotion of "flying fish culture." 

        3. It subsidized an aboriginal craftsmanship association in Miaoli County for a campaign of culture exchange between Taiwan and New Zealand with cross-border exchange of shell craft and research and collection of 654 pieces of domestic and foreign shell handicrafts to build connection of Austronesian cultures in Taiwan and New Zealand.

     iv.) In 2019, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia and Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand carried out 16 annual work plans to hold 135 events, which were attended by 90,212 and received 522 coverages of domestic and foreign media.

d.) The Ministry promoted upgrade of Taiwan's cultural festivals and local cultural support programs, fostered national identity of local cultural and art events in the international community, promoted cultural tourism and drove the prosperity of local industry.

     i.) The Ministry subsidized the Junior Chamber International Nantou for organization of "Sketchertour Nantou 2019," inviting famous painters from Malaysia, Singapore, etc. to participate in the event, in which Urban Sketchers promoted images of the city with photos, not paintings, taken during the arranged tours in order to increase its visibility and facilitate international exchange.

     ii.) The Ministry subsidized Talents Fly, an association created for international cooperation, for the TED x Weekend Taipei 2019 campaign to increase international community’s understanding of Taiwan society and culture through international forums and social media.

     iii.) The Ministry carried out Taiwan cultural festival upgrade programs to increase the number of art lovers and assist local governments with development of local cultures and establishing national identity of Taiwan culture in international society.

In 2019, the Ministry subsidized 14 campaigns of 10 county and city governments for collection, connection and exploitation of local resources. For example, Taoyuan City government organized the DaxiDaxi campaign that incorporated traditional cultural features of shetou groups and innovative design into the organization of a traditional festival. Taoyuan City government held Taoyuan Land Art Festival to present the natural and cultural landscape in order to rebuild the connection between people, land and environment of local communities. Tainan City government held the Yuejin Lantern Festival, which was an unconventional lantern festival characterized by creative artistic design featuring local historical and cultural element. The event won the 2018 Red Dot Design Award.

In 2019, the festival introduced the autumn exhibition, which attracted 1.21 million visitors, a record high in the history of the festival. Pingtung County government organized "Hear Here" music festival for preservation and promotion of folk songs through collaboration between local associations and government agencies. It also held an art festival that featured aboriginal art and culture element and music produced by local young people, who told their story by the combination of music of local folk songs and the lyrics they wrote, a way of art creation based on traditional culture for its adaptation in everyday life of modern society.

VI. Conclusion

Taiwan culture features diversity and richness. In 2019, the Ministry endeavored to promote cultural accessibility, cultural citizenship, creation of culture preservation system and re-use of cultural heritage to rebuild the connection between people's memory and their bond with Taiwan through implementation of a variety of cultural projects and policies.

At the same time, the Ministry was also dedicated to acquisition and promotion of local knowledge, increased local cultural literacy of the public and enhanced participation of young people and community-based organizations in cultural affairs in order to make people care about and participate in cultural activities and contribute to local culture preservation through such participation. It also promoted cultural economy and cultural technology and facilitated creative development of cultural industry to increase the competitiveness of Taiwan culture in international society, increased cultural exchanges with other countries to establish partnership with them, and carried out cultural diplomacy campaigns to increase Taiwan's visibility in international community. In 2020, the Ministry will continue to implement a variety of cultural programs with the aim to cherish, preserve, develop and promote the precious cultural assets of Taiwan.

The Ministry of Culture's predecessor, the Council for Cultural Affairs

Established in 1981, the initial mission of the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) was to provide artists, groups, and cultural events with subsidies and incentives. The CCA also began to organize key projects to enhance the island's cultural infrastructure and shape the nation's public image. It also helped to preserve cultural assets, advocate for the refinement of culture, and promote folk arts, thereby establishing a precedent for cultural governance.

In 1993, Taiwan entered a critical period that facilitated a transition of new cultural policies. This opportunity allowed the CCA to establish the National Culture and Arts Foundation in 1996 and begin the promotion of public art installations, regional art festivals, and small-sized international exhibitions and performances. The distribution of cultural resources widened as the CCA's influence grew.

In 1994, the CCA began to implement the Community Empowerment project, which aims to enhance the self-awareness of community residents through architectural space and local culture, as well as art and cultural events. The concept of building a civil foundation for Taiwan became a major national policy.

The approach of combining cultural elements with commercial development also emerged, which became known as "industrializing culture and enculturating development.” Programs were instilled to help local cultural industries better market and package their products with the help of local communities, and supervision of more literary and art festivals were handed over from the central government to regional authorities.

Since 2001, the CCA has proposed several flagship projects that have led Taiwan into a new era. The Culture and Creative Industries project, in particular, began with building cultural and creative parks in 2003. More cultural policies were rolled out in 2005, including the promotion of civil rights, daily aesthetics, and architecture, and the development of national and regional cultural facilities, which have all enhanced the cultural development in Taiwan.

In 2010, the enactment of the Law for the Development of Cultural and Creative Industries helped the creative sector enter a stage of institutionalization. While cultivating culture on the grassroots level, the CCA also implemented cultural policies that followed global precedents and promoted international exchanges.

In May 2012, the Ministry of Culture was established as the successor to CCA's line of work. By issuing four major directives — grassroots policies, international promotion policies, value-enhancing policies, and digital e-culture policies  the Ministry aims to secure equal cultural rights for all, contribute to the nation's soft power on the world stage, enhance the overall output and value of Taiwan's creative sector, and harness the power of cloud computing to offer easier access to cultural resources.

1.      Line units and floors

Ministry of Culture 

Address/Telephone

Floor

Line Units

13F., South Tower, No. 493, Zhongping Rd., Xinzhuang Dist., New Taipei City 24219, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Operator:028512-6000

13 F

Department of Cultural Resources, Secretariat, Department of Personnel Affairs

14 F

Department of Humanities & Publications, Department of Audiovisual and Music Industry

15 F

Department of Arts Development, Department of Cultural and Creative Development 

16 F

Directorate General of Budget, Department of Information Management

17 F

Department of Cultural Exchange, Department of General Planning

4F., No. 5, Xuzhou Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 10055, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Operator: 022356-6467

4 F

Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Center


Line Units

Contact Number

Descriptions of Line Units

Department of General Planning

(Policy Planning Division)

02-8512-6793

Developing and coordinating Ministry of Culture's administrative policies, medium-term and annual administration plans, preliminary plans, medium and long-term plans, comprehensive policies and measures.

(Supervision and Evaluation Division)

02-8512-6766

Tracking, controlling, assessing and evaluating the Department's medium and long-term plans, annual administration plans and resolutions in important meetings.

(Human Resources Division)

02-8512-6773

1. Establishing and supervising cultural legal persons and charitable trust.

2. Planning, reviewing, coordinating, granting and promoting the integration of private resources and cross-disciplinary human development

3. Training, managing, coaching and granting culture volunteers and substitute civilian servicemen

 

Culture Statistics Division

02-8512-6790

1. Planning and managing the National Information System for Artistic and Cultural Activities

2. Conducting statistical surveys on various cultural activities in counties and cities across the country,  introducing related educational training, and briefing cultural conditions

Department of Cultural Resources

(Cultural Resources Development Division)

02-8512-6307

1. Developing and integrating cultural resources policies

2. Promoting Youth Go! Village Cultural Development Project

3. Promoting Indigenous Village Cultural Development Project

4. Supervising operations on cultural assets

5. Promoting old buildings (potential cultural assets) Preservation and Rejuvenation Plan

(Museum Division)

02-8512-6330

1. Developing and promoting museum policies

2. Counseling and granting (assisting) museums and museum talent cultivation

3. Museum exchanges and cooperation

4. Other matters regarding the promotion of the museum operations

(Cultural Facilities Division)

02-8512-6335

1. Planning and promoting the construction and renovation of cultural facilities 

2. Integrating resources of local cultural museums with neighboring halls and communities 

3. Counseling and granting (assisting) local cultural museums and talent cultivation

4. Organizing cases regarding participation in cultural facilities 

(Community Development Division)

02-8512-6317

1. Handling Community Building III  Phase for 22 counties and cities and subsiding Village Cultural Development Project

2. Subsiding cases regarding “Directions on Grants for Promoting Community Building and Village Culture”

3. Subsiding cases regarding Community Building Projects Between the Old and Young

4. Maintaining and promoting the Taiwanese Community Platform and local knowledge construction

5.  Handling “Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and Digital Value-added Application Project”

6. Supervising National Hsinchu Living Art Center, National Changhua Living Arts Center, National Tainan Living Art Center and National Taitung Living Art Center.

Department of Cultural and Creative Development

(Industry development  division)

02-8512-6572

1. Subsiding Innovation Incubation Center for arts and culture industries 

2. Cultivating talents for cultural and creative industries

3. Investment tax credit regarding cultural and creative industries

4. Cultural and creative industries entrepreneurial projects

5. Law for the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Article 26 and article 28 regarding tax

6. Preparing the Creative Content Agency 

7. Cultural and creative industries survey and market intelligence collection, construction and publication

8. Organizing the overall operations

(Industry Extension  Division)

02-8512-6585

1. Organizing Creative Expo Taiwan

2. Promoting cultural and creative industries in international markets

3. Offering grants for participation in cultural and creative international exhibitions and competitions

4. Subsiding the development of cultural and creative industries for Municipalities and County (City) Governments 

5. Counseling core creation and independent workers entering Culture Creative Clusters

6. Supervising National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute

(Industry Application Division)

02-8512-6558

1. Investment and subsidy programs for cultural and creative industries

2. Intangible assets valuation for cultural and creative industries

3. Establishing capital market for cultural and creative industries

4. Planning, reviewing and promoting the rewards and subsidies of cultural and creative industries (including general subsidies and area subsidies)

5. Counseling cultural and creative industries

6. Training film finance talents 

7. Planning, promoting and supervising technology application and collection on cultural and creative industries

8. Promoting the development of other cultural and creative industries applications

(Park Management Division)

02-8512-6580

1. Planning the establishment of Cultural Creative Industries Parks

2. Establishing, planning, constructing and operating Cultural and Creative Parks in Huashan, Hualien, Chiayi and Tainan  

3. Facilities maintenance, cleaning management, venue rental of Hushan Central Art Park

4. Chiayi Cultural & Creative Industries Park 1-2 Zone outdoor venue rental and management

5.  The overall plan of Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, including establishment, planning, construction and operation.

Department of Audiovisual and Music Industry

(Audiovisual and Music Division)

02-8512-6419

1. Establishing and revising Directions on Grants (Donations) for Audiovisual and Music

2. Emergency allowance for video and music professionals  

3. Planning counseling policy for broadcast industry 

4. Counseling broadcast-related legal persons and groups

(Popular music Division)

02-8512-6429

1. Establishing and revising popular music-related regulations

2. Planning pop music-related counseling policies

3. Counseling popular music-related legal persons and groups

4. Planning and developing exchange policy for popular music 

5. Supervising Taipei Center for Popular Music and Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center

(Movie Division)

02-8512-6409

1. Establishing and revising movie-related regulations

2. Planning movie-related counseling policies

3. Counseling movie-related legal persons and groups 

4. Organizing Golden Horse Awards and Golden Horse Film Festival

5. Preparing national film cultural center

(Broadcasting Division)

02-8512-6435

1. Establishing and revising movie-related regulations

2. Planning movie-related counseling policies

3. Counseling movie-related legal persons and groups 

4. Planning and developing exchange policy for TV industry 

Department of Humanities & Publications

(Humanities Development Division)

02-8512-6463

1. Cultivating, planning, coordinating, counseling and promoting humanistic qualities, including literature, history and philosophy

2. Developing, planning and promoting and granting reading promotion project

3. Releasing, promoting, circulating and selling of government publications as well as revising related regulations

(Cultural Development  Division)

02-8512-6472

1. Developing, counseling and promoting literature promotion project

2. Cultivating literary talents

3. Developing, counseling and promoting international marketing, exchange and cooperation and cross-border promotion projects for literature

4. Promoting independent bookstore program

(Digital Publishing, News and Magazines Division)

02-8512-6480

1. Proposing, granting, cultivating, researching digital publishing development as well as counseling legal persons and groups.

2. Counseling and granting newspaper industry and magazine industry as well as counseling related legal persons and groups

3. Newspaper and magazines form China, Hong Kong and Macao entering, exhibiting, selling, distributing, producing, and reviewing in Taiwan.

4. Supervising and counseling Central News Agency

5. Promoting government publications and e-books

6. Conducting Surveys on publication industry

(Book Division)

02-8512-6493

1. Counseling and granting book industry, cultivating professional talents, counseling relevant legal persons and groups in the comics industry 

2. Counseling and subsiding book publishing industry for overseas exhibitions

3. Reviewing books from China, Hong Kong and Macao entering exhibiting, selling, distributing, and producing in Taiwan.  

4. Planning and executing the promotion, distribution and sales services for government publications 

(Language Division)

02-8512-6485

1. Relevant matters regarding planning, promotion and supervision of the national language policy

2. Legal process regarding national language development 

3. National language inheritance, development and revitalization

4. Coordinating and supervising language development of various Ministries

5. Planning and executing language rights

Department of Arts Development

(Arts Development Division)

02-8512-6510

Comprehensive art operations and reduction of amusement tax

(Visual Arts Division)

02-8512-6520

1. Consultation on subsidy for visual arts 

2. Consultation on issues related to public art setting in counties and cities

3. Consultation on art bank 

(Performing Arts Division)

02-8512-6534

Consultation on performing arts subsidies programs and other operations related to performing arts

(Art Promotion Division)

02-8512-6545

1. Coaching the visual arts industry to organize or participate in international art exhibitions

2. Promoting Flagship Program of Taiwanese exhibition art and technology 

3. Implementing, promoting and coordinating the Regulation of the art exhibition and Performing Arts Ticket Standard Contract

Department of Cultural Exchange
(International Exchange Division)

02-8512-6726

Developing and promoting international cultural exchange policy 

 (Asia-Pacific Division)

02-8512-6720

Planning and promoting cultural and art exchange and cooperation in Asia-Pacific region

Europe-Africa Division

02-8512-6292

Planning and promoting cultural and art exchange and cooperation in Europe and Africa 

American Division

02-8512-6728

Planning and promoting cultural and art exchange and cooperation in American region

Cross-Strait Division

02-8512-6736

Planning and promoting cross-strait cultural and art exchange and cooperation 

Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Center (General Division) 

02-2341-1105

1. Organizing traveling exhibitions of Mongolian and Tibetan cultural relics

2. Organizing Mongolian and Tibetan Culture  educational promotion activities 

3. Promoting language courses in Uighur Mongolian 

4. Collecting Mongolian and Tibetan cultural relics and digital collection management 

5. Improving buildings and hardware and software equipment

(Mongolian Division)

02-2356-6445

1. Promoting Mongolian culture to enhance Taiwan's multicultural development

2. Caring and counseling Mongolians in Taiwan

3. Integrating private resources to promote exchanges with Mongolian communities

(Tibetan Division)

02-2356-6419

1. Organizing Tibet Culture and Art Festivals

2. Making contacts and taking care of Tibetans in Taiwan and tutoring Tibetan students

3. Checking the identity of Tibetan people, registering and issuing certification

4. Overseas Tibetan monks propagate Buddhist teachings in Taiwan and counseling of Tibetan Buddhism groups

5. Identifying the status of stateless Tibetans in India or Nepal

Secretariat

(Documentation Division)

02-8512-6364

Mail Room (Inbound), Mail Room (Outbound), and files application

Procurement Division

02-8512-6376

1. Purchasing 

2. Property management

(General Affairs Division)

02-8512-6394

1. Cashier, Office, maintenance worker and library management 

2. Other related general affairs

Department of Civil Service Ethics

02-8512-6233

Anti-corruption matters

Department of Information Management

(Information Strategy Division)

02-8512-6660

1. Developing and maintaining administrative common systems, such as enterprise information portal (EIP), system for official documents, attendance management system, payroll system and funds system.

2. Planning, counseling, application, execution and management of cultural technology projects

(Information Security Division)

02-8512-6670

1. Managing and maintaining the computer facilities

2. Information security 

(Services Division)

02-8512-6680

Managing and maintaining common systems, such as iCulture, Open data, co-construct platform, cultural archives management, grants and subsidies, activities and registrations, video platform, library automation system, digital content and Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank.

Publicity and Media Team

02-8512-6071

Media contact and press release