The 2021-2022 National Cultural Congress was held on May 28 and 29 at the Taipei International Convention Center. Those present at the congress included Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who gave the opening speech, Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te, legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤), Fan Yun (范雲), and other representatives and participants from industries, the government and the public.
This year's congress revolved around the theme of "Culture is Endless (文化，生生不息)," with topics closely tied to "cultural life" and "cultural production," covering four main topics: visual arts, performing arts, digital cultural communications, and the application of technology to culture through a series of events and symposiums. From October to November last year, four regional forums and six symposiums were held in various regions of Taiwan.
In his concluding remarks at this year's event, Minister Lee said that it was a fruitful event and he learned a lot from it. The ministry spent almost an entire year mapping out the topics for this year’s symposiums and collecting opinions from the public and professionals working in cultural sectors.
From a structural perspective, Minister Lee responded that this is a long-term unresolved issue and while Taiwanese are proud of the nation’s rich cultural foundation, Taiwan’s cultural production capability has been insufficient, resulting in policies often implemented with unclear goals. He added that changes must be made to budgets for programs and the perspectives of people.
Minister Lee also pointed out that due to the rapid growth of digital content creation and streaming, younger generations have an abundance of information readily available from all around the world. The government must do its best to develop the Taiwanese cultural content industry, and cultivate local talents so as to solve the biggest issue facing Taiwan, which is the "loss of cultural sovereignty." In addition, MOC will continue to work with all sectors to find the fundamental solutions to the development of emerging and digital technologies.