Ministry of Culture-Annual Policy Plan

Annual Policy Plan

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.