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Government ignores international culture
exchanges: Kuan
By Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Apr 29, 2010, Page 3
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday
accused the Council for Cultural Affairs of overemphasizing cross-strait
cultural exchanges while ignoring international ones.
During a question-and-answer session with Council for Cultural Affairs Minister
Emile Sheng (盛治仁) at the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, Kuan
said the council’s budget for cross-strait cultural exchanges last year grew 2.2
times from the previous year, while the budget for promotion of international
cultural exchanges only increased 24.6 percent.
For this year, the budget for cross-strait exchanges rose 1.3 times, while that
for global affairs only climbed 25.5 percent, she said.
BUILDING IMAGE
“Every country is trying to build up its image through international cultural
exchanges. These countries clearly know what their objectives are, but [the
Taiwanese government] only wants [foreigners] to get to know Taiwan” without
really understanding it, Kuan said.
Kuan said the council’s international cultural exchange policy should focus on
promoting Taiwanese culture in the international arena to fight China’s attempts
to annex the country by claiming that Taiwanese culture is part of Chinese
culture.
LANGUAGE ACADEMIES
Meanwhile, Sheng said the council plans to establish two Taiwan Language Academy
branches in Los Angeles and Houston next month.
Establishing Taiwan Language Academies abroad to compete with China’s Confucius
Language Academies for learners of Mandarin was one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s
(馬英九) campaign promises.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) expressed concern
over the council’s small NT$20 million (US$636,000) budget, however.
TRADITIONAL EDGE
Hung asked how the proposed Taiwan Language Academy would be able to compete
with its Chinese counterpart, which has already established 282 branches of the
Confucius Language Academy in 88 countries and recruited more than 230,000
students since 2004.
The minister acknowledged the difficulty, but said that the council hoped to
capitalize on the Taiwan Language Academy’s competitive edge — as a place where
people can learn about classical Chinese culture and traditional Chinese
characters.
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