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Taiwan's
latest
promotional
strategy
nothing is wrong ―
Taiwan no
longer depends on diplomacy or the military
to boost its power, so Taipei
must
fight reverses by increasing its "soft power"(ps)
to stand on the international stage.
But Taiwan should prefer to be a
great country,
rather than a
"everybody-heard" country.
BBC's
article at Oct. 24, 2010 reported Taiwan's
soft power is wide-ranging and
listed examples including :
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Taiwan's examples |
This website views |
|
(1) |
Taiwan's golfer Yani Tseng | Taiwanese Tze-Chung Chen made 1st double-eagle in Us Open's 85 years history (I remember he always wore a ROC cap) , lots of people still can't distinguish Taiwan from Thailand (one of Taiwan strategy's goal this time) |
(2) |
provide generous humanitarian assistance to countries struck by disasters |
(1)
"Soft
Power"
definition by
Dr. J
Nye (Harvard)
:
through
attraction, rather than
coercion or payments.
(2) First of all, Taiwan should improve Taiwan' human rights. |
(3) | cultural festivals and culinary events | Taiwan's cultural creativity is poor . |
(4) | being just a manufacturer of the world's high-tech products | Should upgrade to "Created in Taiwan" from "Made in Taiwan". |
(5) | Taiwan's North Pole marathon runner Chen Yen-po, |
I am wondering
how much the
success of China's wide-ranging Olympics gold medals, or Cuba's world No.1 baseball
is boosting communist countries' image?
Taiwan needs to improve its human rights, press freedom, corruption, such fundamental and 1st-priority things. |
(6) | tennis player Lu Yen-hsun | |
(7) | Taiwan's tourism wonders on advertisements on London buses, the BBC and CNN, etc. (because not too many foreign visitors per yr.) |
(1)
Taiwan's
Ads. creativity is poor, hardly
see Cannes Lion creativity. (2) Taiwan's sight is worse than many nations like Swiss, US, etc. |
(8) | open Taiwan Academies to promote Taiwanese culture and the learning of Chinese language abroad |
(1)
Are Taiwan cultures better than Western
cultures ? (2) Chinese language is hard to learn. |
(9) | Google stories and video news in English about Taiwan on Google | Taiwan's cultural creativity is poor, hard to deeply impress the world . |
(10) | sent First Lady Chow Mei-ching on more official visits overseas | good luck! |
(11) | Jason Wu American fashion designer Jason Wu to highlight his Taiwan connections. | He's not a Taiwanese. |
(12) | Lin Yu-chun, an amateur singer ... on YouTube | UK counts on singer Boyle Susan to boost national image ? |
(13) | philanthropist vegetable vendor Chen Shu-chu . |
★ vendor
Chen Shu-chu ( selected as one of Time
magazine's 100 most influential people of 2010) is poor but
generously donate her money. besides, according to major media, Taiwanese people's social value is "laugh at the poor instead of prostitutes". |
Taiwan's view on◎ |
Effects of soft power |
BBC reported Taiwan's view on the effects of 'soft power' ― "Take Norway for example, it has the Nobel peace prize; when we think of it, we think well of it. Finland has Nokia, which also helps that country's image." ...
This viewpoint probably needs to be discussed.
Finland |
Norway |
Taiwan (ROC) |
institute |
|
Freedom of the Press |
No.1 |
No.1 |
No.43 |
<Freedom House>, USA (2009) |
|
No.1 |
No.4 |
No.48 |
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Corruption Perception Index |
No.4 |
No.10 |
No.33 |
<Transparent International> , Germany (2010) |
Global Peace Index | No.9 | No.5 | No.35 |
<E.I.U.> Wikipedia 2010 |
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Norway :
Taiwan's
strategy only focus on having something like Nobel Peace Award,
without
noticing Norway's world top 5 ranking status of
"Global Peace Index" by Economist
I.U.
―
but Taiwan only ranked No.35 in 2010.
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Finland :
Taiwan focuses on Nokia's
achievements , without drawing attention to
Finland's world No.1
status of "Press Freedom
Index" in both US-based
<Freedom House>
as well as France-based
I firmly believe
Finish people prefer their human rights status rather than having a cell-phone company,
the communication content is much more important than the
comm. equipment.
Taiwan's Press freedom
ranked 43rd and 48th respectively in F.H. and
R.S.F..
(pls see table above).
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great country vs. everybody-heard country |
Human rights ( certainly is 'soft power' ) is fundamental for a country, like the bottom of a boat, Advertisements marketing and Public Relations (wide-ranging like design, athletes, food, etc) are just some flags in a boat.
Taiwanese officials corruption is serious and has not really improved since 1995 ― Taiwan fluctuated between 25th and 35th place from 1995 till 2007, dropped to 39th in 2008, bit moved back to 37th in 2009, then 33rd in 2010, communist China was even better than Taiwan according to PERC's survey of 2009, how can Taiwan distinguish from China? ― this is one major purpose of Taiwanese government's soft power strategy.
Although Advertisements and Public Relations are useful tools to promote some nations' images, Taiwan needs creativity (now is poor, click for details) to deeply attract & impress the world, to persuade this planet Taiwan is really a free country full of interesting people, so that BBC probably won't say " The effects of Taiwan's efforts to boost its profile may be too early to tell".
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Taiwan's purpose |
soft power | The purpose of Taiwan's "soft power" strategy - according to BBC's article 1. standing on the international stage. 2. included in international organisations. ( in the past had been blocked by China ) 3. distinguishing Taiwan from China and ensuring the world does not forget the democratic and self-ruled Taiwan's cause - to be recognised as a country and included in international decision-making bodies.
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ps |
(1) Article "'Soft power' raises Taiwan's profile" by BBC News at Oct 24, 2010.
(2) What's "soft power" ?? refer to 2 views below
1. Soft Power's definition by Harvard U. professor Dr. J Nye
: As the term indicates, soft power is the opposite of hard
power. “Soft power" is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. Soft power arises from the attractiveness of a
country’s culture, political ideals, and policies.
2. so
called "soft power" is a country's ability to get others to
accept or recognize its goals by "persuading, attracting and
cooperating, " citing a definition by Dr. Joseph Nye, a Harvard University
scholar of politics who coined the phrase in the mid-1980s. -
Oct. 18, 2010 (CNA)
(3)
Taiwanese
Cultural performance in Deaflympics
Opening
Ceremony holding in Taipei (Taiwan), but the
government spent little efforts on promoting
this international event to the world except
China, so that very few visitors came
Taiwan, even neighbor-countries Korea and Japan had
not heard of this game.
Is this a good opportunity to show Taiwan's
Soft Power ??
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