Discovering the Bluefin in Tungkang--The Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival

"The five-word mantra that I keep repeating to students when I teach classes on how to market the festival is as follows: 'Fresh, energetic, spectacular, unique, and authentic,'" says Hung Wan-lung, past director of Pingtung County Cultural Affairs Bureau and currently principal of I-Shou International School.

As an example, one might point to the rare sight of 12 real-life fishermen, clad in their raingear, with their tanned complexions and some still chewing on betel nuts, chatting, shaking hands, and taking pictures shoulder to shoulder with the president in their everyday work environment. This fresh and unique scene very quickly made headlines in the media.

Promotional efforts for the second year's festival went a step further, calling on the president and the county commissioner to haul bluefin tuna together. But how large should the fish be? With which arm should they carry the fish? How should they hold the bluefin so that it wouldn't slip out of their grasp? What kind of anti-slip preparations should be made? All these details needed to be carefully considered and planned. Hung began having second thoughts almost as soon as he had gotten off the phone with the president, who had just agreed to participate. He explains, "The president and the county commissioner are of rather different heights, and most of the weight of a bluefin is in its head. So if the two were to haul the fish together, the weight would be disproportionately at the president's end. What could we do about that?" Hung is still amused when he remembers those opening ceremonies for the festival's second year. In the end, the county commissioner, the taller of the two, had to crouch down so that the weight of the fish would be evenly distributed between the two men.

The third year, Hung dreamed up a giant balancing scale. On one end were bluefin weighing 250 kilos, while on the other end were children from Pingtung, Acting County Commissioner Wu Ying-wen, Interior Minister Su Jia-chyuan and President Chen serving as counterweights. The scales approached a balancing point as each person was added on. Once more, a memorable image had been created.

For the past five years, President Chen Shui-bian has been invited to serve as spokesman for the bluefin tuna festival, which has helped Pingtung County break out of its relative media isolation given its location on the southern tip of Taiwan. Here, President Chen and then-Pingtung County commissioner Su Chia-chyuan (second from the right) are pictured together hauling bluefin tuna.

Days of headlines

In its stunning public relations salvo, the Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival has not only shaken off traditional media neglect of southern Taiwan, it has also established a brand image whereby one feels that "to eat tuna one should go to Tungkang."

Not only are the opening ceremonies eye-catching, but the marketing campaign for the festival as a whole encompasses four stages that unfold over nearly two months, gradually introducing the public to festival activities and ensuring a constant stream of media coverage.

Half a month before the festival, one begins to see in food sections of the print media popularized accounts of various ways of eating bluefin tuna, including descriptions of the sensations of eating sashimi from different portions of the fish. The second marketing stage emphasizes "touring Pingtung" to enjoy its scenic spots and cultural highlights. The third stage focuses on how Pingtung's cuisine fits into its natural seaside and mountainous setting, utilizing the electronic media to fully capture the place's beauty and ramp up excitement for the festival. After the festival begins, the organizers work according to Hung's "five-word mantra" to supply the media with vivid stories and hot topics for conversation, utilizing weekly news conferences to stay firmly in the public eye.

After the festival organizers began to use various means of working with the media, many other newly established festivals sought to emulate their success, thinking that all they needed was that media relationship to ignite public interest and set the tone for their own festivals. "But actually that's not true, because media-based marketing is just a tool. What's important is the substance of the festivities," says Hung. For if the festival itself is rather insubstantial, media accounts will be correspondingly bland. In that case, even with a lot of coverage, the public will not become interested.

"Stories are what really capture people's imaginations, and as long as there really is something behind a story, even telling a joke can leave a deep impression," says Hung. As an example of one such story, there was an event in the packaged itinerary that called for rafts in Tapeng Bay. It turns out that there already was a kind of "convenience store" raft that served the fishermen and oystermen in the bay, selling boxed lunches, cigarettes, and drinks. Hung was inspired. He used the theme of "7-Eleven on the Bay" and invited to the news conference a Mr. Yeh who had inherited this waterborne business from his father. In this way, what started as local lore now became a distinctive part of the festival as a whole.

Tungkang beauties, modeling creative fishing wear fashions and bluefin-inspired attire, bring out the "three culinary treasures" of Tungkang: cherry blossom shrimp, bluefin tuna, and roe (above), beckoning to tourists from northern Taiwan. The advent of the bluefin festival has greatly raised the culinary and aesthetic bar for Tungkang dining.

The cultural bureau selling fish?

No one can deny that Hung is the driving force behind the Pingtung Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival. Fifty-seven years old, he favors suspenders and sports a bit of a belly. Previously in the music department at National Sun Yat-sen University, Hung transferred to Pingtung five years ago to take on the job of cultural affairs director, a post that was actually a step down in terms of official rank.

After assuming his position Hung established a business development committee, charged with finding Pingtung industries with the potential for further growth. Hung listed three requirements as they began their search: the industry must be earn more than NT$200 million in revenues yearly; it must have a clear seasonality to its operations; and it must have rich story-telling potential. Although the committee ended up recommending 37 different industries, none met all of his requirements.

Hung was racking his brains when a group of bluefin tuna fishermen arrived to see the county commissioner regarding their plight. While originally 80% of their catch had gone to Japan, the economic decline there had resulted in a severe drop in bluefin prices and in the amount they were able to export. Sitting in on the meeting, Hung discovered that Tungkang's bluefin sales amounted to over NT$300 million a year, that the migratory fish could only be caught in May and June of each year through a variety of special techniques, and that epicureans considered bluefin the very best for making sashimi. In other words, the industry met all three of Hung's requirements for the ideal business candidate for promotion and development.

While the agriculture and tourism officials were still wrestling over who should take the lead in promoting the bluefin industry, Hung passed a handwritten note to Su Jia-chyuan, then county commissioner and subsequently to become interior minister. It said, "Why not let the Cultural Affairs Bureau take charge of this?" That simple note would profoundly transform the bluefin industry in Tungkang away from a Japan-oriented export business and towards the creation of a sought-after domestic market.

After identifying the bluefin as the "Rolls Royce" of the fishing industry, the next task was to lock on to a target audience. Hung settled on the 35-and-up middle-class demographic, promoting bluefin tuna as gourmet seafood and Ping-tung as a top-notch tourist destination. "That first decision was crucial, because all our marketing efforts that followed would focus on this core group," says Hung.

To that end, Hung led Cultural Affairs Bureau staffers to speaking engagements at such major civic organizations as the Rotary Club, the Junior Chamber, and the Lions Club in central and southern Taiwan to implement a strategy of building a favorable image through word of mouth.

Based on this careful targeting, the festival, held in May and June each year, has ended up bringing in over NT$15 million to Tungkang from products and parking fees and over NT$2 million in tax revenue from various Tungkang restaurants and eateries. Add to that what tourists spend on packaged tours, transportation and related expenses, and the economic benefit of the festival comes to over NT$1 billion a year.

This arts activity gathers southern Taiwanese artists in Tungkang's fishmarket, drawing on their artistic eye to capture evocative images.

Casting the hook

But the festival's ambitions are for more than simply to enhance the reputation of the bluefin tuna. After all, placing the focus on the gustatory experience might lead to the criticism that the festival is only concerned with the seafood and not with local culture. This criticism is all the more relevant given the current and rather strong decline in the production of bluefin tuna.

Nowadays, most industry-based festivals tend to put on attention-grabbing events like special banquets and beauty pageants. When there is not enough of a given local product to meet demand, organizers might even import further supplies from the outside to mix in with the real thing. But after such festivities, everything usually goes back to normal without the local industry being much benefited. Contrary to that model, Hung is of the belief that such festivals should redefine and transform the industries they promote.

"We have to turn food lovers into tourists. We have to make it so that Tungkang is not just a fishing village, but a destination for discovering fishing culture," Hung says. By emphasizing this message, Hung hopes that those who stop by Tungkang will not just come for a whirlwind visit of eating and then head home, but will linger awhile.

Bluefin tuna, honored with the reputation of being the "Rolls Royce" of seafood. In a declining fishing industry, transforming gourmands into tourists who not only consume the fish but also come to appreciate seaboard culture has become a pressing concern for festival organizers.

Creative bluefin cuisine

"The greatest change brought about by the Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival has been the elevation of Tungkang's cuisine," says Hung. Indeed, in the past five years, through the county government's certification standards, Tungkung's culinary culture has completely transformed.

The bluefin tuna banquet is the hallmark of the festival, and in the first year the county government ran a contest in which restaurants were asked to design a ten-course menu for NT$6,000 per table. The winner would gain the privilege of preparing meals for packaged tours coming into town. The winner that year, Chang's Family Restaurant, proposed an 18-item bluefin menu, with each dish introducing a different way to enjoy the fish. Aside from featuring the highest quality bluefin belly sashimi at NT$300-400 per piece, the menu featured items that had formerly not been highly valued, such as the eyes, spine and tail. In this menu, bluefin eyes, rich in DHA, were sauteed with napa cabbage, the spine was drizzled with sauce and roasted over coals, and the glutinous tail was simmered till it would melt in one's mouth. Today, one can find 36-item "whole fish" menus, where the price of fish eyes has rocketed from NT$300 to NT$1,000, and the spine, which used to just be thrown away, now goes for NT$200 per kilogram!

Not only can one find unique ways of enjoying bluefin, but Japanese- and French-style bluefin menus have also begun to appear. In one restaurant, bluefin steaks are carried out to patrons on simple earthenware vessels, the outside of the fish light and crispy and the inside tender. In another eatery, bluefin sashimi are arrayed on a bed of avocadoes and displayed in an elegant glass bowl. A sprinkling of bluefin roe and a sprig of mint complete this beautiful dish. Old, rather unrefined ways of eating bluefin, with plastic utensils on disposable red tablecloths, are long gone.

In the past, Pingtung County, at the southern tip of the island, was always considered an appendage of Kaohsiung, or a rest stop for tourists on their way to Ken-ting. Today, due to its new image as a cultural destination, it has become a favored destination for travelers. In this age of competition between urban centers, Pingtung has set its sights on its own regional development and, through the promotion that the festival affords, has turned itself into an enchanting destination in its own right.

Tungkang beauties, modeling creative fishing wear fashions and bluefin-inspired attire, bring out the "three culinary treasures" of Tungkang: cherry blossom shrimp, bluefin tuna, and roe (above), beckoning to tourists from northern Taiwan. The advent of the bluefin festival has greatly raised the culinary and aesthetic bar for Tungkang dining.

Festival organizers hope to "hook" visitors in and develop regional tourism in Pingtung County through such rich cultural and natural resources as Oyster Shell Island in Tapeng Bay, Aboriginal culture in Wutai Village, and Tunglung Temple in Tungkang. Pictured is a scene from Oyster Shell Island.

At the opening ceremony, against a backdrop of a clear sky and the expanse of the ocean, local students perform the stirring "Fisherman and the Sea" dance.

Hung Wan-lung (right), who was originally trained as a musician, through crafting a solid marketing campaign and pouring in his considerable energies, has succeeded in bringing in NT$1 billion in business opportunities through the Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival.

Tungkang beauties, modeling creative fishing wear fashions and bluefin-inspired attire, bring out the "three culinary treasures" of Tungkang: cherry blossom shrimp, bluefin tuna, and roe (above), beckoning to tourists from northern Taiwan. The advent of the bluefin festival has greatly raised the culinary and aesthetic bar for Tungkang dining.

Tungkang beauties, modeling creative fishing wear fashions and bluefin-inspired attire, bring out the "three culinary treasures" of Tungkang: cherry blossom shrimp, bluefin tuna, and roe (above), beckoning to tourists from northern Taiwan. The advent of the bluefin festival has greatly raised the culinary and aesthetic bar for Tungkang dining.