Taiwan’s many ethnic groups arrived here at different times. In each case, the differences in languages, customs, and religious beliefs, not to mention economic competition between groups, meant that integration took time and included instances of antagonism and conflict.
Many factors, from the political and economic to the social and cultural, can influence the process of integration. Mutual understanding grows along multiple axes. Taiwan Panorama seeks to highlight less obvious facets of Taiwan’s different communities, to promote greater understanding. In our cover story this month, we look at some of the locations that are important in the everyday lives of Taiwan’s Southeast-Asian migrant workers and immigrants, as a means to understand their thoughts and desires and so to bridge the space between us.
A mature society requires constant communication, understanding and adaptation to further its progress. Education and information play a vital role in this endeavor. Wang Ming-hsiang, known for his work to restore the breeding habitat of bigfin reef squid, is a case in point. His decade-plus of advocacy on behalf of marine conservation has been crucial to environmental education in Taiwan. The NPO “Skills for U” offers another example. By making films about Taiwan’s medalists at the WorldSkills Competition in Kazan, Russia, the group has put faces to names and enhanced the prestige of vocational skills, which have long taken a back seat to university education in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education’s Taiwan Hostfamily Program has matched 5,634 foreign students from 103 countries with 3,248 host families over the last decade, to better enable foreign students to adapt to life here, and to facilitate citizen diplomacy.
This issue includes articles on fascinating things happening all over Taiwan! We profile Cheng Rom-shing, founder of the Rom Shing Hakka Opera Troupe, and his efforts to preserve and promote Hakka Opera and to introduce it to international audiences. His troupe has won Golden Melody Awards in categories such as Best Performance and Best Traditional Performing Arts Audio and Video Production for six years running. We also look at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts’ “Sunshower” exhibition. Held earlier this year, it was Taiwan’s first large-scale exhibit of contemporary Southeast-Asian art. Bringing together art and ethnicity, the show offered Taiwanese an opportunity to better understand Southeast Asia.
We also visit the 100-year-old Taipei Brewery, home of the Taiwan Beer brand, and examine how the brand has continued to successfully innovate and excel in the face of a changing market and global competition. Next month, we look forward to taking readers to Kyushu, Japan, to explore culinary, literary, and agricultural exchanges between Taiwan and Japan.
