Because of Taiwan’s unique history, internally its people adhere to different identities, while externally we face difficult and complex diplomatic challenges. “Without formal diplomatic partners, handling these challenges is not easy at all.” Francias Lee, whose first foreign posting as a mission head was in Melbourne, worked assiduously to win respect for Taiwan in the Australian Parliament and build a close relationship between our two countries. In this month’s issue of Taiwan Panorama we trace the career of this former senior diplomat who has represented Taiwan around the world, as we explore some of the ins and outs of diplomatic work.
Beside formal official channels, the power of people-to-people contacts can be remarkable. As the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games approach, we note that Taiwan’s “national sport” of baseball has longstanding historical links with Japan. For our cover story, we visit Sung Chia-hao, a Taiwanese player playing professionally in Japan, as well as Lan Huaiqian and Chen Changheng, two Taiwanese high-school students studying in Fukuoka, to talk about their baseball dreams and the differences in baseball between our two nations. In the same feature, we also report on baseball connections between Taiwan’s Hsinchu County and Japan’s Miyazaki Prefecture, as well as agricultural and culinary exchanges between Taiwan and Japan. Don’t miss it!
Sometimes in bilateral relations between countries, the transmission of images can have a real impact. In 2019 the Department of International Information Services of the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked with television stations in the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Thailand to make a series of programs entitled Embracing Taiwan, in their respective languages. The visiting program makers discovered that beyond the tourist staples of Taipei 101, the National Palace Museum, and night markets, Taiwan also shines in the areas of high technology, smart technology, and agricultural technology for sustainable development. We interviewed the program hosts from the four countries to bring readers a behind-the-scenes look at their shows.
Of course, this month’s issue also includes in-depth reports on Taiwan. They include stories on the surprising capabilities of Taiwan’s cocoa and chocolate industry; on the Chishang Autumn Rice Harvest Arts Festival in Taitung County; and on the emergence of the occupation of “professional organizer” in Taiwan. We also interview the graffiti artist DEBE. These information-rich reports will be transmitted worldwide through Taiwan Panorama’s multilingual editions (in Chinese, English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian). Next month, we will examine the “experience economy” that is currently so much in vogue, and explore the efforts of Taiwanese companies to transform their operations and build their own brand identities.
