Promoting friendship
The Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Taipei has a “Spain in Taiwan” Facebook page where posts come out almost daily to report on activities in which Euba has taken part.
Euba’s work gets him involved in many different matters, including politics, economics, culture, history, the arts, and education, but no matter what the field, he never misses an opportunity to promote friendship between Taiwan and Spain.
A very straightforward example can be found at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce itself, where a painting entitled El Balcón (“The Balcony”) hangs on display at the end of a Mediterranean blue corridor. It was Euba who commissioned Taiwanese artist Chiang Shu Yi to create the work.
When the chamber’s offices were being renovated in 2021, Euba wanted to hang a painting that would be distinctively Spanish in style, and in the end he decided to have one executed by Chiang, who had just returned to Taiwan in 2020 after completing a master’s degree in art in Spain.
Having lived for a time in sunny Spain, Chiang, who paints in a realist style, proposed to Euba that he would use warm-toned illustrations to insert images of well-known Spanish art, historic scenes, celebrities, and cultural elements into a series of separate balconies, each one very different from the rest. The intent would be to encourage every person visiting the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to search for the delights hidden throughout the painting.
Chiang recalls that when the painting was first hung, Euba looked it over closely, focusing in on every detail, and commented with pleasure: “Muy bien” (“very good”). That one short remark filled Chiang with the sort of pride that a master of centuries past must have felt after completing a painting for a cathedral. And in this case, the painting was his way of giving back some of the warmth that Spain had shown him.
Euba’s creative touch can also be noted in the events and activities regularly staged by his office.
On October 12 every year, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce has long celebrated Spain’s National Day in Taipei, but during Euba’s tenure the chamber has begun holding celebrations in other parts of Taiwan, as well.
“Besides the capital city, Taiwan has other cities and places that are quite different.” He feels that celebrating Spain’s National Day in other cities gives people in other parts of Taiwan the chance to become familiar with Spanish music, arts, and food, and generates good opportunities to deepen interactions among Spain and all parts of Taiwan.
It’s hard to talk about “getting to know Taiwan” without mentioning the predictable topic of semiconductors, but Euba notes that Taiwan is also rich in terms of culture, the arts, and history, and for examples he points to Taiwan’s Austronesian cultures and indigenous peoples. It’s all like a package, he says, that is waiting for the world to discover it.
The remains of the Convento de Todos los Santos (Convent of All Saints) on Heping Island, just offshore from Keelung, are among the physical proofs of the first-ever contacts between Spain and Taiwan. (photo by Kent Chuang)
Part of Eduardo Euba’s job involves attending academic conferences and talking with scholars about the historical period when Taiwan was called “Hermosa” by the Spanish. (courtesy of the Asociación Taiwanesa de Hispanistas)