Issued on: Altered:
As Taiwan prepares for the important thing presidential elections on January 13, FRANCE 24 takes you to Taipei for the second a part of our particular program on Taiwan’s cultural scene. On this episode we concentrate on the cultural range of the island. Ranked because the tenth most profitable democracy on this planet, we take a look at how Taiwan’s dedication to progressive values is shaping a brand new technology of artists.
We begin by exploring Taipei’s vibrant queer scene with drag queen Rose Mary, who has been performing for 5 years. In 2019, Taiwan turned the primary and solely nation in Asia to legalize marriage for same-sex {couples}. This tradition of acceptance makes Taiwan a haven for LGBT artists in an in any other case conservative area.
Watch half one of many presentParticular program: Taiwanese artists step out of China’s shadow (half 1)
Taiwan can also be making progress within the combat for gender equality. In 2016, Tsai Ing Wen – a proud single girl – turned the island’s first feminine president. And girls make up greater than 40 % of Taiwan’s parliament, a report in Asia. But the #MeToo motion in Taiwan emerged late in 2023, largely fueled by the Netflix collection “Wave Makers.” The present follows a marketing campaign crew within the run-up to the presidential election, and the plot revolves across the situation of sexual harassment. We spoke with co-author Chien Li-Ying, who defined that with the essential situation of Taiwanese sovereignty dominating politics, points like gender equality are typically placed on the again burner. But ‘Wave Makers’ managed to convey a couple of reckoning by exposing sexual harassment within the political sphere.
I did not anticipate the present to have such an affect. We frequently say in Taiwan: ‘let’s wait till we’re a rustic or make peace with China earlier than we speak about different points’. Many say that as a result of ‘Wave Makers’ positioned the difficulty of sexual harassment within the context of the political sphere, some staff subsequently spoke out about their victims.
Chien Li-Ying, co-writer of the “Wave Makers” collection
view extraTaiwan’s #MeToo second: Girls communicate out towards sexual harassment
Taiwan’s cultural identification can also be formed by its indigenous heritage. Whereas greater than 95 % of the inhabitants has Han Chinese language ancestry, about 2 % belong to one of many island’s 16 acknowledged indigenous tribes, every with its personal tradition and traditions. In 2016, President Tsai Ing Wen – who himself has some indigenous ancestry – delivered an unprecedented apology to the island’s indigenous individuals for hundreds of years of colonial rule by China and Japan.
Indigenous artists have more and more formed Taiwan’s music scene, as evidenced by the Pasiwali Competition, held yearly since 2018 in Taitung on the southeast coast. We meet one in every of Taiwan’s greatest pop stars, Abao, whose 2020 album ‘Kinakaian’ or ‘Mom Tongue’ – sung in her native Paiwan – gained the highest prize on the Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan’s equal of the Grammys. Devoted to preserving and sharing her Indigenous heritage, she is now a mentor to a whole technology of younger artists.
In Taiwan, indigenous individuals make up solely 2 % of the inhabitants. So this competition is a uncommon and worthwhile alternative to make our voices heard.
Abao, singer
view extraBeijing’s story is pushing Taiwan to rethink its personal historical past
Editor-in-chief: Magali Faure
Manufacturing: Natacha Milleret
Presenter: Alison Sargent
Director: Jérôme Mignard
Pictures: Jérôme Mignard, Lucie Barbazanges
Editors: Aurélien Porcher, Joël Procope, Gilles Terrier
Translation and coordination: Alice Herait
xx
