TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As you would expect of a cultural czar, Homme Tsai (蔡嘉駿) was fashionably attired in a fitted suit, buckle shoes, designer glasses, topped off with a pencil mustache, and hoop earrings. He held court in a central Taipei office that was peppered with cultural artifacts from classic paintings to Astro Boy figurines.
Tea arrived on cue and Tsai told Taiwan News the nation needed to make a better impression on the international stage. As the chair of the government-backed Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), it’s his job to make the nation look good by overseeing its cultural products: movies, TV series, music, dance performances, boy bands, games, art shows, and more.
Or, as Tsai preferred to put it, “Culture can be a form of soft power, and all countries do this. What we want to do is make friends.”
While soft power and friends are two prongs of the mission, the other is cold, cash. The examples of Hollywood, Bollywood, or Hallyu show that culture or content “industries” can be profitable as well as influential.
This was a major reason why the Ministry of Culture founded TAICCA in 2019, with a remit to “promote innovative growth in the creative content economy,” according to its own rather slick website.
TAICCA shuttles between the government and private sector. It is expected to respect the “autonomy of cultural expression” but also advance the “application and industrialization of cultural content in order to shape the national cultural brand,” per the Ministry of Culture.
“Port of Lies-八尺門的辯護人.” (TAICCA photo)
What this means is that TAICCA now puts more of an emphasis on the market rather than just artistic values. There is a new commercial edge to its plans, connecting content producers with investors and getting banks to back projects with loans.
Tsai was, by most accounts, hand-picked for the top job by Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲). Partly this was because his resume included successful spells in tech, private enterprise, publishing, TV production, and alongside the government.
Insiders said Tsai may have been headhunted by Shih because he was such a sharp online critic of the government’s culture policy. When this is mentioned, Tsai recounted the minister did take him aside one day to tell him that it was easy to talk and troll, but much harder to act and improve the situation.
“I told Mr. Shih,” Tsai said. “Taiwan’s cultural industries needed criticism because they needed changing.’ But I thought I would work with them and see what happens.” He took over as TAICCA chair in March.
Since then a lot has happened. In September, the culture ministry unveiled its fairly ambitious “Black Wave Cultural Plan” (黑潮計畫), which has been backed by NT$10 billion (US$320 million) in government funding over four years. This will go toward 10 content industries: comics, animation, performing arts, visual arts, technology AR, fashion, film and TV, applications, music, and gaming.
As Shih said when announcing the initiative:
“At a time when we were going through the epidemic and now the U.S.-China trade war, Taiwan has received unprecedented attention from the world. Taiwan’s cultural content must immediately embark on this highway that extends in all directions. This is what the cultural ‘Black Wave’ is.”
Tsai continued that TV programs and dramas which used to be viewed as regional would now also be international in scope. He added that in the new media landscape, through over-the-top (OTT) media services and other platforms, Taiwan has the ideal opportunity to transmit its cultural content and have a global voice.
“Wave Makers-人選之人—造浪者.” (TAICCA photo)
This has ushered in new, international standards for flagship Taiwanese dramas, along with large-scale investment in the film and television industry through funding from the so-called “Black Wave,” aka “Cultural Kuroshio Current” project. This references in Chinese characters (黑潮) the Kuroshio Current as a metaphor for spreading ideas. It also owes more than a nod to the “Korean Wave” (Hallyu), terms for the reach and affluence of South Korean cultural pop products … while the unsaid hope is that a “Taiwan Wave” (台流) is on the horizon.
TAICCA recently made a splash by representing Taiwan and its film industry at the 24th edition of Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) in Singapore. It presented 252 projects from 100 content makers at its Pavilion and upped its networking game.
Tsai said the industry needs a bigger pool for domestic investment and made it clear he intended to see it expanded. He wanted an amendment to regulations on tax rebates so that private money could flow into Taiwan’s culture factories, as it does in other major countries.
He also mentioned telecommunication companies as the biggest investors in digital content and noted that Taiwan’s major telecoms are supporting the Black Wave project. He once again emphasized the government’s backing of projects by up to 70%, to lower the risks and improve the likelihood of Taiwan-centric content being produced.
Tsai also spoke about the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) model of monetizing culture industries. He admitted that it is an inspiring story for TAICCA, but even so made clear:
“We are not a big market and it’s quite expensive so we need to search for content. In this way, our situation is not really like South Korea,” Tsai said.
“But we also want to get into the international market, engage with that, and encourage local, cultural content providers. After investment from local companies, we will form an international organization,” Tsai said. “Taiwan has to meet global audience expectations, and that’s what we are doing.”
Taiwan at Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) in Singapore. (TAICCA photo)
