Taiwan’s tourism authorities have expended great energy and resources to promote Taiwan to Japanese audiences.
From September 16 to 17 last year, the Taiwan Plus Festival was held at Ueno Park. The occasion was organized through the General Association of Chinese Culture, ostensibly an NGO, but chaired by the President of Taiwan. Live music from Taiwanese bands in attendance, as well as stalls offering delicacies, handicrafts, and the chance to play old-fashioned late-night games at the market.
Earlier this month, the Taiwan Tourism Administration partnered with Shibuya PARCO to showcase in Taiwan on the occasion of the branch’s 50th anniversary. The collaboration included an exhibition of Taiwanese-inspired works through Japanese artists and a street vendor-themed food court featuring Taiwanese classics such as red meat braised rice (滷肉飯), with a Japanese twist.
Photo courtesy of Tainan City Government Tourism Office
“Thanks to our booths at fairs like this one, we are able to better reach out to Japan’s tourism agencies and the Japanese public,” says Chou Yung-hui (周永暉), director general of the administration.
Coinciding with the festivities, the 14th Taiwan-Japan Tourism Summit was held in Nagoya. Postponements caused by COVID-19 made it the first collection in 4 years. Among the approximately 210 participants were representatives from agencies, airlines and hotel companies. it had two themes: the first – “close cooperation between Taiwan and Japan” – seemed redundant; The moment – “achieving sustainable tourism” – is not original.
What drew attention were speeches by the president of the Taiwan Visitors Association, Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), and Taiwan’s representative in Japan, Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). Yeh suggested to his Japanese counterparts to help reduce the tourism imbalance. between the two countries, where about 2. 2 million Taiwanese stopped in Japan between January and July last year, compared with only 400,000 Japanese trips via Taiwan in the same period.
Photo by : James Baron
If asking Japan to help redress this deficit seemed odd, more remarkable was Hsieh evoking the memory of Hatta Yoichi, a Japanese colonial-era engineer. Hatta designed Tainan’s Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫), where his statue and tomb are located. In 2017, Taipei City Councilor Lee Cheng-lung (李承龍) confessed to beheading the statue to protest the commemoration of a colonial official. The following month, then-Tainan mayor and president-elect William Lai (賴清德) unveiled the repaired effigy at a ceremony attended by Hatta’s grandson.
Controversies aside, Hsieh’s boast of a shared history makes sense. But a coordinated plan to publicize heritage sites, those hot words are just lip service.
OUT OF PLACE CLAIMS
Photo: James Baron
The Tourism Association presents a three-pronged approach, with Taiwan-themed fairs complemented by targeted marketing campaigns in coordination with tourism teams and “government agencies at other levels to strategically plan, preserve, and manage tourism resources in jurisdictions. “
Chou also cites cooperation with governments and Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture to underscore its commitment to the conservation of ancient sites.
“Although those efforts are aimed at cultural preservation, we also believe they will be of interest to Japanese tourists,” Chou says.
Photo courtesy of Tainan City Government Tourism Office
As evidenced by the recovery paintings at the Beitou sites (see the first component of this January 28 series), the government is to be commended for those efforts. But talk of inter-ministerial cooperation is out of place. As reported in the past, the dormitory of the former Bank of Taiwan remains closed to the public due to a dispute between the bank and government agencies.
At the same time, the lack of cultural authority, either at the municipal or national level, forces the former Japanese army hospital to rely on the Ministry of Defense, which has done little to publicize the site. So much for coordination.
UNEQUAL COMMITMENT
Josh Ellis, a photographer and blogger who has covered Taiwan’s Japanese heritage extensively, raises the divide between national governments and governments.
“Because many of those selling options are managed locally, the share varies,” Ellis says. “The national government is committed to restoring investment, but when it happens at the local level, they may run out of cash or lack concepts. “about what to do with the buildings. “
While he believes that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has placed more emphasis on colonial-era relics, Ellis is ambivalent about their appeal.
“There are quite a few places of interest to Japanese tourists, but I’m not sure many involve Japanese-era sites,” he says.
Rather, he believes that the goal of recovering those sites is the market.
This vision is supported by the inclusion of new elements in the hospital’s museum, such as a “yukata experience,” which allows Japanese clothing to be rented for photographs amidst the picturesque surroundings. These touches are designed for TaiwaneseArray.
“The goal,” Ellis says, “is to advertise domestic tourism and teach other Taiwanese about their history, thereby improving the perception of Taiwanese identity. “
Claims that demand is low make sense when it comes to guided tours, although they are presented through volunteers and it shouldn’t be difficult to locate retired Japanese speakers. But data dashboards and QR code guides (available in Chinese and frequently English) are one-time and affordable expenses. More importantly, these arguments raise a question: the government bemoans the low number of tourists and then uses those figures to explain the inferior facilities.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE TAIWAN
There are other issues at play. In his 2022 book One Taiwan, Many Chinas, Ian Rowen examines how Taiwan was “performed” as Chinese for visitors from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) presidency (2008-2016). Tour groups were shielded from Japanese heritage sites, and where such history was broached, the emphasis was imperialism and exploitation.
After Tsai’s election in 2016, the freeze on cross-Strait tourism sparked protests from an industry commonly affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). However, Rowen cites knowledge suggesting that efforts to inspire Southeast Asian tourism, as a component of Tsai’s new government policy toward the south, have more than made up for it.
Despite the post-COVID decline, Rowen says Japanese hiking has remained “consistent,” thanks to the Ma and Tsai administrations. Since most Japanese visitors are not part of large, “strictly managed” tour groups, Rowen believes it’s not mandatory to level Taiwan’s “Japonism” to satisfy them.
“That said, modifying Japanese heritage tours is a marketing angle worth exploring,” says Rowen. “Especially as Taiwan continues to repair and commercialize sites from the Japanese colonial era. “
REPACKAGING VS REUSE
At the moment, there are no signs of further focus.
“In terms of creating itineraries for specific tours, this is primarily the responsibility of the tour agencies and other private enterprises in Taiwan,” Chou says.
Perhaps the solution, as Ellis suggests, lies in repackaging these sites to appeal to a broader range of demographics. Miyuki Fujiwara, mentions the Miyahara (宮原眼科) dessert store in Taichung as an example.
Built in 1927, the building was originally an ophthalmology clinic.
“It’s a very popular post among young Japanese people as a post that can be set up on Instagram,” says Fujiwara (who was featured in the first part of this article). “Most of them place top priority on the visibility of their work on social media. “
While the Miyahara building collapsed before being purchased and renovated in 2010 by the Dawn Cake (日出) bakery, other structures retain their original form. The extensive reuse of such sites comes off as lazy capitulation. Rather, the government advertises these sites in a way that is consistent with their cultural significance, while allowing them to attract as many tourists as possible.