Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu

Renowned cultural critic,
Lung Ying-tai

President of The Landis Group
Stanley Yen

The Science Museum's research
assistant, Qiu Hui-li, ask Lung
for advice regarding the
preservation of the HueiLai
Heritage site.

Professionals from different
fields participated in the
cultural seminar.

Stanley Yen, Lung Ying-tai,
and Mayor Hu.

Discovering the charm of Taichung City
Lung Ying-tai: Taichung City is Full of Surprises.

Words and pictures by Taichung City Goverment
Translated by Sho Huang

Where does a city's charm lie? How do we look for it? While visiting
Taichung on July 6, renowned cultural critic Lung Ying-tai met up
with Mayor Jason Hu and president of The Landis Group, Stanley Yen,
to talk about "discovering the charm of a city".

While showing the audience slides of European and American cities, Ms. Lung explained that all beautiful cities have one thing in common: they work their soil hard so that plants and flowers bloom—both literally and metaphorically.

Working for an even better city
During the seminar, Ms. Lung couldn't stop expressing her fondness for our fair city. "Taichung is a city full of surprises," she said. "So many influential citizens care about how the city develops, from the businesspeople to the architects, and from the school principals to even the director of the Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts." Lung also added her surprise and happiness from seeing people of different political parties sitting together and listening to the same speech.

Lung first spoke about how Taichung compares with other cities at an international level. She stated that in Taipei, 47% of the population had a college degree; in Hong Kong, the figure is only 14%. However, her criticism included city management, noting that Taiwan's sewage management system ranked 39th in the world and was even behind India and the Philippines. After this, Lung explained that making improvements and having a city changed or even rebuilt rested heavily on the determination of that city's leaders.

Building an identity
During the presentation, Lung stressed the importance of cities building an identity and a distinct character, and gave a few examples—in Korea, Seoul cleaned up its beautiful river, Boston built the Underground, London added bicycle lanes, etc. She confessed that, before arriving, she didn't understand Taichung well and claimed that the city's identity crisis was mostly responsible, citing it as an area that needs improvement. "If a city doesn't have many stories to tell, it should adopt a policy to cultivate its character," Lung said.

When talking about the HueiLai Old Heritage Site, Lung said that preserving old buildings did not just keep the past alive, but also helped create the future. A city that celebrates its own history and shines up its old buildings will have stories to tell, and that is where the charm lies. Defining a city's identity isn't an exclusive process but, rather, cultivates a wider view of sharing and appreciation for a place.

Mayor Hu and Taichung City
Mayor Hu believes that a city's charm comes from its confidence. After taking office, Hu has attempted to cultivate Taichung's cultural side, which is where he thinks our city's charm lies. According to the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, at the beginning of Hu's term, each citizen in the city participated in about four cultural events every year. However, a 2006 survey conducted by the same office showed that the number had increased drastically to 28 events annually, making Taichung the leading "cultural city" in Taiwan.

Mayor Hu also promotes tourism in Taichung. By promoting 2-days-1-night and 5-days-4-nights tours in Taichung, domestic tourism has improved. However, because of political and environmental issues, only three million international and domestic tourists came to Taichung last year, showing that there is still a lot of room for the tourism industry to improve.

Investing in Tourism
Stanley Yen of The Landis Group also expressed his willingness to contribute his expertise—outstanding hotel managing skills－to help promote Taichung. So far, Hotel One has been holding cultural events, such as Chinese opera, every other week, allowing international visitors to appreciate Taiwanese culture while visiting Taichung. He hopes that five-star hotels can be a platform from which domestic and international visitors can experience Taichung. He added that the High Speed Rail should bring prosperity, business and tourism to Taichung. His experience has shown that travelers in Taiwan are now taking longer, more in-depth and more relaxed vacations, instead of cramming as many tourist traps into as small a time frame as possible. This difference is like the difference between getting a cheeseburger to go at a fast food place and eating filet mignon at a fine restaurant—it is better for everyone involved.

The meeting between Hu, Yen and Lung attracted high-ranking people from different fields in Taichung, including scholars, professors and even the directors of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and National Museum of Natural Science. Ms. Lung also brought along her colleagues and friends from Hong Kong University. Everyone involved was glad to get together and work towards the same goal—discovering Taichung's charms and sharing them with the rest of the world.