Department of Cultural Affairs

Culture, an Essential Part of Life

The Taipei Culture Award

Each year the Taipei City Government presents the Taipei Culture Award, centered on a different theme. To date, the Taipei Culture Award has been held seven times, with an overwhelmingly favorable response. Different from the National Literature and Art Achievement Award and the Executive Yuan Cultural Award, which provide encouragement to nationally renowned artists, the Taipei Culture Award recognizes those who have worked long-term and silently to nurture Taipei's culture, and those that have made outstanding cultural contributions.

Recipients of the Taipei Culture Award have included both groups and individuals. In principle, the Taipei City Government presents the award to three recipients each year. When needed, a special award is given, following the unanimous agreement of all committee members, and the mayor confers a citation and monetary award of NT$200,000. Each year the Taipei City Government announces a new award theme. All groups or individuals compatible with the current year's theme are welcome to take part, either by recommendation of various organizations, professionals or scholars, or by self-application. Afterward, the Taipei Culture Award committee will select the winners, and an award ceremony will be held, along with related promotional events. The Taipei Culture Award began adopting specific themes in its fourth year. The themes thus far have been as follows:

The fourth Taipei Culture Award: Long-term cultural activity related to improving the city's ecology.

The fifth Taipei Culture Award: Contribution to the internationalization of Taipei in the area of culture.

The sixth Taipei Culture Award: Contribution to the preservation and increased vitality of Taipei City's cultural assets.

The seventh Taipei Culture Award: Outstanding individuals that have long shown concern for or participated in disadvantaged cultures, and have contributed to the development of arts and culture in Taipei.

Culture in the Alleyways

"Culture is the fabric of life." The Department of Cultural Affairs has the ambitious goal of giving the people of Taipei's various neighborhoods an opportunity to enjoy high quality cultural events. By making performances easily accessible to the city's residents, we want to help them discover that art and culture are not remote, but are indeed within their grasp, so that the arts will set down roots in community life.

Bus and rapid transit literature campaign

The Taipei bus and rapid transit system poetry and essay campaign has successfully created a fresh, new literature of the people. Based on the original intention of blending together the new and the old, tradition and innovation, in addition to soliciting new poems, familiar assays, small prose pieces and comic poems, it also encouraged the creation of collections of poems in traditional forms, such as verses of four seven-character lines and verses of eight five-character lines. Thus, baptized by the wit and passion of contemporary poetry, essays and doggerels, the citizens of Taipei are more able to savor the beauty and meaning of classical Chinese literature.

Big city, ordinary people

Every day people live out their lives in the little corners of Taipei. Behind every face is a touching story. When we stop and listen to the stories of the dragon boat maker Liu Ching-cheng, Taipei baseball stadium manager Yen Ching-hsiu and other fascinating characters, we will be moved to learn that in today's hectic, emotionally distant consumer society, they still bravely face the challenges of life. This event has been held twice, starting in 2002. In addition to sharing the living experiences of ordinary people in Taipei, we hope to pass on the city's delightful, cordial culture.

Protecting our trees

In addition to protecting such tangible cultural assets as human culture and history, revealing the cultural meaning of Taipei City from a multifaceted perspective, the Department of Cultural Affairs is likewise dedicated to increased protection of our green resources, whose contribution to the development of the city's cultural landscape deserves to be acknowledged. Protecting Taipei's trees ensures the city a bright, enchanting landscape, like the gardens of Europe. It is also a diligent effort to cherish the earth's resources. Thus, the Department of Cultural Affairs has proposed legislation to protect Taipei's trees, which are one of the city's most valuable cultural assets. At the same time, by undertaking educational and promotional events, we hope to rouse the attention and action of more Taipei City residents.

The Taipei City Government has now passed the Taipei City Tree Protection Act, in order to help more citizens understand and cherish our green resources. This program, carried out at all levels of the education system, includes the production and distribution of computerized information, public lectures, the planting of more trees and plants, the establishment of community networks for protecting neighborhood trees, and the promotion of many follow-up work projects. Beyond the realm of legislation, the Department is working to both alter perceptions and educate, so that the people of Taipei will more greatly respect the lives of trees and other plants, and value them as precious resources.