Festivals & Taste of Taiwan

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government on developing the tourism resources, the Tourism Bureau has selected 10 townships with different features to offer the detail image of local small town. For instance, the gold mines discovery in Shuinandong, Jinguashi, and Jiufen township;

the railway impressions and cycling excursions in Jiji Township of Nantou County;

Fragrant Tea and Daily as well as Hot Spring in Ruisui Township of Hualien County;

and Hakka beauty and hospitality in Meinong District of Kaohsiung City.¹⁷

4.3.3 Festivals & Taste of Taiwan

Chen et al. (2012)'s research indicates that festival and cuisine are two of the strong features in the tourism elements of Taiwan in building the national image, Taiwan Tourism Bureau also recognizes festival and traditional cuisine are strong cultural characters for constructing the Brand of Taiwan through tourism. Therefore, on the main website of Taiwan Tourism Bureau has provided two specific categories as the promotion strategies.

First of all, on the perspective of festivals, in order to provide a more specific picture on festivals in Taiwan, Taiwan Tourism Bureau has provided event calendar with four categories based on the month to list the information on the monthly events, including time periods as the basic introduction of the event itself. Not only has the        

17 For the detail of Factory Tour and Tourism Towns, please refer to the following two address: Factory Tour Tourism Towns http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0017729

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major activity in Taipei or capital areas, but the event calendar also covers the cultural festival in other parts of the area, such as Mazu International Festival at Middle

Taiwan, Spring Wave Music & Art Festival in Hengchun Peinsula at Southern Taiwan, White-Water Raffting Activity in Xiuguluan River at Eastern Taiwan, and Ocean Fireworks Festival at the outlying island.

Finally, as Hsu mentioned in order to make the promotion more effective, Taiwan Tourism Bureau promotes the activity under the strategic campaign “Taiwan Tourism Calendar” to provide the pinpoint of the event through the searching engine with tour and events, information on nearby accommodation and tour theme or attractions on the particular event, two different languages, and also the short promotion video clips on their website platform as well as the social networking sharing, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LINE. (Interview, Hsu Rui Ying, 20150514)

In addition to the promotion platform, Taiwan Tourism Bureau further divided main festivals into different categories and themes, including general introduction on four main festivals in Chinese culture, Lantern Festival, Religious Activities,

Indigenous Cultural Activities, and Special Industry Activities. On the introduction of main festivals in Chinese culture, Taiwan Tourism Bureau offers the overall and vivid image on the introduction of the four main festivals, including Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Zhongyuan Festival, and also Mid-Autumn

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Festival for the visitors to experience Taiwanese culture through the origin of the Festival, the activity that people would do nowadays and meaning of these festivals to local people. In terms of making Lantern Festival more visible on the international stage, the tourism authority has listed the Lantern Festival at different area of Taiwan covering the Taipei Kaohsiung Lantern Festivals at the north and south peak of Taiwan, Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, and Yenshui Firework Festival at Southern Taiwan and Bombing of Master Han Dan in Eastern Taiwan.

On the other hand, Taiwan Tourism Bureau has recognized that the indigenous tribes are another unique feature of Taiwan, and therefore, they present the indigenous ceremonies from the selection of six particular aboriginal cultures and their festival activities¹⁸, including Mayasvi Ceremony of the Tsou tribe, the Ear-shooting Festival of Bunun tribe, Sacrifice to the Short Spirit of the Saisiat tribe, New Year Ritual of the Puyuma tribe, the Flying Fish Festival of the Yami tribe, and the Harvet Festival of the Amis tribe to provide the visitors to Taiwan with cultural experience from the connection with the local aboriginal tribes.

On considering the cuisine culture as another selling point of Taiwan tourism, the Tourism Bureau attracts the tourists with interest on taste and gourmet with the

promotion on specific introduction on taste of Taiwan, including Gourmet Cuisine,        

18 For the detail information of Indigenous Ceremonies, please refer to:

http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0002023

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Taiwan Snack as well as Local Products. Taiwan Tourism Bureau creates the Taiwan Brand in cuisine through the connection with a variety of flavors of Chinese culture.

That is making the cuisine culture in Taiwan as the restaurant with plenty of different tastes, such as Cantonese Food, Hakka Food, Sichuan Food, Beijing Food, Jiangzhe Food, and Hunan Food. On constructing the feature of Taiwanese cuisine, the Tourism Bureau has emphasized on the characteristic of Taiwan snack as well as the Local Products. The former provides the cuisine features with the connection with the night market culture includes several snacks with local life culture, such as Pearl Milk Tea, Oyster omelet, Stinky Tofu, Steamed Dumpling, Steamed Sandwich, Taiwanese Meatballs, Meat Rice Tamales, and Crushed Ice Dessert. On the other hand, Taiwan Tourism Bureau connects the local products with the feature of souvenir and gift back to the hometown of the visitors, including Tea, pineapple cake, Mochi, peanut brittle, Shaoxing and Gaoliang Wine, Kumquat Preserves, Ox Tongue Biscuits and so on.