The results were disclosed on December 27 in a ceremony presided over by Deputy Minister oif Culture Lee Ching-hwi, TNUA President Prof. Chen Kai-Huang, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park Director Chen Yu-Show, and Mediasphere Communications General Manager Lin Yi-biao.

Results of voting on the top-10 art and cultural news in 2021, an activity organized by TNUA’s Graduate Institute of Arts Administration and Management (GIAAM), have been announced.

Voted as the top news in 2021 was the COVID pandemic’s impacts on Taiwan’s arts and cultural industry sectors. In second place was the implementation of new laws for better protection of intellectual property rights for arts and cultural workers. The third most important news was the rediscovery of Huang Tu-shui’s a sculpture, “Water of Immortality,” which had been lost for 50 years.

GIAAM Prof. Liu Huei-Ling, who was in charge of the project, said the annual top-10 news voting, which entered its 11th edition this year, has become a big event of Taiwan’s arts and cultural sectors. Prof. Liu thanked all those who had taken part in the voting, and this year, 42.8% of the voters were not arts and cultural workers, showing that a vote open to all in the public was quite significant.

The deputy minister of culture, Ms. Li, noted that the Ministry of Culture has been keen on helping those affected by the pandemic. She said the ministry had been active in launching more relief programs to help workers in the arts and cultural sectors in 2021. But during the implementation of these programs, the ministry found that the most difficult part was the verification of the identities of such workers – a process needed to make sure that the subsidies would go to those who were really in need, she said, adding that the ministry will make efforts to promote such programs in the future.