At a press conference for international media, Dr. Sheng said that more than 100 cultural, sports and tourism activities would be lined up throughout next year. These range from shows of traditional Chinese and aboriginal folk art, international golf and baseball tournaments, and a home stay program for youths from 100 countries.

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday once again played up the notion of the nation’s soft power, saying its pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai had helped to reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait and prevent war.

The annual Taiwan Design Expo kicked off in Taipei City Dec. 11, with local and international designers from France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. showcasing over 1,450 creations at the nine-day event.

Once upon a time, it was a schoolyard taunt to label someone "four-eyes," but in Taiwan, they have adopted an unusual take on such labels. There is a strange and ubiquitous fashion trend seen among Taipei's teens and twentysomethings who sport eyeglass frames sans the lenses. It is not entirely clear where the trend originated, as some point to the Japanese and Korean pop scene as the trend's provenance, while others argue it to be a homegrown Taiwanese fashion.

President Ma Ying-jeou says that the European Union's decision to waive visa requirements for Taiwanese visitors is the best validation of the island's soft power. The president was speaking in a meeting with Harvard University Professor Joseph Nye on Wednesday.

Taiwan's democracy and emphasis on human rights are its most effective forms of 'soft power, ' and its adherence to these values will influence China positively in the long run, Harvard professor Joseph Nye said in Taipei on Wednesday.

There is an old American public diplomacy maxim that states: “To know us is to love us.” But in Taiwan, gastrodiplomacy—the promotion of Taiwan abroad through its cuisine—has served up a mouthwatering variation on this theme: “To taste us is to love us.”

When Taiwan entered a film in the Tokyo Film Festival last month, there was no sense of an impending diplomatic incident. On the surface, relations between Taiwan and China had rarely been better, and for more than 10 years, the Japanese festival has welcomed films ''made in Taiwan''.