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Savoring and Exploring the Rich Eastern Culture for Business Opportunities
2016 Creative Expo Taiwan Officially Opens
2016 Creative Expo Taiwan (CET) opens today (20) at Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, and Expo Dome. Building on last year’s success, CET features a total of 638 domestic and international corporations from 20 countries participate this year and attracts nearly one thousand local and overseas professional buyers. Also, with satellite events such as CET Fringe Shops, Cultural and Creative Trend Forum, and Cultural and Creative Award, CET brings to the city exciting indoor and outdoor spaces, exhibitions, and activities, in both day and evening.
Since its inception in 2010, CET has become the largest exchange platform for the cultural and creative industry in Taiwan. In 2014, CET jumpstarted a transformation plan, and aims to become the “window display of Chinese people’s quality lifestyle” in order to succeed in the fiercely competitive global market. This year’s annual theme is “Savoring the Rich Eastern Culture,” as CET hopes to showcase the most refined and unique local culture. Through design, craft, and licensing, CET interprets lifestyle and taste, bridges industries for innovations, and ultimately explores international market.
The 2016 CET Opening Ceremony opened with performance by Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra; through elegant interpretation of classic Taiwanese tunes, the group performed music that echoed this year’s theme of “Savoring the Rich Eastern Culture” and showcased innovative cultural fusion across disciplines. President Ma Ying-jeou also expressed in his opening remarks that deepening international ties is the greatest breakthrough of 2016 CET; in addition to the trade fair, CET is also an event that exports the cultural values of the brand “Taiwan.” Minister of Culture Hung Meng-chi mentioned that CET originated from Taipei, but this year it will engage all of Ministry of Culture’s venues and cultural and creative parks throughout Taiwan as radial centers to further realize the concept of “the city is the exhibition hall, and the exhibition hall is the life.”
Following the strategy from last year, 2016 CET showcases different industries at different venues, designating Huashan 1914 Creative Park as the Craft Hall, featuring representative companies such as Hwataoyao that experiences steady global growth, Gallery Chuan, Artilize Worldwide, and National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Center; Songshan Cultural and Creative Park features THAT! that integrates technology and aesthetics, Xcellent, and joint participation by brands of the Taiwan BAGS Association; Expo Dome hosts the largest ever Licensing Hall, which consists of four major sections: “Images of Art,” “Talent 100,” “Characters,” and “Brands.” 2016 CET will also showcase popular contemporary Taiwanese original characters, such as RiceMan, Cubbish Zoo, DNAxCAT, and Morita Chen. Plugin B&V that focuses mainly on sports licensing will also present can’t-miss exhibits related to the Chinatrust Brothers baseball team.
After the Opening Ceremony, President Ma and Minister Hung led the VIPs in attendance and the press onto a guided tour in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park to be the first group of people to see the latest creative products from both Taiwan and around the world, visiting the “NEXT” section that showcases emerging local Taiwanese designers, the “Tokyo Gift Show” section that gathers top Japanese brands, as well as THAT! and Shu & W’s, the two local brands that have gained global recognitions.
2016 CET runs for five days and will end on April 24 (the first two days are open to professional buyers only, and the remaining three days are open to the general public); extended hours on April 22 and 23. Everyone is welcome.