A Magnificent Cultural Landscape Created by over 500,000 Visitors on Resonance Island

With the theme of “Resonance Island,” 2022 Creative Expo Taiwan (2022 CET) created a cultural whirlwind over the 10-day exhibition period. The two main section and six venues of Kaohsiung Action attracted over 500,000 visitors. Visitors crowded all venues and sales remained high throughout the exhibition period, as CET combined both physical and virtual channels to simultaneously drive tourism in surrounding areas and generated an output of over TWD 1 billion, putting the astonishing strengths of Taiwan’s cultural and creative industry in the post-pandemic age on full display!

Lighting Up New Venues to Synergize Taiwan’s Cultural Power

For the first time, Creative Expo Taiwan went to the port city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, where the two main venues, “Kaohsiung Music Center” and “Kaohsiung Exhibition Center,” were linked by the light rail. The Culture Section that opened first on August 5 at Kaohsiung Music Center immediately attracted over 100,000 visitors over the first three days. The trade show featured over 500 exhibitors from 14 countries around the world.

Moreover, the 10-day expo also organized nearly 200 activities, including forums and seminars, and Kaohsiung City Government also launched exciting activities of Kaohsiung Action, including releasing six historical spaces, planning 30 Design Tours, and exhibiting installations of six popular LINE sticker IPs by local illustrators of Kaohsiung at Love River Bay, to trigger buzz and attention through popular attractions, displaying robust cultural and creative energy.

Interdisciplinary Curatorial Team Resonated to Create the Island’s Cultural Landscape

This year, architect/veteran curator Kung Shu-chang served as the chief curatorial consultant, and Luxury Logico co-founder Lin Kun-yin served as the chief curator, joining all curators to plan theme pavilions “Round-Island Arena,” “Hotel Archipelago,” and “Formosa Ice Shop,” and two city pavilions “Chiayi” and “Matsu,” as well as the “Craft” pavilion. The trade show was curated by Yin Li and presents theme curatorial area “Formosa Select Shop” that featured the spotlight products of this year’s expo. Through the cooperation of diverse disciplines, including curation, design, video, performing art, technology-based installation, craft, food, beverages, and editing, the expo guided audience to see the cultural vitality of the island.

New Business Opportunities Simultaneously Created via Online/Offline Channels for Unprecedented Sales at the Creative Section

The trade show at Kaohsiung Exhibition Center gathered the Creative and Licensing sections in one place for the first time. The show attracted unprecedented number of visitors and business and received rave responses from visiting citizens.

Furthermore, Ministry of Culture also cooperated with Pinkoi, Asia’s biggest design e-commerce platform, to launch the “2022 CET” section, as well as an all-new online business platform “CET+,” to showcase over 8,000 products participating in the expo. Through online/offline integration, new opportunities were explored for Taiwan’s cultural and creative brands. By combining innovative strategy with the joint effort of curators and participants, 2022 Creative Expo Taiwan once again achieved outstanding results. In the future, CET will continue to build on this foundation and carry out interdisciplinary integration, so that in addition to becoming the strongest support behind local brands, it will also create a more magnificent cultural landscape.

Source: Taiwan Design Research Institute