President Chen Shui-bian, on February 23, attended a press conference for announcing the voting results of Taiwan images, rendering at the same time the launching of Taiwan awareness a top priority.
As the results indicate, Taiwan traditional puppetry is ranked first, followed by Mt. Jade and Taipei 101 as the runners-up. Taiwanese cuisine and Taiwanese masu salmon came fourth and fifth. Mr. Hsu Wang, head of the Little West Garden Puppet Theater, and Mr. Huang Chung-hua, president of Pili Puppetry, presented puppets to the president and Premier Su Tseng-chang, who attended the press conference as well.
"Taiwan has an open and multi-cultural society," the president noted, "in which 'Taiwan awareness' has gradually taken root with the growth of its democracy, freedom of the media and thriving civil society." Taiwan awareness is the mainstream value and the consensus of the 23 million people on the island, the president said.
In the process of globalization, there has simultaneously grown the voice of 'glocality', a term that denotes harmonious co-existence of the global and the local; therefore, "when encountering shocks and challenges from globalization, our everlasting traditional culture, identification with the land, and, most importantly, Taiwan awareness, should be further enhanced and promoted," said the president.
At the press conference, the president invited the world to appreciate Taiwan's beauty and culture.