On the afternoon of September 6, President Ma Ying-jeou visited Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei to attend the opening ceremonies of 2014 Asia-Pacific Culture Day. On behalf of the people of the ROC, the president welcomed friends and visitors from throughout the Asia-Pacific region and called for more exchanges between Taiwan and other countries in the region.
In remarks, President Ma greeted foreign visitors in a number of languages used in the Asia-Pacific region. He commented that this marks the third straight year that Asia-Pacific Culture Day has been held, and that this year a total of 19 nations are taking part, from Kiribati in the east (the first country in the Asia-Pacific to see the sun each day) to India in the west (home to one of the world's oldest civilizations). Other countries participating in this year's event include the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Australia, Brunei, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The president said he was delighted to see people coming from all of these nations to take part in this festival, which highlights the diverse cultures and characteristics of the Asia-Pacific.
President Ma remarked that he has visited most of the 19 nations he had just mentioned, adding that while these countries use different languages, the languages do share similarities. For instance, the typical greeting for hello in Korean is "an nyeong ha se yo." The "an nyeong" portion of this is pronounced "an ning" in Chinese, which means "at peace," said the president. Meanwhile, the typical greeting in Palau is "alii," which in the indigenous languages used by tribes in Taiwan means "brother." He commented that Kiribati President Anote Tong's father came from Guangdong Province in mainland China. President Ma recalled that when he visited Kiribati, he made a special point of telling President Tong that South Pacific islanders have deep anthropological ties with Taiwan's indigenous tribes, and some anthropologists even theorize that the ancestors of the South Pacific islanders may have originated from Taiwan. These examples show that Asian-Pacific nations share a degree of commonality in their cultural backgrounds, said President Ma, expressing hope that this can be used to further build friendship.
The president furthermore mentioned that Taiwan's links with nations in the Asia-Pacific are in fact even closer and deeper than those with European and American nations. For example, he said, last year ROC nationals made over 11 million trips overseas, with the number of tourist visits to Asian-Pacific nations reaching 10 million. In the first seven months of this year, the number of visits by ROC nationals to countries in the region reached 6.6 million, he added. At the same time, the number of visits to Taiwan from overseas last year stood at 8.01 million. Of these, 7.21 million (or 92%) were from Asia-Pacific nations. The president said that from January to July of this year, the number of visits to Taiwan from overseas exceeded 5.63 million, with 5.14 million coming from nations in the Asia-Pacific. This is a higher ratio than last year, which points to the increasingly frequent visits among people within the region, he remarked.
President Ma also mentioned that the percentage of marriages between Taiwanese and individuals from other nations in Southeast Asia is at an all-time high. Consequently, the government, he said, is thinking about how to take advantage of such marriages, as well the many immigrants working in Taiwan, plus many other existing cross-border connections, to promote ties between Taiwan and other countries in the region. Asia-Pacific Culture Day, which is held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will play an important role in this effort, he commented.
The president noted that the Mid-Autumn Festival was just around the corner and that this holiday is important for ethnic Chinese as it symbolizes reunions and togetherness. With this in mind, organizers specially selected this time to hold Asia-Pacific Culture Day, which gives it added cultural meaning. Lastly, President Ma wished everyone the best and expressed hope that all would have a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.
After completing his remarks, the president toured of the stands at the event, where he sampled cuisines from many of the countries and saw handicrafts on display.