Voices in Culture: Interview with HSU Po-Yun

Voices in Culture invites representatives of cultural networks in the Asia-Pacific region to take a look at networks that promote regional, cross-cultural activities and exchange. In this issue, we meet with Po-Yun Hsu of the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion to learn about the work the network performs. Interview with HSU Po-Yun Chairperson of the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion (FACP) What were the goals in establishing the Federation? The Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion (FACP) was established in 1981 to promote Asian artistic heritage and art organizations, especially those in the field of the performing arts, throughout the world. This non-profit and non-political Federation was established to disseminate information pertaining to cultural activities, artists and performances, while also fostering cooperation between member-cities. In order to publicize performances, conferences, and other activities of its member-cities, the Federation seeks to establish strong media links and also to publish programmes, books, magazines, as well as other written documents. Please tell us about FACP’s mission, including mission purpose and business vision. The Federation’s mission purpose is to improve the mutual understanding in Asian countries and to improve the relationship between the artists, as well as the promoters. Also, FACP promotes Asian creativity and protects the authenticity of Asian art and culture. Additionally, the Federation promotes art and culture, carries them out in daily life, and applies them in terms of meaning and value. The FACP’s business vision is to build up a network and platform within Asia, which facilitates members to communicate and cooperate with members within Asia as well as in the rest of the world. Also, FACP’s business vision is to exhibit the past Asian traditional culture and present art, and to organize a festival to provide international acknowledgement. Tell us about prominent FACP activities. The FACP conducts six prominent activities: A yearly conference, yearly general assembly, festivals, interval governor’s meeting, website, and coordination of related events and issues in Asia. The aim of these six activities is to help members prevail, to strengthen the linkage between them, and to promote related subjects in Asia and the rest of the world. We see that one of the unique parts of FACP is its focused membership on performing arts managers. What is the role of FACP to the performing arts managers? Although the majority of the members are in the field of performing arts, there are members and participants of FACP dedicated to other various fields. For example, the Sori Arts Center of Jeollabuk-do and the Sejong Art Center are just two examples of members/participants of FACP that have facilities such as libraries, museums and exhibition rooms and are dedicated to literature, visual arts, and other aspects of cultural art. FACP ensures that there is a smooth international information flow between the performing arts managers in order to enable them to operate as a group and to establish good relations. Additionally, it has become a tradition of the Federation for senior members to help the new members in the facilitation of their professional functions. Several members of FACP represent international, intercontinental, national, and regional artists. What kind of methods do you use to expand and strengthen the network? FACP employs a variety of methods in order to expand and strengthen the network, such as the promotion of funding activities, memberships, and annual conferences. What kind of benefits can a prospective participant expect from this particular network? What kind of people join as members? A prospective participant can expect the opportunity to become a member of a growing and developing network and to establish beneficial relations with other members within the network. The individuals and corporations who join as members vary. Potential members could be government officials, NGOs, culture policy makers, culture/arts foundations, professional arts promoters/agencies, art studios/workshops, individual artists, artist groups, professional art directors, festival directors, or writers/poets. Are there any upcoming projects in 2010 and 2011 that the federation is promoting/organizing/funding/ involved in that we should keep an eye on? In 2010-2011, FACP will focus on how to select authentic artists and art groups. Secondly, FACP will pay attention to prospective and auspicious artists. Additionally, FACP’s efforts will concentrate on the promotion of art education, art activities in the community, art and the environment, art and the tourism industry for the improvement of the quality of cultural tourism, and culture and the creative industry. How do you think the Federation has contributed to the promotion of cultural arts? FACP has more than three decades of experiences and has contributed to the promotion of cultural arts on different levels. At the first stage, it aims to strengthen contacts between members and provides a platform for them to know each other. At the second stage, members exchange opinions and discuss topics according to their interests. When we established FACP 29 years ago, we received great assistance from Japan, who possessed tremendous experiences. Today, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea are also experienced in this area, and they can help other countries who are new to this field in terms of experience, finance, techniques, equipments and/or administration. What are FACP’s ambitions in the long-run and what kind of growth in Asian culture and arts would your association like to see? This will be the third stage of our contribution. We expect to build up a platform, where the goals and functions of FACP could be reached, and at the same time, it should also be a stage where Asia and the world meet and communicate. Furthermore, in the 21st century, we would like to stress the exchange between East and West. We hope to balance in terms of quantity and quality. To foster networks in culture and the arts within the Asia-Pacific region, what kind of efforts would you like to see from governments, organizations (including NGOs and international organizations), artists, and cultural policy makers? To begin with, we hope the government creates a healthy art education system with prospects. Second, the Asian governments should provide higher budgets to their communities. Third, the government has the responsibility to train more people in this area. In short, the state should improve the citizens’ art knowledge and educational content. At the same time, the citizens should carry out art and culture in their daily life, and gradually we will become a society that appreciates art and culture. Moreover, the government ought to promote art policies, encourage the potential government institutions or big companies to sponsor art related activities, increase budget for culture territory and exempt those activities from all taxes. Source: Asia-Pacific Regional Center of the Culturelink Network Webzine 9th Issue