Taiwan is leaving a profound footprint on the Arizona landscape. In the state capital, Phoenix, Taiwan’s leading light Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is creating jobs and spurring growth in the US metropolis, and the repercussions are profound. The Taiwan-Arizona connection is a case study in sub-state diplomacy from Arizona to Taiwan, and a masterclass in business-to-business public diplomacy.
It is fascinating to watch the business and civic ties develop, with municipal delegation visits from Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and her partners to Taipei. Only weeks ago, the first direct flights between Taipei and Phoenix began, bringing the cities closer.
Taiwan is slowly carving out a footprint with the appearance of Taiwanese restaurants around the TSMC campus, growing a “Tiny Taipei” in the desert. As developments grow around the sprawling semiconductor campus, a culinary and cultural blossoming is slowly taking off in its orbit.
The huge investments, and civic and business ties are profound, but not enough to cement the Arizona-Taiwan relationship in a people-to-people setting. In part, that is because cultural differences between Taiwanese companies and American workers have created workplace tensions. Taiwan needs to make a further strategic investment in Taiwanese public and cultural diplomacy to Arizona.
Public diplomacy understands that you do not reach audiences through rational information alone, but rather through emotional, trans-rational ties that come through music, art, culture, dance and food. Gastrodiplomacy is a technique of public and cultural diplomacy that enhances a nation’s soft power through sharing history, culture and cuisine. Often, this is would be a cooperative campaign between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Tourism Administration.
The best gastrodiplomacy campaigns are a public-private hybrid partnership between the government and the culinary sector. While there has been some organic mushrooming of Taiwanese restaurants in Phoenix’s western suburbs, we have yet to see a full on gastrodiplomacy push from Taiwan. Phoenix is a foodie town, and yet there is no strategy from Taiwan.
Although Taiwan has been an early adopter of gastrodiplomacy, it has not, in this case, married it to cultural diplomacy as a public diplomacy force multiplier.
Taiwan has tied cultural diplomacy and gastrodiplomacy in the past. It sent a leading Taiwanese beef noodle chef to the California State Legislature to cook for state representatives; it sent the chef to the Sackler Gallery in Washington for a food fair alongside the screening of Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s (李安) Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食男女).
Taiwan could send versions of its night markets to the Phoenix area to showcase the joys of Taiwanese culture and cuisine. Combined, cultural diplomacy and gastrodiplomacy are profound ways to make connections.
Through TSMC, Taiwan is changing the landscape of Arizona — and moving it forward with dynamic growth. Taiwan has the opportunity to innovate with a more profound public diplomacy strategy that centers on gastrodiplomacy, cultural diplomacy and personal connections.
Given some of the cross-cultural miscommunications, Taiwan is well-advised to strengthen its public and cultural diplomacy outreach to drive this new dynamic. Taiwan has long innovated in the public diplomacy space, and has an opportunity to do so again in Arizona.
Paul Rockower is a former visiting fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. He is the executive director of Levantine Public Diplomacy, an independent public diplomacy organization. He has worked with a variety of foreign ministries and the US Department of State on public and cultural diplomacy projects all over the globe.
