The Glamorous Hammer – Taiwan Deploys Taipei Fashion Week as a tool for Soft Power

Taiwan’s international influence extends beyond its role in chip production and China’s arms race; beyond the bounds of arms and industries. The role of Taipei Fashion Week in Taiwan’s soft power strategy exemplifies how a government may deploy cultural events as informal diplomacy tools. 

Earlier this year, the Taiwanese voted the pro-independence DPP into the presidential office for a third consecutive term. Amid tensions in the US-Taiwan-China triangle, the geopolitical stakes were high. Taipei Fashion Week (TFW) illustrates what role Taiwan’s appeal might play in its “hot” geopolitical position. 

In a time of multiple wars, it may be hard to imagine that countries can obtain influencewith more than just money and pistols (or hard power), but Joseph Nye’s soft power theory shows that attractiveness is also of considerable importance. Nye sees soft power as the power to get others to want the same thing as you, by using attractiveness rather than coercion or financial incentives. 

Especially for Taiwan, which is largely unrecognized as a sovereign state and thus lacks formal diplomatic relations, it is important to get other governments on its side through soft power. Taiwan therefore puts an extraordinary amount of money, time and energy into promoting the country on the international stage, as reflected in the government’s role in organizing TFW. 

TFW is co-organized by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Taipei’s City Department of Cultural Affairs. The ministries also have influence over the themes of the semi-annual event. In March 2023, for example, the theme was “Crossover,” an ode to Taiwanese traditional cultures, arts and crafts. Shih Che, then minister of culture, stressed that the theme will help promote Taiwan internationally, hoping that the “designers can be like magicians and bring Taiwanese culture to the world.

This uncommon involvement of government ministries already hints that TFW is not only about clothes, but plays a broader role that aligns with Taiwan’s political goals. The biannual event consistently emphasizes Taiwanese Traditional Culture, Modern Values, and Internationalism, echoing Joseph Nye’s soft power pillars of ‘culture’, ‘political values’, and ‘foreign policy’.

Traditional culture

That traditional culture is a big part of TFW is evident in just about everything about the event. For example, designers collaborated with traditional craftsmen for the Autumn-Winter 2023 (AW23) edition, for which the first show was opened in an ancient temple (by then vice president, now-to-be-president Lai Ching-Te in designer clothes, among others). 

Using culture as a form of soft power, however, is nothing new. Consider how the Roosevelt administration used Hollywood to win hearts abroad, or how French style drove the haute couture system when Paris emerged as the fashion capital. 

Both countries did so in times of turmoil: the U.S. during World War II, and France at a time when it was struggling with hard power, mainly because of the then-increasing influence of Britain and Germany. So the strong international promotion of culture often takes place in complex diplomatic situations, which is also why it fits well with Taiwan, which is repeatedly threatened by China’s military exercises and embroiled in the chip war between the U.S. and China. Such a cultural focus helps Taiwan promote itself internationally and create distance from other international actors such as the People’s Republic of China. Moreover, it also has a national political value: uniting the population under one Taiwanese identity, shaped by cultural aspects, despite its many different subcultures. This is of particular importance given the diverse views among the population about China’s influence on the island: Taiwanese consciousness challenged by Chinese nationalism.

Liberal values

The organizers of TFW also appear to have expertly harnessed political values as a source of soft power.The organisation repeatedly emphasizes a set of modern, liberal values, primarily diversity, sustainability, inclusion, humanity and interdisciplinarity. This can be seen in the speeches, themes, policies and media surrounding fashion week. 

For instance, TFW’s five core values are ‘sustainability, function, diversity, interdisciplinarity and humanity’. Sustainability is the value that recurs most often in the content around TFW. This demonstrates Taiwan’s progressive vision on this topic, but also highlights the Taiwanese textile industry’s lead in sustainability, challenging other textile production centres. 

Building on Nye’s soft power theory, this is a way for Taiwan to demonstrate to other liberal democracies, such as the U.S. or Germany, that there are adequate similarities between them. So it is a way for Taiwan to attract these other countries, and turn this attraction into acquiescence of their role as a legitimate global player. 

Having the above values also serves as a method for Taiwan to separate itself from China again. Although China also claims to have such values, its understanding of them must be vastly different, given the variations in minority rights and per capita pollution between China on the one hand, and Taiwan and the liberal countries it wants to attract on the other. 

Taiwan uses this opportunity to emphasize that it is different, and “more liberal” than China in those aspects. To illustrate: Taiwan is far along in developing sustainable textiles, same-sex marriage has been legalized, and most notably, the Taiwanese government is democratically elected.

Made in Taiwan

The last necessity for implementing a soft power strategy, foreign policy, is not left out by the Taiwanese government either. Taipei Fashion Week may be a domestic, local cultural event, yet it is clearly designed to attract the attention of international audiences. 

The discourses of organisers and politicians involved with TFW continue to stress that the event aims to serve as a “pivotal gateway to internationalism” and promote Taiwan and its Made in Taiwan brand “on a global stage”. Therefore, the event supports Taiwan’s quest for international recognition, allies or attention as a foreign policy objective. This is also done by including brands and models with an international fan base, attracting international media, and inviting international celebrities and statesmen. This is again similar, although for TFW in its early stages, to the promotion of French Haute Couture in the past. 

The promotion of the Made in Taiwan brand, which directly conflicts with the People’s Republic of China’s Made in China brand, encourages the use of the island’s fashion industry for political objectives. And this is also the only aspect to which China is explicitlyreacting to Taiwan’s fashion strategies, because it goes directly against their ideology that Taiwan is still part of ‘one China’. Therefore the Chinese Communist Party wants Taiwanese products to be labelled as “Made in China,” “Made in Chinese Taipei,” or “Made in Taiwan, China. If this is not done, shipments transported through the Chinese mainland are at risk of being destroyed or confiscated.

Smart power

We must be patient to see what the future holds for Taiwan and Taipei Fashion Week. Taipei is not the only city vying to become the newest fashion capital, nor the only one competing for that role in Asia, and neither Taiwan is the only state deploying soft power strategies. 

Moreover, with the ongoing chip war, China’s ever-increasing amount of military drillsand wars in Gaza and Ukraine, it may seem like betting on hard power will lead to getting the upper hand. But since many European and American politicians express support for Ukraine based on shared values and the protection of liberal democracies, it is worth thinking about how such values are communicated. And, should Taiwan become embroiled in a military conflict, whether the international community would respond similarly. However, to communicate these values and Taiwan’s foreign policy, it still lacks one crucial aspect: a seat at the table at international organizations like the UN. 

One thing is certain, and that is that soft power alone will not be enough for Taiwan. For similar reasons, Joseph Nye also argues that one should not rely too much on soft power, but that governments should rather strive for a balance between hard and soft power, called smart power.