Taiwan's Minister of Culture, Li Yuan (李遠), landed in the United Kingdom on September 6 to open a European tour that will next take him to France for the 30th Taiwan France Cultural Award. The stop makes him the first sitting Taiwanese culture minister to visit Britain, and Li said he intends to use the trip to personally introduce Taiwan's diverse cultural output and policies to audiences in the UK, France and beyond, while inviting influential figures in publishing, curation and the arts to visit Taiwan and take part directly in future collaborations.
A Trip Built Around Books Film And Museums
Taiwan's Ministry of Culture said the itinerary across the UK and France is packed with meetings spanning literature, picture books, cultural technology, film, performing arts, heritage restoration and museum management. Li, who is himself a writer, plans to join a literary forum in the UK and a film-focused discussion in France, giving him a chance to engage directly with industry figures in both countries.
A Booker Prize Win Opens A Door
Li pointed to this year's International Booker Prize, won by author Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子) and translator Lin King (金翎) for "Taiwan Travelogue," as the reason the timing of the UK visit matters. He called it a rare opening to push harder on publishing, translation and other literary cooperation between Taiwan and Britain, and said he chose this moment deliberately to promote Taiwan's fast-growing literature, comics, picture books and cultural technology sectors, briefing British audiences on everything from government cultural policy to standout Taiwanese works.
According to the ministry, Li plans to personally invite prominent British writers, curators and arts institution leaders to Taiwan so they can take part directly in future exhibitions, co-creation projects and collaborations, building what he described as a durable cultural alliance between Taiwan and the UK. He said the goal is to help Taiwanese literature, comics and picture books find their own footing in the global mainstream through content that offers a diverse, non-Western perspective, calling that search for positioning "the mission of this trip."
Touring London's Barbican For Ideas On Museums And Green Space
With several major cultural facilities under construction or in planning back home, including the National Children's Future Museum, the National Railway Museum, the National Comic Book Museum and the second phase of the National Museum of Taiwan History, the ministry said Li wanted firsthand exposure to how leading international institutions use immersive art and run children's museums. On his first day in Britain, he visited the Barbican Centre and the Young V&A children's museum, part of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
At the Barbican, Li was guided by Patrick Moran, the center's director of commercial strategy and partnerships, and immersive producer Matt Hudson, through "In Other Worlds," an exhibition curated by Australian director, artist and architect Liam Young that brings together film, television, literary and scientific talent alongside costume designers and musicians. The show uses LED walls, large-scale projection, voice narration, set design, costumes, film props and illustrated storytelling to pull visitors into speculative futures. The ministry noted that the Barbican, which opened in 1982 and is widely regarded as an architectural landmark, houses theaters, galleries, a concert hall and a cinema alongside a sprawling conservatory holding more than 1,500 plant and tree species, a library, meeting spaces, community areas, restaurants and a lakeside terrace, while describing itself as an international arts center deeply rooted in its local neighborhood.
Urban Forests As National Resilience Infrastructure
Standing on the conservatory's terrace, Li connected the setting to a domestic policy push championed by President Lai Ching-te, who has framed urban tree cover as national resilience infrastructure and elevated "urban forests" into a national-level climate adaptation plan. Taiwan's Executive Yuan has since formed a National Urban Forest Promotion Committee, which is due to launch a formal action plan next year, and Li said his ministry is seeking to join a companion initiative from the Ministry of Environment aimed at doubling green shade cover nationwide. He said he hopes to weave ecological planning into museums, cultural venues, communities and Taiwan's network of leading cultural sites, arguing that "once the Ministry of Culture gets involved, an urban forest gets a story to tell."
Li also praised how tightly the Barbican is woven into its surrounding community, noting that while Taiwan's early urban planning lacked that kind of thinking, the country has been working toward a more even distribution of accessible cultural facilities close to where people live.
Putting Children At The Center Of A New Museum
Asked about the planned National Children's Future Museum, Li said he has long been uncomfortable with rigid, instructional styles of education, and finds the child-centered approach common in Britain and France closer to what he wants for Taiwan. He said he hopes to carry that philosophy into the new museum's design, building in participatory input from children themselves throughout the planning and construction process.
