The Taiwanese contemporary art scene has blossomed in the last 10 years as more art events (such as Biennales, cross-cultural exhibitions and related cultural exchanges) are available for the support, display and distribution of Taiwanese art. With the presence of these endeavours, Taiwanese artists have also responded by producing work specific to these events and in turn, have gained further international recognition. These factors in association with real time information exchange (faxes, email, web chat, the Internet, etc) have also increased cultural interaction and exchange on both the local and international levels.

For regions that have diverse roots vis-à-vis the Western tradition such as Taiwan it has become a crucial issue that culture transition is spoken as an equal in terms of other frames of reference. This said the introduction of such technologies like the Internet may be a problematic vehicle for the promotion of Taiwanese art. In particular, current content available about Taiwanese contemporary art remains insufficient and does not acknowledge the contextual frameworks that Taiwanese artists have drawn from. Taiwanese art seems improperly placed and discussed in relation to Western terms of aesthetic definition and historical/cultural background rather than discussed in terms of post-colonial constructions and new identity forming strategies, adopted at the end of Martial Law in 1987 and in relation to the commencement of globalization. Web portals discussing broadly about Taiwanese art may blur or misrepresent events so that a new fiction arises, misrepresenting actual activities and facts from within the local. Given this fast-paced digital era and proliferation of content or need to communicate on-line, an exchange for which both Taiwanese artists and the international audience are looking will become skewed by the presence of such poor online content.

In Taiwan the presence of Chinese and/or English on-line content about contemporary art has been questioned and debated. Currently there are few on-line databases or web pages about art and those that are available. Online content that is avad those that are available. Online content that is available is predominantly delivered in Chinese, may be out of date and/or lack an introduction to the development of the arts within the local. Most are willing to acknowledge in Taiwan there is a lack of content properly representing the country abroad and agree that an artist network/database/protocol would alleviate this misrepresentation. The long-term outcome for Taiwan in this situation, remains that the country is losing potential international contacts by not using this digital platform as a means of information distribution; whereas, in the past the technology was a barrier this is no longer the case with most homes being on-line. Yet the resources assigned for web delivery remain small with only the most established and senior artists known and cited on international web portals. While senior artists continue to gain international exposure, it is junior artists who remain obscured, lacking the same exhibition experiences and online citations or English written articles. Ultimately the majority of artists and other consecutive younger generations remain hidden in this information delivery scheme.

Two basic strategies can be adopted locally to assist Taiwanese artists, curators and cultural workers so that each is well represented on-line both in terms of broad and informative dialogue about their practice. The first step is to translate current content into English and other languages. Direct and continual translation of exhibition content, artist's statements, curatorial responses, critical art reviews, will contextualise local endeavours at an international level. The second component is to digitally deliver this content on-line. In Taiwan there is no shortage of technically able individuals or service brokers, so the delivery of such an enterprise online is feasible. Nonetheless, an endless artist list just appearing on the web must be properly considered. Only through extensive support data, local profiling of the arts on such a site could a new synergize and dynamic properly recognize frames of Taiwanese cultural content and delivery. The current Council of Culture Affairs of Taiwan has sponsored a mega museum collection database to profile artworks, museums and institute collections online (e.g. the National Palace Museum's collection); however, these remain limited in scope - profiling historic content while not representing current practicing artists or other contemporary cultural values.

Through my involvement in the University of British Columbia's Digital Visions Project, I acted as an online cultural conduit, introducing Canadian writers to methods in which to approach Taiwanese contemporary art scene. For my Canadian colleagues learning about the Taiwanese political situation, social environment, value systems in relation to post-colonial complexes and global phenomenon enlightened them. For each this experience and dialogue offered a new experience to learn about how to analyse and rationalise another social climate away from their own local experiences. Since Taiwanese contemporary artworks usually reflect our current socio-economic situation, it was crucial the writers recognized these references. I nominated two artists to be interviewed in Taiwan (ShyGong and Tsui Kuang-Yu ) by Canadian colleagues. I will give a further contextual brief to their practices and ask you also reference the more complete interviews available on the Digital Visions website.