New Bloom
Date:
By: Brian Hioe
WITH MUCH INTERNATIONAL praise of Taiwan’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in avoiding expansive lockdown measures and avoiding domestic transmission of the coronavirus, a major factor in Taiwan’s successes has been the ability of the government and society to communicate information about measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. As such, examining the aesthetics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwanese society may be instructive.
Firstly, the Taiwanese government’s messaging has aimed to spread information about COVID-19 prevention measures in a cutesy, aestheticized form. This would be for the sake of downplaying any intrusive or disruptive aspects of COVID-19 pandemic prevention measures, in order to try and induce members of the public into complying with them.
For example, as has been widely noted, the Centers for Disease Control has taken to using images of a Shiba Inu mascot, Zongchai, in order to distribute information about the COVID-19 pandemic. While Zongchai has proved highly popular among young people, images of Zongchai have also been deliberately released in the format of “senior images”, in order to allow for information about COVID-19 to be disseminated in a form that the elderly can easily understand. On the whole, images of Zongchai, which depict Zongchai as a mischievous character, actually tend to be rather text-heavy.
An unusual effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the sudden popularity of Minister of Health Chen Shih-chung. Chen has been praised for his work ethic, in working over 25 continuous hours at some points during the pandemic, and his daily press conferences to provide updates about the pandemic. [FULL STORY]
