Taiwans Forbidden City treasures under geopolitical pressure – Ian Johnson

 

Ian Johnson

Former Beijing correspondent Ian Johnson looks at the treasure of the Forbidden City, now in Taipei’s National Palace Museum, and how China changed its view over de past decades on those thefts, now almost 75 years ago, under current geopolitical tension, for the Art Newspaper.

The Art Newspaper:

“The PRC was founded as a revolutionary state bent on destroying the past, which it saw as having dragged down China,” says Ian Johnson, a reporter on China for publications including the New York Times, formerly based in Beijing. “But in recent decades the Communist Party has redefined its mission to become protectors of China’s cultural past. So it now sees the treasures in Taiwan’s Palace Museum as its cultural heritage—never mind that many of those treasures might well have been destroyed if they had stayed in China during the first decades of Communist rule.”

For the governments of Taiwan and China, these artefacts represent an important record of their past. But they are a also a symbol of their political status at a time when Taiwan’s independence hangs in the balance…

“The museum was designed by the KMT as a way of showing that Taiwan is the ‘better China’—the one that respected traditions and didn’t destroy them, and the one that looked after the country’s cultural patrimony and didn’t allow zealots to destroy it, which happened during the first decades of Communist rule,” Johnson says…

“Nowadays, the museum has a more complex role,” Johnson says. “Many people, especially young Taiwanese, identify more with other island nations, such as Japan, the Philippines or Indonesia, rather than with the lumbering, authoritarian People’s Republic of China. For them, these treasures aren’t really about their culture, but instead represent a link that is no longer that strong. To them, the Palace Museum is something from yesterday.”…

As Taiwan’s national identity continues to mutate, the collection remains a reminder of how China’s civil war continues to be waged across the strait. The repercussions of this continue to reverberate through the museum. “According to the Communist Party, Taiwan is part of China. Thus, the artefacts are already in China,” Johnson says.

More in the Art Newspaper.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Taiwan: excellent launch path for pan-Asian ventures - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Shanghai-based MOX (Mobile Only Accelerator) works from different places in the world, including Taipei. Taiwan offers an excellent launching platform for ventures who look for international expansion into the rest of Asia, says MOX managing director William Bao Bean, according to the News Lens.

The News Lens:

By partnering with promotion partners such as mobile operators in each country, MOX enables the strongest mobile startups from around the world expand into new markets without spending money on customer acquisition. 

“The first billion internet users accessed the Internet using their PCs, but the next 4 billion users — Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America — are mobile-only. Hundreds of millions of users are getting on the Internet with smartphones,” said William Bao Bean, the managing director of MOX. 

MOX is operated by the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm SOSV with US$650 million assets under management. SOSV operates six vertically-focused accelerator programs in different cities around the world, and MOX is the first international accelerator in Taiwan. 

“The cost of living and staffing resources [in Taiwan] are relatively low, and there’s a large pool of highly educated professionals suitable for startups. Additionally, for companies looking to expand into Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and other emerging markets, Taiwan provides an excellent launchpad for international growth," Bean said.

More in the News Lens.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

William Bao Bean: the man behind one of the successful accelerator programmes in China

William Bao Bean

Often innovator William Bao Bean prefers to give the stage to his China-related innovative startups, but ahead of the MOX - the Mobile Only Accelerator in both Taipei and Singapore in March, E27 profiles the force behind China´s drive for innovation.

E27:

William Bao Bean, SOSV Managing Director and the head of Chinaccelerator, one of China’s most successful accelerator programme, is the managing director for another, mobile-only, programme. It is called MOX, and its goal is to help the best mobile startups go cross border, and reach up to 130 million potential users. 

On January 2nd, the programme kicked-off its second batch that included companies from the US, Russia, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Vietnam and Thailand. “Our goal has been to help the best mobile startups go cross border into mobile-first, mobile-only markets in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and South America,” said Bean. 

“This batch represents the best of the best, and our goal is to help them reach 130 million users.” 

The Demo Days will be held on March 7 in Taipei and March 9 in Singapore.

More at E27.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.    

A slice of Silicon Valley in Taipei - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Taipei-based startup accelerator MOX has been taking off, bringing a piece of Silicon Valley and jobs to Taiwan. Chinaccelator Managing Director William Bao Bean explains in the Taipei Times why Taiwan offers a good breeding grounds for mobile only startups.

Taipei Times:

MOX comes from a lot of money — it is one of six global accelerators run by SOSV, a US-based US$250 million (NT$8 billion) venture fund. Each accelerator is sector-based. The companies they choose must spend at least two months in MOX’s Taipei office, working closely with Bean and other staff who “accelerate” their progress by linking them to a variety of crucial resources or helping them localize their product. 

“We look at the team and traction,” MOX Managing Director William Bao Bean (賓威廉) says. “We look at users and whether they come back. We don’t care about how much money they have because they’re not paying.” 

With local advertising and internet services platform General Mobile Corporation (GMobi, 通用移動) as a partner, MOX’s companies receive free advertising to Gmobi’s 100 million users in Southeast Asia. 

“When you start out, the most amount of money is acquiring the customer,” Gift on the Go CEO Alok Singh says. 

“With us, all you have to do is make your app awesome,” Bean says. “We’re trying to flip the model [of having to pay for advertising first].” 

Bean says a big part of the work is helping these companies localize to their new target market. 

“Southeast Asia is mobile first and mobile only,” he says. “You have to change your product, your user experience, how you make money.” 

For example, one company had to downsize its app from 40mb to 10mb to accommodate local internet resources. 

Bean hopes to involve some Taiwanese companies in future batches as the company recruits its second batch later this year. 

“The future of Taiwan tech is Internet,” Bean, who started his technology investment career in Taiwan, says, adding that he can help new local companies move into emerging markets. 

As a mentor at Taiwan Startup Stadium, Bean had already been working with some of these locals. But when MOX made offers to several Taiwanese companies for the first batch, Bean says he found that investors were wary of this new model that required sharing equity, which isn’t popular here but is the norm in Silicon Valley. 

As a global company, MOX could theoretically be based anywhere, and Bean’s answer is simple. 

“It’s nice here,” he says, referring to the convenience, good food, reasonable weather and so on. 

He adds that it is also a good balance of infrastructure and rent costs — falling somewhere between Hong Kong and Bangkok. Plus, Bean says you can recruit talented staff who mostly speak English for a lower cost. 

Bean also hopes to foster somewhat of a local mobile startup community. For example, every week when the companies are in Taiwan and every month otherwise, MOX flies in international experts for a happy hour event that is open to the public, with free drinks and a barbecue afterward — which Bean calls a “Silicon Valley style get-together.” 

Finally, he hopes to attract more people like Roncori who also find that Taiwan is a great place for an Internet startup. 

“They’re moving here, they’re creating jobs,” he says. “You’re bringing international expertise from around the world and actually living here as opposed to visiting a few times. It helps create that community.”

More in the Tapei Times.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Check out this list here.

William Bao Bean discusses the future of banking

The next four billion internet users will be mobile only - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

The first billion internet users entered the space using their PC´s. But the last four billion users will be mobile only, says innovation expert William  Bao Bean in Tech in Asia, talking about the MOX demo days. To reach those billions, innovation startups also has to be mobile.

Tech in Asia:

MOX is a program by SOSV, a US-headquartered venture capital firm that invests in seed- and growth-stage tech startups. The difference is, it’s doing so through its own accelerators. The firm also operates IndieBio for biotech, Urban-X for smart cities, Food-X for restaurants, HAX for hardware, and Chinaccelerator for internet software. 

“In the US and Europe, you have one billion people who started using the internet on PCs,” MOX managing director and SOSV partner William Bao Bean tells Tech in Asia. “In China, one billion people will soon be online, first on mobile – the largest mobile-only population in the world. That’s the next billion.” 

MOX operates out of Taiwan and is about what William calls “the last four billion” – specifically Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. MOX partners with one of William’s local investee companies, GMobi, which offers smartphone advertising services and a payment platform.

More in Tech in Asia.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Check out this list.

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Fostering a mobile startup community in Taipei - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

For two months managing director of the China Accelerator William Bao Bean left Shanghai for Taipei, to nurture a new offices and a startup community MOX. In Taipei Times he explains how how this Silicon Valley working style works out here.

Tapei Times:

MOX comes from a lot of money — it is one of six global accelerators run by SOSV, a US-based US$250 million (NT$8 billion) venture fund. Each accelerator is sector-based. The companies they choose must spend at least two months in MOX’s Taipei office, working closely with Bean and other staff who “accelerate” their progress by linking them to a variety of crucial resources or helping them localize their product. 

“We look at the team and traction,” MOX Managing Director William Bao Bean (賓威廉) says. “We look at users and whether they come back. We don’t care about how much money they have because they’re not paying.”... 

“With us, all you have to do is make your app awesome,” Bean says. “We’re trying to flip the model [of having to pay for advertising first].” 

Bean says a big part of the work is helping these companies localize to their new target market. 

“Southeast Asia is mobile first and mobile only,” he says. “You have to change your product, your user experience, how you make money.” 

For example, one company had to downsize its app from 40mb to 10mb to accommodate local internet resources. 

Bean hopes to involve some Taiwanese companies in future batches as the company recruits its second batch later this year. 

“The future of Taiwan tech is Internet,” Bean, who started his technology investment career in Taiwan, says, adding that he can help new local companies move into emerging markets. 

As a mentor at Taiwan Startup Stadium, Bean had already been working with some of these locals. But when MOX made offers to several Taiwanese companies for the first batch, Bean says he found that investors were wary of this new model that required sharing equity, which isn’t popular here but is the norm in Silicon Valley. 

As a global company, MOX could theoretically be based anywhere, and Bean’s answer is simple. 

“It’s nice here,” he says, referring to the convenience, good food, reasonable weather and so on. 

He adds that it is also a good balance of infrastructure and rent costs — falling somewhere between Hong Kong and Bangkok. Plus, 

Bean says you can recruit talented staff who mostly speak English for a lower cost. Bean also hopes to foster somewhat of a local mobile startup community. For example, every week when the companies are in Taiwan and every month otherwise, MOX flies in international experts for a happy hour event that is open to the public, with free drinks and a barbecue afterward — which Bean calls a “Silicon Valley style get-together.”

More in Taipei Times.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Check out this list.

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