RED-TAPE BARRIERS TO CULTURAL EXCHANGE NEED CHANGE|小劇團工作者來台門檻高 文化界不滿

For those who are familiar with performing arts, inviting guest directors from abroad for short-term work is not unusual. But existing regulations bar groups with less than 5 million nt dollars in capital from doing so. Many in the arts and culture scene said this should be changed. South Korean actor Tian Chen-hao was invited to perform with a theatre company in Taiwan in 2014. This sort of cross-cultural exchange is very important in theatre. However, recently many theatre groups applying for directors or producers, rather than actors, to come to Taiwan have experienced difficulties. The threshold for these professionals is set higher than for actors, as they have to provide evidence of professional or technical qualifications. However, in fact, the regulations only state that a company must have capital of NT$5 million and an average annual operating budget of NT$10 million. Theatre companies are unhappy about the way the regulations are being applied. ==CHUNG CHIAO Dir. Assign Theatre== If we don't take cultural exchange as actually being cultural exchange, but have to have a certain economic condition for it to happen, that assumes a theatre company's imagination is like the commercial film industry, as though it's really highly developed. The Ministry of Labor responded that it would set regulations to solve the problem. Initially, non-performing members of performing arts groups coming to Taiwan were flexibly designated as artists or art workers. The MOL would discuss with the Ministry of Culutre how to solve the problem for those who were coming without a group or as individual non-performing art workers. == CHIU YUE-YUN Dir. MOL Workforce Development Agency== On Mar. 21, we sent an official document to the MOC, if the MOC comes back and says that an art or lecture workshop also needs permission under the MOC, then I can pass a case for this type of work being treated flexibly. The MOC said that in principle, in the future, artists and arts workers would not be divided into performing and non-performing workers. The types of profession covered would be sent to the MOL this week and they would seek specialist opinion on any other particular cases not covered. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 最近有多個舞台劇團、申請國外編導來台短期工作，都被要求以專門性或技術性工作者身份申請，不過，依法以這項身份申請來台工作，只有資本額達新台幣500萬元的公司才能申請，引發文化界不滿。 畫面上這位舞台劇演員是來自南韓的田成昊，2014年受邀來台參與舞台劇演出，這種跨國合作對於文化交流有很大幫助，不過近來多個劇團向政府申請，像是編劇導演等等非演員的外國戲劇工作者來台工作或講課時，都不能像演員一樣，以申請門檻較低的藝術及演藝工作者身份來台工作，而是要以門檻高的專門性或技術性工作者身份辦理，但法令規定這只有資本額達500萬、平均年營業額須達1000萬的公司才能申請，引發文化界不滿。 ==差事劇團團長 鍾喬== 如果我們不把這個文化的交流 歸位於文化 而把它思考變成了是一種 要有經濟條件才能交流 這就是把劇團想像成為 它好像是一個影視業 它好像是很發達 勞動部回應表示將設法解決問題，初步決定如果是來台表演的劇團中，非演員的外國工作者將比照演員，彈性認定為藝術及演藝工作者身份開放來台，至於不是來台演出的團體或個人的非演員戲劇工作者，勞動部將和文化部將盡快想辦法解套。 ==勞動部跨國勞動力事務中心主任　邱月雲== 我們在3月21日 已經發函文化部了 文化部如果會商回來針對說 這種藝術性的一個講座工作坊 也適用藝術性的工作來許可 我就可以通案對這個部份 也可以做一個彈性認定 文化部則表示未來藝術及演藝工作者身份，不再限定非要登台演出者不可，至於開放的相關職務名單，將在本周送交勞動部，未來如果有特殊案例也會邀請專家給予意見。 記者 張志雄 陳保羅 台北報導