The Tainan City Government launched the Friendship Box Reading Program to facilitate interactions with other cities and promote the beauty of Tainan. In the past four years, the program has hosted over 170 events with participating cities from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. The objective is to promote more interactions between Tainan and the world as the city prepares to commemorate its 400th anniversary.
According to the Tainan City Government Department of Information and International Relations, the city’s Friendship Box Program is the first of its kind. This new form of international exchange invites participating parties to each mail a “Friendship Box” with books and publications that introduce themselves to the other city. Both sides will then organize displays with the contents as well as host forums, talks, online tours, and other cultural exchange activities. When physical interactions between international countries and cities were halted or curbed due to the pandemic that started in 2020, the Friendship Box Program became very popular and attracted the participation of many international cities.
The Friendship Box Program started with collaborations with cities in Japan and gradually expanded to many friendship cities around the world, including Gwangju City in Korea, Columbus City in the US, Almere City in the Netherlands, Leuven in Belgium, and the City of Gold Coast in Australia. The program has been very well-received and the number of participating cities continues to grow. The Department of Information and International Relations will continue to promote the program and attract more cities to join the program.
Since Tainan will commemorate its 400th anniversary in 2024, the Friendship Box Program will also incorporate the concept of “Tainan 400” into the displays and launch a limited edition: the “Tainan 400 Box”. Hopefully, this program can further promote this significant event in Tainan to the world.