The 2010 Taichung Chung County Indigenous Carnival launched on October 2nd at the Taichung County Indigenous Peoples Center which was situated in Daya Township in Taichung County. Jason Hu, the mayor of Taichung City, was invited to give a speech at the opening ceremony. He told the audience that after the county-city merger, the welfare will be increased. If elected, he will make the carnival an international tourism event. He believed that the event has market potential.

Hunag Jhong-sheng, magistrate of Taichung County, said that it’s the first time for the Taichung City Indigenous Club to join the carnival. Over 3000 performers joined the show, which is a new record. The indigenous people are talented in art and performance. Their culture is the most precious property of Taichung County. Hopefully, he wishes they will have more welfare and gain more protection after the merger of Taichung City and County.

Hu said that the indigenous people are natural born optimists. He has targeted the indigenous culture as one of the 4 major focuses on developing his future cultural policies. The rest of his focus is the religious culture, the beach culture and Hakka culture. He certainly would treasure the indigenous culture. He said that since the Indigenous Center was established by Huang and gained support from the county councilman, there have been more and more cultural activities in Taichung County.

In addition, Hu told the audience that he was so impressed by the performance arrangements. He admired the organizer. He said that they made the carnival an international tourism event and let the foreign visitors experience the Taiwanese indigenous culture. He visited the National Museum of New Zealand before and he learned that the earliest immigrants of New Zealand were from Taiwan. The indigenous people arrived in New Zealand by boat and built the earliest culture of New Zealand. He believed that the indigenous culture will be one of the major tourism attractions.

Besides the performance, the carnival also included the employment service, food stands and agriculture products promotion. Indigenous carved sculptures and jewelry were also available on site. The carnival attracted many visitors.