International artists including Hyoyeon from the K-pop group Girl’s Generation, Dutch singer Martin Hurkens and English cross-over Singer Mary-Jess have all commended Taiwan’s efforts in disease prevention at international mass medias after their visits to Tainan for performing in Tainan Christmas & New Year’s Eve Festivities by the end of 2020. Mayor Huang Wei-che considered that the reporting has made Taiwan’s achievements a strong presence in the world, marking Tainan’s contribution to promoting Taiwan.
In addition to describing comprehensive and strict disease prevention measures applied in Taiwan, aforementioned artists also shared their feelings about performing in Tainan in the interviews. Martin Hurkens said that it was so incredible to see people in Tainan still live normally even in the wake of global COVID-19 pandemic. Martin also expressed his appreciation for having overseas performance opportunities during the pandemic, and he also prayed for people of the Netherlands soon to resume a normal life, just as people in Tainan do.
Mary-Jess told the media that she had to comply with many disease prevention requirements after arriving in Taiwan, however, all of these stringent COVID-19 procedures made her feel safe and secure. She also described how her friends from the hometown were impressed with Taiwan’s safety while seeing pictures of her performances in Tainan. Since there had been only limited places from around the world that are able to host such large events, she treasured such a wonderful opportunity to deliver the performance in Tainan.
Before presenting on the stage, Korean artist Hyoyeon, Dutch artist Martin Hurkens and UK artist Mary-Jess had fully complied with home quarantine requirements with negative test results for COVID-19. Such special experiences of staying and performing in Tainan were shared at medias of their own countries including the talk show “ Radio Star” of South Korea, “ZO-NEWS” of the Netherlands and the “In Your Area” of the UK.