To help the Taiwanese people learn more about Lithu­anian products and culture in this wave of “Lithuania fever,” in April 2022 the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) set up a Lithuania Products Center in Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center, displaying 200 Lithuanian products. In addition to traditional food and beverages including chocolate, cookies, and wines, a “femtosecond laser device” is also on display to showcase Lithuania’s technological prowess in the realms of wafer and metal cutting and help bring people’s ideas of the nation up to date.
 

A blossoming friendship

The rapid closening of the friendship between Taiwan and Lithuania began in 2020, when the global Covid-19 pandemic was gathering speed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched several waves of “mask diplomacy,” and since April 2020 has assisted more than 80 countries around the world by providing over 54 million medical masks. This initiative, which received global coverage and praise, included the donation of 100,000 medical-­grade masks to Lithuania.

In early May 2021, amid an international shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, Lithuania became the first EU member country to donate vaccine to Taiwan. In two separate donations, Lithuania supplied some 260,000 doses of Astra­Zeneca’s Vaxzevria vaccine. In a statement that warmed the hearts of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people, Lithu­anian foreign affairs minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said: “Freedom-­loving peoples should look out for each other.”

Since then, the friendship between the two countries has continued to blossom, with not only the official announce­ment of the reciprocal opening of representative offices, but also exchanges in fields like trade and culture. On top of that, the Taiwanese public also began to show their support with a boom in purchases of Lithuanian goods.

Returning the favor

Since Lithuania’s vaccine donation announcement in June 2021, the Taiwan outlet of Lithuanian chocolatier Rūta has seen a constant stream of online orders coming in. Importer Ivan Huang says that at least three out of ­every ten orders came with a note attached saying, “Thank you, Lithuania!”

In response to the enthusiasm of Taiwanese ­consumers, Rūta has created a special Taiwan-only line of 85%-­cocoa chocolates. Other products of note from Rūta include bars of 75% dark chocolate in the shape of Lithuania and a five-piece collection of chocolates with wrappers featuring five of the nation’s most famous scenic spots. Through such products, the company hopes to help the Taiwanese people get to know Lithuania a little better.

One of the five spots featured, the Hill of Crosses, is located in the city of Šiauliai, home for over a century to Rūta’s chocolate factory and museum. As the public has become more familiar with and more kindly disposed toward Lithuania, many have come to buy chocolates from Rūta in thanks for the Lithuanian vaccine donation. In fact, says Huang, Lithuania has donated vaccines not only to Taiwan but also to several other countries, including Ukraine, “but the Taiwanese do not hesitate to express their feelings, returning the favor with enthusiasm and gratitude.” Only Taiwan has responded with such warmth.
 

I’ve got your back

Another beneficiary of this new warmth toward all things Lithuanian has been Little One Bar. This small Lithuanian bar located in a historic building in Taipei’s Dadaocheng area serves Lithuanian berry wines, herbal liqueur, and vodka. Across the storefront hangs what is said to be the largest Lithuanian flag in Taiwan, which has become a popular public attraction.

David Yeh, who opened Little One Bar in 2019, says that he happened to have a space that had been unused for seven years, and he opened the bar there to promote Lithuanian wine for Peter Young, a businessman originally from Hong Kong who moved to Taiwan and represents some Lithuanian alcohol brands here. Although Yeh has never been to Lithuania himself, he has made good use of his 15 years of experience in the restaurant business to develop Lithuanian dumplings and army-style buckwheat meal boxes decorated with the colors of the Lithuanian flag, to pair with drinks and dining with friends.

With Taiwan–Lithuanian friendship warming up, Lithuania is facing trade retaliation from China, which has placed restrictions on imports of not just Lithu­anian goods to China, but also German, French, and Swedish products with Lithuanian parts.

Young, who started doing business in the Baltic in 2009, remarks, “During the Soviet era, Stalin exiled large numbers of Lithuanian intellectuals to Siberia, and many Lithuanians’ parents or grandparents died there. With this kind of history, do you think they’d be fond of the communists? In addition, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest state in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries, part of the nation’s glorious past. The clear-eyed Lithuanian people can see through the falsehoods of totali­tarian states.” This, he explains, is the background to Lithuania’s choice to dare defy China.

Evidence of warming friendship

This wave of “Lithuania fever” has been especially affecting for Ausra Andriuskaite, a Lithuanian who has lived in Taiwan for more than six years. Previously, when she said she was from Lithuania, a good nine out of ten Taiwanese would be baffled, asking “Where is that?” or “Is that in the Soviet Union?”

However, after Lithuania’s vaccine dona­tion, Taiwanese became much friendlier with resident Lithuanians, even to the point that sometimes, when taking a taxi, when Andrius­kaite mentioned she was Lithuanian, the driver would comment on what a good friend Lithu­ania was to Taiwan and waive her fare, saying it was an honor to drive her.

“Lithuania and Taiwan have a lot in common,” says Andriuskaite. “We are both small countries, and we both have a ‘big brother’ next door who insists they want to ‘take care’ of us even if we don’t want them to.”

Lithuania has a history of suffering under invasion and war. In the early days of World War II, the country was occupied by the Soviet Union, then invaded by the Nazis, and later annexed by the Soviets. To escape from these dictatorial regimes, many Lithuanians fled abroad, and to bring this diaspora together, various Lithu­anian associations have been established in 54 countries.

Andriuskaite, a long-term resident of Taiwan, established the Lithuanian Community in Taiwan (LCT) in 2020, the 49th such organization worldwide. Although fewer than 100 Lithuanians live or study in Taiwan, the LCT still holds special celebrations on Christmas Day and Lithu­anian Independence Day.

To help her daughter learn Lithuanian, Andriuskaite founded an online school for Lithuanian-speaking children, reaching out to more than 20 Lithuanian children in 12 countries including Japan, Korea, Australia, and Jordan, to learn their mother tongue together through songs, stories, and handicrafts. The school has since earned praise and support from the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science, and Sports.
 

Becoming better friends

With the establishment of the Taiwanese Represent­ative Office in Lithuania in Vilnius, the Lithuanian cap­ital, in November 2021, a new chapter of official exchange and cooperation between the two countries has begun. In addition to the economic, trade, and investment mission that in October 2020 signed six memorandums of co­opera­tion with Lithuania aimed at cooperation in fields including semiconductors, lasers, and fintech, Taiwan’s National Development Council minister Kung Ming-hsin recently announced the launch of a US$200-million Central and Eastern European Investment Fund and a US$1-billion financing fund to encourage Taiwan manufacturers to invest in the region.

On the cultural front, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts is working with the Lithuanian National Museum of Art to stage the exhibition Uncoverings: The Search for Identity in Lithuanian Photography, planned to run until the end of December. This exhibition will give visitors a chance to learn more about Lithuanian photo­graphy and gain a deeper understanding of Lithuanian culture and history.

In particular, works like Antanas Sutkus’ Blind Pion­eer (1962) and Marathon at University Street (1959) give an insight into the sense of confinement created by the suppression of freedom and religion of the Soviet era, helping us appreciate all the more the freedoms we enjoy today.

This is also at the root of the deepening friendship between Taiwan and Lithuania. The two nations are the more sympathetic as a result of their similar cultural and political situations in both historical and international contexts.

For more pictures, please click《Compassion amid Crisis: Taiwan–Lithuanian Friendship》