Abstract
This research adopts the approach of qualitative methodology and focuses on the legacy of the opening ceremony at 2017 Summer Universiade. Fifteen key stakeholders from this event, who were the government officers, consultants, creative directors, designers of the cauldron art installation, choreographers, arts managers and performers were interviewed. Semi-structured interview method, content analysis and the method of situational grounded theory were conducted. The current hot topic on the issue of generational conflict in Taiwan was mentioned many times in the context of interviews. In the creative decision-making processes during arts production within this scale of event’s opening ceremony, many people with different power distances had been involved in. Therefore, in terms of the hierarchical position within social stratification and the availability of resources, the members from younger generations could not compete against the older ones. In the society with the characteristic of slow social mobility, inter-generational conflict might be felt severely. In the case of this research, many interviewees from younger generations mentioned that they experienced the pressure from the members of older ones in terms of creative decision making on arts production and the availability of resources. How the younger generations communicating with older ones and dealing with this circumstance are explored. Mega events, as a platform to facilitate communication on social and cultural issues, an intermediary or public sphere, may play a role to mitigate the inter-generational conflict. The discussion section brings the theories such as “structure of feeling”, the concept of democratization implicated in Bakhtin’s Concept of Carnival, Chappelet’s perspectives on the legacies from hosting events and the multiple publics from Nancy Fraser. Some direct quotations from the interviews have been demonstrated to describe and to explain the cultural value and social impact of the legacies of hosting this event in Taiwan.