Unlikely ambassadors: Six performers and artists who moonlit as diplomats
From heavy-metal star Freddy Lim to acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier and Nobel Prize-winning author Saint-John Perse, entertainers and writers have long served double duty as political and cultural diplomats.
Finland’s reputation as a heavy-metal hotbed was perhaps a deciding factor in Freddy Lim’s appointment last May as Taiwan’s envoy to the Nordic nation. Lim has an unlikely side gig: fronting Chthonic, the Republic of China’s biggest heavy-metal group. It’s a hinterland that has come in handy as Taipei faces mounting diplomatic challenges from Beijing. “Metal is a universal language,” he says. “It makes it much easier to make friends.”
Lim’s transition from long-haired, leather-clad caterwauler to polished diplomat hasn’t been as abrupt as it might sound. From 2016 to 2024, he was a member of Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, and of its foreign-affairs committee. “We have played in Finland many times so some people in the government already knew me,” he says. “Finns are sometimes considered to be quite distant and quiet but when they find that you share the same musical aesthetics, they open up.”
Taiwanese diplomacy is a matter of existential seriousness. China, which regards the territory as a temporarily rogue province, has spent considerable energy and resources undermining its diplomatic networks. Since the UN admitted China and ejected Taiwan in 1971, countries have effectively had to choose between them. Beijing’s campaign to persuade Taipei’s remaining partners to switch sides has left the latter with just 12 such allies. Technically, Finland is not among them – Taiwan’s outpost in Helsinki is only a de facto embassy.
For Lim, that makes it all the more urgent to tell his people’s story. “I find so many parallels in Taiwanese and Finnish history,” he says. “There are similar struggles among small countries like ours – how we survive, find our identity and battle with bigger powers. These few months in Helsinki have already inspired me to go deeper and more universal in my music.”
Since Lim stepped into his post, he has performed several times in Finland. “People easily see that Taiwan and Finland need to work on our democratic resilience,” he says. “But there has to be something deeper within our societies that isn’t just about our neighbours but is about us. Metal is a far more natural way to create understanding.”
Here are five other unlikely statespeople who have applied their skills to international relations.
1.
Shirley Temple (USA)
The 1930s child superstar pivoted to diplomacy later in life, serving as the US ambassador to Ghana (1974 to 1976) and Czechoslovakia (1989 to 1992). “Politicians are actors too,” she once said. “If you like people and you’re outgoing… you can do pretty well in politics.”
2.
Gabriela von Habsburg (Georgia)
Georgia’s ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013 was a curious choice: the granddaughter of Austria’s last emperor, she is also a sculptor. Von Habsburg could see the overlap, however. “When you do art in public places… you need to defend what you’re doing and be convincing,” she said.
3.
Saint-John Perse (France)
Winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1960 might not even be the most interesting thing about Perse. He was dispatched around Europe before the First World War and in 1916 was sent to China. He headed up the French foreign service for much of the 1930s and was later exiled to the US by the Vichy government.
4.
Sidney Poitier (Bahamas)
Poitier was a 70-year-old Oscar winner and Hollywood icon when the Bahamas appointed him ambassador to Japan in 1997. He served in this role for 10 years and was also the country’s ambassador to Unesco from 2002.
5.
Vikas Swarup (India)
While on an extended posting in London in 2003, career diplomat Swarup wrote a novel about an unlikely quiz-show winner, which was later adapted for the screen as Slumdog Millionaire. He went on to serve as India’s high commissioner to Canada.
