German translator Thilo Diefenbach, academic Charlotte Pollet from France, and Taiwanese pianist Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀) are the recipients of this year’s Taiwan-France Cultural Award, the Ministry of Culture (MOC) announced Tuesday.
Tchen, who was honored with a Taiwan-France Special Contribution award, has long worked to promote Taiwan-France exchanges and is the most decorated Taiwanese in France, the MOC said in a statement.
She has earned the titles of knight of the National Order of Merit in 1996, knight of the Legion of Honor in 2008, and officer of Arts and Letters in 2009, it said.
After she took first prize at the Paris Conservatory in 1975, she returned to Taiwan to work as a professor in National Taiwan Normal University’s (NTNU) Department of Music teaching French classical music, the MOC said.
She went on to become the dean of the NTNU College of Arts and during her stint she created French courses while pushing for exchanges between Taiwan and France in visual arts and crafts, it said.
Diefenbach, a self-described “Taiwan researcher,” began studying Taiwan literary history in 2009 and has since penned several articles on Taiwan and Taiwanese literature in the Hefte fur Ostasiatische Literatur literary magazine, where he later became deputy editor, it said.
He later published collections of translated literary works from Taiwan’s martial law era, those by pro-localization poet Cheng Chiung-ming (鄭烱明), and those dating to the rule of Koxinga, also known as Ming Dynasty general Zheng Chenggong (鄭成功), it said.
Charlotte Pollet, an associate professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, has lived in Taiwan for 15 years and is a naturalized Republic of China (Taiwan) citizen, it said.
She has organized the annual Philosophy Week since 2018 and founded the nonprofit organization PhiloZokids with the aim of developing a methodology for teaching philosophy to Taiwanese children, it said.
The three recipients were selected by Culture Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得), Jean-Robert Pitte, perpetual secretary at the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and a jury in Taipei.
The Taiwan-France Cultural Award was launched in 1996 by the MOC (then-Council for Cultural Affairs) and Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, with jury meetings taking place alternately in Taipei and Paris.
The MOC said that applications for next year’s awards opened on Tuesday.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel