Cardinal Paul Shan (單國璽), who has been traveling around Taiwan to encourage the disadvantaged since he had a bout with lung cancer three years ago, and a professor of literature were among the winners of the fifth Presidential Culture Awards announced by the National Cultural Association (NCA) on Monday.
Shan, 85, said he was honored to receive this year’s Presidential Peace Award.
Association secretary-general Yang Tu (楊渡) said Shan won the prize for his contributions to peace and ethnic harmony.
The Roman Catholic cardinal took part in a televised discussion with the Dalai Lama during the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit to Taiwan earlier this month to console victims of Typhoon Morakot.
Another notable winner was Chi Pang-yuan (齊邦媛), a National Taiwan University professor emeritus, who has played a leading role in introducing Taiwanese authors to the Western world by translating their works.
Chi, who is also 85, is a prolific writer and translator. She recently published a 250,000-character autobiography that follows modern China’s tumultuous changes and Taiwan’s development after 50 years of Japanese colonial rule.
The 85-year-old author said she has no regrets in her life.
Meanwhile, the Good Shepherd Social Welfare Services, an organization of Catholic nuns that helps teenage victims of prostitution as well as women and children who fall prey to rape, domestic violence, delinquency and truancy, was honored for its devotion to public service.
The Paper Windmill Cultural Foundation, famous for its theater performances for children in remote rural and offshore regions, was honored for promoting artistic education among children in innovative and creative ways.
The presentation ceremony will take place on Nov. 1 at the Lin Family Garden in Taichung’s Wufeng Township (霧峰), a national historic relic.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will hand out the trophies and certificates to the winners, who will each receive NT$1 million in prize money.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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