Late architect and academic Han Pao-teh (漢寶德); writer and translator Chi Pang-yuan (齊邦媛); and poet and writer Yu Kwang-chung (余光中) have won the nation’s highest cultural award, the Executive Yuan Culture Award, the Ministry of Culture said on Monday. The award honors their lifetime achievement in their respective disciplines, it added.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) is to present the awards — along with certificates and cash prizes of NT$1 million (US$32,350) — in a ceremony set for Feb. 9 next year.
Describing the trio as being highly regarded in their fields, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said they have made great contributions to national culture.
Their works and influence have reached far and wide, while their discourse and thoughts have encouraged young people to follow in their footsteps, she said.
Lung said that Han, who died on Thursday last week, explored the philosophy of architecture through the perspectives of history, aesthetics and environmental ethics.
He helped found the National Museum of Natural Science in Greater Taichung, Tainan National University of the Arts and the nation’s first museum studies graduate school.
Chi, who has taught in universities, has systematically promoted translating modern Taiwanese literature into English, the minister said.
Her masterpiece, the River of Big Torrents (巨流河), chronicles her family’s experience amid the turbulence of China in the first half of the 20th century and in Taiwan after 1949. The book also examines the plight of women during these transitional periods.
Yu has worked in creative literature for more than half a century and is well-known in the Chinese-language world. The literary world has lauded him for attaining “unrivaled achievements, while writing poems with his right hand and prose with his left hand.”
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first