Taiwanese film director Ang Lee (??) is one of the five individual and group winners of this year’s 11th Presidential Culture Awards, award organizer General Association of Chinese Culture announced Friday.
The biennial Presidential Culture Awards are given in five categories: arts and culture, community building, humanitarian dedication, creativity and innovation, and public advocacy.
The awards were created in 2001 to give recognition to individuals and groups for their contributions to Taiwan’s culture.
An awards ceremony is set to take place in October and each prize winner would be awarded NT$1 million (US$35,741), the association has previously said.
Lee was announced as the recipient of the award for the arts and culture category. Lee is the first and only Mandarin-speaking director to have won the three major international film awards — the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards, and Golden Globe Awards, the association said in a statement.
In response to the announcement, Lee expressed gratitude to the association for its recognition and said he will continue his work, according to his assistant.
The humanitarian dedication award will go to medical doctor Chen Rong-chi (???), an advocate of hospice palliative care policy in Taiwan.
Chen proposed that physicians should be trained to prevent and ease suffering for people who have serious illnesses or who need end-of-life care until they die with dignity.
Breakdancer Chen Bo-jin (???), also known as Bboy Bojin, CEO of HRC Dance Studio, will be honored with the creativity and innovation award.
Having won numerous awards, the dancer helped boost Taiwan’s international visibility by promoting the inclusion of breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, an athletic style of street dance from the United States, in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, according to the statement.
In addition, he created an online learning platform app called “Swipe” which allows people to use action recognition and AI technology to participate in street dance classes.
Dr. Chen Wen-Chen Memorial Foundation was named as the recipient of the public advocacy award for contributions to promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in Taiwan, according to the statement.
Taiwan’s Thousand Miles Trail Association was named the winner of the community building award for its longstanding devotion to protection of Taiwan’s mountain and sea landscapes as well as its cultural and natural characteristics, said the statement.
This year, the five winners were selected following three rounds of evaluation over the past six months by a judging panel headed by Vice President Lai Ching-te (???), the general convener of the award organizing committee.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel