Taiwanese writer Chu Tien-wen (朱天文) has been awarded the fourth Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, becoming the second Taiwanese to win the US award that recognizes outstanding achievements in Chinese prose or poetry.
Chu, a prominent novelist and screenwriter, won the award with her Fin-de-Siecle Splendor, a collection of short stories set in Taipei.
Margaret Hillenbrand, an associate professor at the University of Oxford who nominated Chu for the award, described the 58-year-old writer as a “superb practitioner of short fiction.”
“Chu Tien-wen is a multi-faceted cultural figure, a novelist, screenwriter and essayist who excels at each of those different forms,” Hillenbrand wrote in a statement on the award’s Web site.
“Texture, fragrance, color and taste leap out from her uncommonly crafted prose with such force that they suck the reader into the text in ways not usually associated with the short-story form — a genre which is supposedly too fleeting to be immersive,” Hillenbrand wrote.
The other nominees were Yan Lianke (閻連科), Yu Hua (余華) and Ge Fei (格非) from China and Chang Kui-hsing (張貴興) from Malaysia.
Peter Hays Gries, director of the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for US-China Issues, which organizes the award, said Chu emerged as the winner after four rounds of positive elimination voting.
Born in 1956 to writer parents, Chu has demonstrated her talent in writing since her school days. She published her first novel at the age of 16 and cofounded a literary group during her college years.
She is also known for her long-time collaboration with Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), having written and adapted many of the screenplays for Hou’s films, including A City of Sadness (悲情城市), which won a Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice Film Festival.
A jury of five literary experts selected Chu as the 2015 Newman Prize winner on Wednesday last week, according to the organizer.
The Newman Prize has been awarded every two years by the institute since 2009.
Past recipients include Chinese novelist and Nobel literature laureate Mo Yan (莫言, 2009), Chinese novelist Han Shaogong (韓少功, 2011) and Taiwanese poet Yang Mu (楊牧, 2013).
Winners receive a plaque and US$10,000.
An award ceremony is to be held at the University of Oklahoma in March next year.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
RSS