A retired National Taiwan University (NTU) French language and literature lecturer fell to his death from the top floor of a 10-story building in Taipei on Sunday, police said.
Police were informed about the incident in Wenshan District (文山) on Sunday afternoon and later identified the body as that of 67-year-old Jacques Picoux.
After a preliminary investigation, police said Picoux fell from his rented 10th-floor apartment and died instantly.
No signs of fighting or struggle were found in the apartment or on the building’s rooftop, police said, adding that they have ruled out foul play.
The investigation would continue to determine the circumstances behind Picoux’s death, police said.
Picoux’s 68th birthday was less than one month away.
The news of his death shocked the people who knew the French teacher, who was also a translator for Malaysian-Chinese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮).
Describing Picoux as an excellent painter, Tsai said he was saddened to hear of his death.
Picoux, who held a master’s degree from Universite Paris Diderot, had been living in Taipei since 1979, when he and Francoise Zylberberg came to Taiwan for a two-year exchange program held between Diderot and NTU.
After the program, Picoux decided to stay and continue teaching at NTU until his retirement in 2004.
Apart from teaching, Picoux specialized in collage painting.
Also a fan of film, he worked as a translator for Chinese-speaking filmmakers, including Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), Wong Kar-wai (王家衛) and Zhang Yimou (張藝謀).
He played the character “Kong Kong” in last year’s martial-arts film The Assassin (刺客聶隱娘), and helped promote the film in Europe.
Picoux’s partner, with whom he lived for 35 years, died of cancer in October last year.
Picoux was in despair after losing his partner, his friend Lee Yen-jong (李晏榕) wrote last year on Facebook.
Lee, who was a candidate from the Green Social Democratic Party in the legislative elections on Jan. 16, said that Picoux felt powerless after seeing his partner suffer at a hospital during an emergency resuscitation procedure authorized by his partner’s relatives.
She described the two as “strangers” under the law, despite being close to each other.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan