This year’s 22nd annual Taiwan-France Cultural Award has been awarded to four people who have enhanced ties between the two nations, the Ministry of Culture said.
The award, held jointly by the ministry and France’s Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques under the Institut de France, has been bestowed upon film editor Jean-Robert Thomann, Sinologist Veronique Arnaud, choreographer Christian Rizzo and former director of the Centre d’Etudes Francais sur la Chine Contemporaine (CEFC) Stephane Corcuff, the ministry said.
The selection of four this year is a departure from past practice, the ministry said, adding that previously only one or two winners were selected.
Thomann has been filming everyday life in Taiwan since 2000, making the development of democracy in Taiwan and the nation’s relationship with the rest of Asia a key theme in many of his films.
To date, Thomann has made 16 documentaries about Taiwan and two fictional dramas.
Thomann’s representative work is his 2000 documentary on renowned Taiwanese opera performer Liao Chiung-chih (廖瓊枝) — a film that was shown in Paris theaters.
Arnaud is a celebrated researcher at France’s Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique who has been studying Amis Aborigines since 1971.
She has compiled various lexicons detailing Amis terms for fish and plants, and providing Chinese translations for these terms.
Her work has contributed to research into southern Taiwan Aboriginal languages, and she has cooperated with researchers at Academia Sinica.
Rizzo, who has been working closely with Taiwanese performers for more than a decade, is a choreographer, stage designer and director.
He was a resident artist at the Taipei Artist Village in 2006.
Rizzo has staged performances at the National Theater and National Concert Hall, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, including the well-received dance performance D’apres une Histoire Vraie (依據真實).
His production, Le Syndrome Ian (伊恩症候群), will be performed at the National Taichung Theater on Saturday and Sunday.
After stepping down as director of CEFC Taipei, Corcuff continued to foster strong ties between Taiwan and France, engaging in research on Taiwan, conducting teaching seminars for other Taiwan-focused researchers and supervising academic theses.
Corcuff has also promoted the study of qigong — a system of breathing exercises for improving health and wellness.
He has said he plans to promote the preservation of the practice by publishing a series of books on the subject.
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