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.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to