Taiwanese film director Ang Lee (李安) is one of five winners of this year’s Presidential Culture Awards, the General Association of Chinese Culture said yesterday.
The Presidential Culture Awards, held every two years, are given in five categories: arts and culture, community building, humanitarian dedication, creativity and innovation, and public advocacy.
Lee is to receive the award for arts and culture, the organizer said in a statement.
The awards were created in 2001 to recognize individuals and groups for their contributions to Taiwanese culture.
A ceremony is scheduled for next month and each winner would be awarded NT$1 million (US$36,114), the association added.
Lee is the only Mandarin-speaking director to have won recognition from three major international film awards bodies — an Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a BAFTA from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — the culture association said.
Lee said through an assistant that he was grateful to the association for its recognition and would continue his work.
The humanitarian dedication award is to go to Chen Rong-chi (陳榮基), a doctor who advocates hospice and palliative care.
Chen has proposed that physicians be trained to prevent and ease suffering for people with serious illnesses or who need end-of-life care to die with dignity.
HRC Dance Studio chief executive officer Chen Bo-jin (陳柏均), also known as Bboy Bojin, is to receive the creativity and innovation award.
Having won numerous awards in break dancing, Chen Bo-jin helped boost Taiwan’s international visibility by promoting the inclusion of break dancing — also called breaking, b-boying or b-girling, an athletic style of street dance — at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the statement said.
In addition, he created an online learning app called “Swipe,” which allows people to use action recognition and artificial intelligence to participate in street dance classes.
The 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, the statement said.
The Thousand Miles Trail Association was named the winner of the community building award for its longstanding advocacy for the protection of Taiwan’s mountain and sea landscapes, as well as its cultural and natural characteristics, the statement said.
The winners were selected following three rounds of evaluation over the past six months by a panel headed by Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the general convener of the organizing committee.
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