French TV host Remy Gils (吉雷米), who has dedicated himself to preserving local languages in Taiwan, on Friday last week expressed his gratitude for being granted Republic of China (ROC) citizenship as a high-level professional, without having to relinquish his French nationality.
After 41-year-old Gils received his naturalization documents, he took to Facebook to share his joy, saying that he had cried a little because obtaining dual citizenship was not easy.
He thanked the central and Kaohsiung City governments, as well as his wife, Chiang Pei-ching (江佩靜).
Photo courtesy of at the Jiading District Household Registration Office via CNA
“I am very grateful to Taiwan for giving me the opportunity to live on this beautiful island. Let’s make Taiwan shine,” Gils wrote in Chinese.
Born in France’s Provence region, Gils came to Taiwan in 2006 to volunteer in Hualien County, where he visited several Aboriginal villages and became fascinated with local languages and cultures.
He studied the languages and later published three books in French, on the Bunun and Amis languages, as well as on Hoklo, commonly known as Taiwanese.
Gils, whose Chinese name sounds similar to “a grain of rice” in Taiwanese, in 2019 became the first foreigner to host a TV program in Taiwanese — Sightseeing by Bus (無事坐巴士) on the Public Television Service, which was nominated for Golden Bell Awards last year and this year.
Gils also received numerous awards from the National Immigration Agency.
He is also an avid runner. In 2013, Gils completed a jog around Taiwan proper while carrying a giant puppet of the folk deity Nezha, earning him the nickname “French Nezha.”
On Tuesday, Kaohsiung’s Jiading District Household Registration Office said in a statement that Gils was the first local resident to obtain citizenship without giving up his original nationality since the Nationality Act was amended in 2016.
The approval was based on Gils’ dedication to preserving and promoting local languages and cultures, promoting multicultural soft power and improving Taiwan’s international visibility, the office said.
Before the 2016 amendment took effect in 2017, Taiwan required naturalization applicants to give up their other nationalities in all cases. Since then, 198 foreign high-level professionals have been granted ROC citizenship while being allowed to retain their original nationalities.
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