Czech scholar Taoa Drahoslava and the French Maison des Cultures du Monde each received an award on Monday honoring their contributions to enhancing cultural exchanges between Taiwan and Europe.
The Taiwan-France Cultural Award will attract greater attention from Central and Eastern Europe to Taiwan-related studies, said Drahoslava, an associate professor of sinology at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, who was honored for her efforts in promoting Taiwan studies.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Drahoslava said she would donate the prize money to fund people studying about Taiwan and to help expand the collection of Taiwan-related titles at her university's library.
She added that she is planning an international seminar on Taiwanese literature at her university later this autumn.
Arwad Esber, curator of the French institute, said the award was a great encouragement in the fight to preserve cultural diversity and protect intangible cultural heritage.
The institute, which has hosted over 11 exhibitions on Taiwanese art in the last four years, will hold an arts festival in 2014 that will introduce Taiwanese opera, Esber said, describing the art form as a colorful and highly symbolic form of traditional drama in Taiwan.
Noting that the opera is a popular art form endowed with cultural depth, she said the opera is the perfect example of an old tradition that progresses with time without losing its original color.
The award ceremony, which took place at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences under the Institut de France in Paris, was hosted by Taiwan's Deputy Culture Minister Chang Yun-cheng and Xavier Darcos, perpetual secretary of the academy.
Chang said the cultural award has encouraged numerous people devoted to promoting cultural exchanges over the past 16 years and will continue to draw people from Europe to work toward creating exchanges with Taiwan.
Chang was welcomed in Mandarin by Marianne Bastid-Bruguiere, chairperson of the academy. She was the first chairperson since the founding of the award to give a speech entirely in Mandarin.
According to Darcos, Taiwan was virtually unknown to the French literati in 1996, but the award has greatly lifted the profile of Taiwan in Europe.
The award was set up by the predecessor of Taiwan's Ministry of Culture — the Council for Cultural Affairs — and the French academy in 1996. Two prizes are given annually to encourage Taiwan-French cultural exchanges.
The award was expanded in 2008 in order to honor individuals from other European countries such as Switzerland and Ukraine.
