The National Cultural Heritage Preservation Awards were established to encourage individuals, groups, and corporations to participate in preserving cultural heritage, and to award such contributions.The awards are also open to non-Taiwanese nationals.
The biennial awards program has four categories that recognize different achievements in the field, including preservation work on tangible cultural heritage, outstanding contribution, and efforts in conserving traditional arts, folk arts or intangible cultural assets.
A special award is given to individuals who have devoted their lives to promoting cultural heritage-related policies or research.
The entries must be recommended by institutions related to cultural heritage, the Ministry of Culture's review committee members, or former judges of the awards. Two separate judge panels for tangible and intangible cultural assets each select the final entries, which are later reviewed by a different jury.
Non-Taiwanese recipients of the awards include Italian priest Gian Carlo Michelini, who was honored in 2012 for helping promote and preserve Taiwan's traditional and folk dances by establishing the Lan Yang Dancers troupe, and Japanese restoration specialist Ben Kimmura (木村勉) in 2017 for his help in preserving Taiwan's heritage sites.
Among other recipients are Taiwanese opera master Liao Chiung-chih, archeologist Chen Chung-yu, heritage preservationist Chang Shan-nan, and the late architect Han Pao-teh.
Several preservation projects have also been awarded for their success in renovating and maintaining historic buildings, including a building and an auditorium at Tainan Second Senior High School, a weather station built in Tainan in 1898, the Tsung-Yeh sugar factory in Matou, heritage site Tainan Judicial Museum, and the National Taiwan Museum's Land Bank Hall in Taipei.