The Ministry of Culture (MOC), in collaboration with the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences under the Institut de France, has announced the recipients of the 29th Taiwan-France Cultural Award. This year’s laureates are Wu Hsi-deh (吳錫德), honorary professor at the Tamkang University, and Victor Louzon, assistant professor at Sorbonne University.
An honorary professor in the Department of French at Tamkang University, Wu has dedicated nearly four decades to teaching and academic service. He founded the Taiwan Association of French Teachers (Association des Professeurs de Français de Taïwan) in 1996 and the Taiwanese Association of French Translators (Association Taïwanaise des Traducteurs de Français) in 2014. He also initiated Taiwan’s International Francophonie Day events and French translation awards. In 2016, he received the Ordre des Palmes académiques from the French government for his contributions to French language education and cultural exchange.
Louzon, an assistant professor of history at Sorbonne University, focuses his research on the transformation of political power in Taiwan in 1945. In 2023, he published “The Embrace of the Fatherland: Decolonization, War Aftermath, and Political Violence in 1947 Taiwan (L’étreinte de la patrie: décolonisation et violence à Taiwan, 1947),” the first French-language monograph to examine the February 28 incident. He aspires to lead French students to Taiwan for fieldwork, host academic conferences, and launch translation projects centered on Taiwan’s history.
The committee for the 29th Taiwan-France Cultural Award was chaired by Culture Minister Li Yuan and Bernard Stirn, Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.
The Taiwan-France Cultural Award, established in 1996 and held annually since, recognizes institutions and individuals who have made remarkable contributions to promoting Taiwanese culture in France, Europe, and