Illuminating the Spirit of Our Time: The National Award for Arts
2026 / August
This month we tell the stories of the seven winners of the 24th National Awards for Arts. These individuals have spent their lives pursuing their ideals and telling Taiwan’s stories to the world in many different ways.
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Featured Story
Documenting Indigenous Lives:
Director Yu Kan-ping
Over half a century, from his early narrative films Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? and The Outsiders to his documentaries of recent decades set in Indigenous villages, Yu Kan-ping’s work has reflected the evolution of Taiwanese society. Today, he is racing against time in Hualien, organizing over......
Chien Hsueh-yi Builds a Life in Architecture
In the entranceway to the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, there stand a number of bare concrete walls of varying heights. Daylight filtering between the walls suggests a glimmer of hope amid the otherwise oppressive atmosphere. Once you step into the Yingge Ceramics Museum, which stands b......
The Show Must Go On:
Taiwanese Opera Star Wang Jin-ying
In the living room, an old-fashioned blue-green electric fan gently circulates the air. Wang Jin-ying is making chrysanthemum pu’er tea as a phonograph spills out the sounds of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, which she recorded when she was young. By nature impatient, she nonetheless leads a ver......
From Minimal to Infinite:
Artist Lee Zai-qian
At not yet 5 a.m. it is still dark, but 98-year-old Lee Zai-qian is already up and about. He drives to the coast of Jinshan District, New Taipei City, to watch the sunrise. “This is when the vital energy of heaven and earth is at its fullest.” He sketches and takes photographs. When the sunl......
Literature’s Compound Eyes:
Wu Ming-yi
Having previously won the Prix du Livre Insulaire and been longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, Wu Ming-yi has this year received the prestigious National Award for Arts.......
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