...and all shall have prizes!

The deserving were awarded this week with prizes being handed out for the Taiwan blog awards, highlighting some of the great work bloggers do in promoting the island. On to the Taiwan Blog Awards!

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Media release
2 November 2008
for immediate release

Results of the 2008 Taiwan Blog Awards

The results of the 2008 Taiwan Best Blog Awards have been announced. The awards are for English-language blogs related to Taiwan.

Voting took place over the month of October at the Taiwanderful website. There were 35 eligible blogs in eight categories. The overall award for best blog went to the New Hampshire Bushman. The full list of winning blogs follows.

• Best Taiwan Blog 2008
The New Hampshire Bushman (http://www.thenhbushman.com/)
• Best Taiwan Education Blog 2008
Mandarin Scholarship Taiwan (http://mandarinscholarship.com/)
• Best Taiwan General Blog 2008
The Wild East (http://www.thewildeast.net/applications/wordpress/)
• Best Taiwan Other Blog 2008
Poohat and the 10 billions years before the sun blew up (http://www.poohat.blogspot.com/)
• Best Taiwan Personal Blog 2008
Mouse Eared Kiwi in Taipei (http://taipeiblog.sandra.net.nz/)
• Best Taiwan Photography Blog 2008
Taiwan Photographers (http://www.taiwanphotographers.wordpress.com/)
• Best Taiwan Politics Blog 2008
Taiwan Matters! (http://taiwanmatters.blogspot.com/)
• Best Taiwan Religion Blog 2008
SQJ Taipei (http://pagels.teamexpansion.org/sqjtaipei)
• Best Taiwan Travel Blog 2008
The Daily Bubble Tea (http://thedailybubbletea.com/)

The awards aim to highlight some of the best English language blogs about Taiwan. There are hundreds more blogs and English language bloggers in Taiwan. They contribute some of the most comprehensive up-to-date information about Taiwan on a wide range of topics, from travel through politics to culture. The blogs combine personal commentary, photography and video. Blogs are a unique form of promotion for Taiwan.

Full details of the awards are available at http://www.taiwanderful.net/blog/best-blogs-taiwan-2008-final-results

For further information contact
David Reid (available for interviews in Taipei)
e-mail: reid.david@yahoo.com.au

Gilad Feldman (Fili)
e-mail: filination@gmail.com

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And from the land of cafe americain comes news of a prize awarded by the French Taiwanese Culture to professors at SOAS in London, which does great work on Taiwan. The prize was awarded last year but the Taiwanese have been a bit slow in getting their Ministry of Culture people over to be on hand for the ceremony, but things finally fell into place....

SOAS laureates Professor Robert Ash and Dr Dafydd Fell from the Centre of Taiwan Studies Receive the Prize of the French Taiwanese Cultural Foundation at a ceremony in Paris.

The two laureates from SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies, Professor Robert Ash and Dr Dafydd Fell, received the Prize of the French Taiwanese Cultural Foundation at a special ceremony at the Institut de France, Académie des sciences morales et politiques on October 27, 2008 in Paris. The ceremony was co-presided by Dr. Huang Pi-twan, President of the Taiwan National Council for Cultural Affairs and Mr Michel Albert, Secrétaire Perpétuel de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques.

In October 2007 it was announced that SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies had been awarded Prize of the French Taiwanese Cultural Foundation. The award, worth Euro 25,000, is hosted by the Institut de France, Académie des sciences morales et politiques in Paris. The Prize was instituted in 1996. It is awarded in recognition of work on relations between Taiwan and Europe, and which contributes to the enhancement of cultural exchange between the two regions. In awarding the prize to the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies, the jury of the French Taiwan Cultural Foundation highlighted the Centre's work in developing Taiwan studies in Europe. In particular, the jury was impressed with the achievements of the SOAS based European Association of Taiwan Studies annual conferences and its development of Taiwan studies teaching in Europe. European Association of Taiwan Studies conference has become the one of most important Taiwan studies academic events in the world. SOAS has also become the continent's leading institute in Taiwan studies teaching, with the widest range of Taiwan studies postgraduate courses and the only MA degree in Taiwan studies in the English speaking world. Recently, SOAS has also been developing intensive short Taiwan courses as part of the SOAS/Heidelberg/Tubingen European Taiwan Studies teaching project. The prize money will be used to strengthen the SOAS/Heidelberg European Taiwan Studies teaching project.
Chinese language news reports:

http://www.cca.gov.tw/images/epaper/20081031/p01.html

http://www.cca.gov.tw/images/epaper/20081031/p02.html

http://qqqq.cca.gov.tw/qqqq/news/news_detail.asp?newsid=951

Link to SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies:
www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies

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With the arrival of Chen Yunlin in Taiwan to negotiate with Regional Administrator Ma, the importance of promotion of Taiwan through these very different channels cannot be overestimated. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and for deepening our understanding and appreciation of the Beautiful Island.

[Taiwan]