Ministry of Education Honors Groups and Individuals with Outstanding Contributions in Promotion of Native Languages on International Mother Language Day

There were 27 winners this year. The "Taiwan Care Center" won the group award for its remarkable achievements while 26 individuals were honored. Among the individual winners, Reverend Zheng Er-yu, 87 years old, is the author of many works in Taiwanese (Southern Min) and is known to encourage people to romanize Taiwanese when he preaches. "Taiwan the Green", referred to as the Taiwanese national anthem among advocates of certain movements in the private sector, is one of his masterpieces. The poem was not only nominated for the "Editor's Choice Award" in an international poetry contest but was also collected by Professor Xiao Tai-ran, winner of the Executive Yuan's National Cultural Award this year, in "Overture 1947", a work to commemorate the 228 Incident.

Another individual winner, Ceng Rui-lin, a 70-year-old women from the Seedig Tribe, has spent her entire life on reconstruction and preservation of Seedig culture through recording of oral history and traditions. She travels to remote areas to gather information on Seedig people's culture, such as construction of their dwellings, traditional weaving techniques, cooking and tribal tales, and publishes it. Her devotion to the preservation of Seedig culture will be remembered.