Ministry of Education announced the winners of the 2019 of the National Literary and Art Creation Awards. A total of 49 people won awards and the award ceremony was held at the Taipei Living Art Museum. Chong-Shi Fang, a lecturer at the General Education Center at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the Art Creation Award, following his winning of the first prize in 2012.
【2019 National Art Creation Awards by the Ministry of Education invited the Minister Wen-Chong Pan (center) to take photos with the winners of the Short Story Group.】
Chong-Shi Fang is a lecturer at the General Education Center at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He won the award with his work “Sinking Land” following his winning of the first prize in 2012 with his "Mosquito" and his winning of the 2014 Rong-San Lin Literary Award with his novel "Smog Disaster." Altogether the three winning entries form a trilogy of achievements and challenges in exploring the interaction between human beings and their environment.
【With his work “Sinking Land,” Lecturer Chong-Shi Fang from the General Education Center, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the 2019 National Arts and Literature Creation Award of the Ministry of Education.】
These three award-winning works describe the relationship between people and the environment in different ways. At the same time, with these three works, he responds to the general education of contemporary universities, spanning and communicating the core literacy goals of the two barriers of science and technology.
【Minister Wen-Chong Pan (middle) took a photo with Lecturer Chong-Shi Fang from the General Education Center at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology.】
Lecturer Fang is visually impaired. It is not easy for him to adhere to the creative concept in a difficult environment. He won the first prize in 2012 with his work “Mosquito,” which warns human beings against constructing a scientific and civilized life with which they believe to be safe and comfortable and which may bring crises and natural disasters. In 2014, he won Rong-San Lin Literary Prize in Liberty Time with the work “Smog Disaster,” in which he reviewed the problem that the world's excessively stimulated consumption and production under the vigorous development of capitalism and that the mutually reinforcing environment is worsening along with some deteriorating common causes. The award-winning work "Sinking Land" mainly describes a coastal cliff at the southernmost tip of Taiwan. A female owner of a homestay who disappears after a super typhoon. She runs a wave-surfing house for surfers as the main customer group. The rise and fall of her business reflects the impact of tourism industry and economic development on local geography and humanities. Fang’s works are calm and incisive in terms of conception, layout, connection and structure. They are deeply infectious, persuasive, and thought-provoking, profoundly and powerfully addressing the current issues.
Chuang-Hsiong Chiu, Director of the General Education Center at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said that Fang’s work has been well-recognized and has won numerous nationally important literary awards. These award-winning works are closely related to environmental care, every word showing his vision over the past 20 years. Serious visually impaired, he has been confronted with the constraints of many unfavorable inconveniences; yet, he makes good use of digital computer voice as his aids. He is wholeheartedly committed to the teaching of general education courses, holding on to the core spirit of general education in his personal practice. His achievements also prove that STUST attaches great importance to general knowledge as part of the educational curriculum to internalize concepts that transcends the practical and utilitarian goals. Fang is indeed a model for teachers and students.