The winning works of the third Gonggul Literature Award in China were announced in Beijing.
Beijing, March 28 (Xinhua) on the afternoon of March 28, the award ceremony of the third Gonggul Literature Award was held at the residence of the French Ambassador to China. French Ambassador to China Bai Yutang announced that this year's award-winning work is the novel "living too fast" by French writer Bridget Giraud. In November last year, this work won the crown of the 2022 Gonggul Literature Award.
Bai Yutang, French ambassador to China, announced the winning works of the third Gonggul Literature Award in Beijing on March 28. Photo provided by the French Cultural Center)
Ambassador Bai Yutang said that the Gonggul Prize, which has a history of 120 years, is the most prestigious literary award in France and one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. At present, more than 30 countries in the world have set up the Gonggul Prize for Literature. China is the first Asian country to set up the Gonggul Prize for Literature. He hoped that the selection of the Gonggul Literature Prize in China would continue and become an indispensable activity for the dissemination of contemporary French literature and French teaching in China, and also expressed encouragement and gratitude to the Chinese students who participated in the selection.
Du Qinggang, a professor at Wuhan University and consultant for the China selection of the Gonggul Literature Prize, congratulated Bridget Giraud. In his speech, he shared his understanding and understanding of the award-winning work "living too fast" and reviewed the grand occasion of the first Gonggul Literature Award in China and the details of the work behind the scenes. He expects more universities and students to participate in the selection process.
(March 28, Beijing, French Ambassador to China Bai Yutang (fourth from left), Minister Counsellor of the French Embassy in China Pei Guoliang (first from left) and judges attended the award ceremony. Photo provided by the French Cultural Center)
This year, French postgraduates and doctoral students from ten universities, including Wuhan University, Peking University and Beijing Foreign Studies University, participated in the selection of the award. After two rounds of selection, the final winners were selected from four finalists: Bridget Giraud's "Live too fast", Nadandeville's "artificial connection", Pascal Rorbert-Diar's "Little liar" and Mackenzie Alsell's "the Sum of people". The award was awarded to Brigit Giraud's work "Live too fast". The two student judges also shared their reasons for choosing the award-winning work at the award ceremony.
Living too fast is an autobiographical novel. On the afternoon of June 22, 1999, Bridget Giraud's husband Claude went out on an overpowered Japanese-made motorcycle to pick up his eight-year-old son Theo from school at the age of 41. In the book, Bridget Giraud recalls the moves, funerals and decorations that followed the accident, and re-examines the "ifs" before the accident. The novel was praised by critics for its "sense of intimacy".
The works selected by China for the third Gonggul Literature Award. Provided by the French Cultural Center
After the award was announced, Bridget Giraud sent a message to the student judges by video: "this book questions meaning, disappearance and death, and reflects on the so-called fate of life in an unprecedented way." I am well aware of how different East and West look at these issues, and "living too fast" proves that we are one. " On the evening of March 29th, Bridget Giraud and several other Gongol Prize winners remotely participated in a round-table discussion organized by the French Cultural Center to share issues such as the impact of winning the Gonggul Award on their writing.
The Gonggul Prize for Literature was established in 1903 and is awarded in November every year. In 2018, in order to further promote contemporary French literature, the French Embassy in Beijing launched the "Gonggul Award for the Choice of China" project, and China became the 12th country to participate in the overseas selection of the Gonggul Award.