On the afternoon of March 28th, the award ceremony of Choix Goncourt China 2022 was held at the residence of the French Ambassador in China. This year’s winner is the French novel Live Fast, which had already won the Prix Goncourt 2022 last November.
The French Ambassador to China noted that the 120-year-old Prix Goncourt is the most prestigious literary prize in France and one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world. More than 30 countries have established the prize, and China is the first Asian country to do so. He hoped that the selection of Choix Goncourt China would continue and become an indispensable event for the spread of contemporary French literature and the teaching of French in China, and he expressed his encouragement and gratitude to the Chinese students who participated in the selection.
In his speech, Du Qinggang, the consultant for the award and a professor at Wuhan University, shared his understanding and feelings about the award-winning work Live Fast. Apart from reviewing the grand ceremony of the first Choix Goncourt China and the details of the work behind the process of the selection, he expected more university students to participate in the selection.
This year, post-graduate and doctoral students in French from ten universities, like Wuhan University, Peking University, and Beijing Foreign Studies University, participated in the selection of this award. After two rounds of selection, they chose the final winner from four finalists and awarded the prize to Live Fast. Two student judges also shared their reasons for selecting the work at the award ceremony.
The Prix Goncourt was established in 1903 and is awarded in November yearly. In order to further promote contemporary French literature, the French Embassy in China launched the Choix Goncourt China in 2018, making China the 12th country to participate in the Choix Goncourt worldwide.
(Guo Xinguan)