• 2021-07-11

The National Central Library(NCL) and Netherlands Office Taipei, Taiwan Public Television Service and the Dutch School Taipei, chose before the Dragon Boat Festival to join hands and collaborate in holding the 2021 “Dutch Online Children's Film Festival” to provide children with diversity in channels for learning while classes—but not studies—are suspended.

NCL Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng thanked Representative Guido Tielman of the Netherlands Office Taipei for following up, during the difficult period of the pandemic, on the great reading pageant that was the December 2020 Taiwan Reading Festival, and, after the two sides’ joint effort of the “World Reading Symphony” reading promotion activities, joining hands with the library once again to curate this deeply meaningful, free online activity.                

The Netherlands Office Taipei invested in an agreement with AV-Jet to release 100 IP addresses at the same time to enable everyone, at any time between the ten days from 11 to 20 June, happily at home with family to enjoy our four choice Dutch children’s movies, and share a beautiful knowledge-based moment. The four films were “Fidgety Bram,” “Chubby Drums,” “Romy’s Salon,” and “Dolfje Weerwolfe.”

Director-General Tseng pointed out that, according to United Nations data, Dutch children are ranked happiest in the world, enjoying the highest scores for quality of life, health and happiness. The Dutch government and private sector have made many great films for children. Their content creativity, technological breakthroughs, efforts to adopt all types of media and expressive form and their thematic diversity are all impressive. 

In addition to the online screenings, the National Central Library simultaneously held an online “Write about What You Learnt and Win a Lottery Prize” writing activity, welcoming adults and children enthusiastically to submit compositions about what they learnt from the screenings. Also, in order to allow domestic and foreign readers to expand their international reading horizons and gain a deep understanding of the meaning of film, the National Central Library invited well-known writer on parent-child education Dr. Li Weiwen, to serve as the guide ambassador of this film festival and write film reviews. Dr. Li is the author of such books as “Life Education in Film.” We believe that, through the direction of teachers with multiple wide perspectives, such as experts with international outlooks on nature conservation and parent-child relations etc., whether adults or children, when watching these select videos, they will definitely appreciate the deep connotations and reflections of the films. We believe that, after watching these four films, readers of all ages will gain a capacity for cozy, steady reading during their stay at home.

The 10-day screening period of "Dutch Online Children's Film Festival" attracted many adults and children to watch films together, and the number of viewings reached 35,867. The online writing activity “Write about What You Learnt and Win a Lottery Prize” received 327 submissions by deadline date, and, on the afternoon of 25 June, Director-General Tseng drew 30 lucky winners to receive an exclusive, exquisite gift set provided by the National Central Library, Netherlands Office Taipei and Taiwan Public Television Service.

2021 “Dutch Online Children's Film Festival” event website: https://reurl.cc/rgorWr