Rti's English radio docudrama "Lost in Dutch Formosa" was honored at the New York Festivals World's Best Radio Programs, 2015 at a ceremony on Monday, June 22 in New York City. The radio play picked up a bronze trophy for Best Writing, alongside winning submissions from the BBC and other international radio stations.

Acknowledgements

Writer Andrew Ryan, thanked historian Llyn Scott for her guidance and for sharing the inspiration behind the tales: real stories from the Dutch occupation of Formosa (Taiwan) in the 1600s. He also expressed his gratitude to co-Producer Natalie Tso, sound designer James Lin (whose work also inspired parts of the script), the dedicated team of actors, especially Liu Ji-hsiang and all the students at Taipei School for the Blind. Liu's improvisational acting was instrumental in the writing of scenes involving blind characters.

On Writing the Plays

Ryan traveled to Tainan, southern Taiwan, to search for inspiration to write the plays. He said that the months-long endeavor presented a variety of hurdles. "The biggest challenges in writing the series included: writing to the rich sounds of Taiwan and using them as plot devices that enable characters to jump through history; eliminating the use of a narrator in the plays, opting instead to let the characters speak for themselves; and finding a way to tell the tragic true story of a 17th Century Dutch boy in Formosa (Taiwan) for an international family audience." ,said Ryan.

This is not the first award for "Lost in Dutch Formosa"; the series won Best Radio Play and Best Sound Design at the Golden Bell Awards (Taiwan's version of the Emmys), and it won a special jury commendation at the AIB Awards in London.