National Central Library’s Center for Chinese Studies was established in 1981. As of September of this year, it has been in operation for 40 years! To honor the efforts of those who have gone before, both in Taiwan and abroad, as well as take the opportunity to highlight the achievements and vision of National Central Library’s continued promotion of Chinese studies and to maintain and solidify the achievements in Taiwan’s momentum in international scholarly exchange, a series of activities were held, including a celebration, lectures, academic forum, a donation of Song historical materials, and a placard unveiling the Song History Research Material Archive Area, a themed exhibition to celebrate the Center for Chinese Studies’ 40th anniversary.
The Center for Chinese Studies 40th Anniversary Celebration and the Cultivation and Growth: Retrospect and Prospect of 40 Years of Chinese Studies in Taiwan academic forum were held on September 30 and October 1 at National Central Library. During the anniversary celebration arrangements were made for a launching ceremony for the “Amazing Vista, Tranquil Mind: Song History Research Material Archive Area.” Administrative Deputy Minister of Education Teng-chiao Lin, Vice President of Academia Sinica Chin-Shing Huang, and NCL Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng accompanied the book donor Professor The-yi Wang’s wife, Kuo-jui Sun and Professor Kuan-chung Huang in unveiling the placard. This was done to honor scholars who take care of their collections then donate them in a selfless manner.
Renowned Song history research Professor The-yi Wang donated his book collection to benefit the scholarly world.
Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng stated, this donation comes from an internationally acclaimed scholar on Song history, The-yi Wang, Professor Emeritus from the Department of History at National Taiwan University. He is originally from Feng County in Jiangsu. He grew up during the chaos of war, came to Taiwan as an exiled student, enrolled in National Taiwan University’s history department where he completed his studies. After graduation, he worked for a time in NCL’s special collections department that used to be at the Beigou Offices. In researching history, he was extremely careful and focused on Song history. He taught and researched for his entire career. After retirement, he stayed in his position. He was both industrious and frugal in raising a family, and had no other interests besides research, teaching, writing books, and buying books. During his career he trained countless number of talented students. He spent many years writing and publishing life chronicles for historical figures, biographical information, name and style name indices. Because of these he was very well respected in Chinese studies circles across the globe. This donation from Professor Wang was facilitated by Professor Kuan-chung Huang. Also, Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng and library staff visited him many times. That is how they found out that many of the reprinted ancient books in Taiwan were planned by Professor Wang. A lot of his salary went to buying books and providing them to students to use.
According to initial estimates, Professor The-Yi Wang’s collection contains more than 60,000 volumes, many of which are hand-written notes and annotations, which he compiled an index for based on the discipline. These were also used as notes for his research. They are so full of character. In addition to donating books, he donated a card catalog cabinet, stamps and cards for index reference works, and a Liberty stencil machine from the 1960s. He also has preserved 50 years of correspondences with important scholars in the field of history, such as Congwu Yao, Hao Fang, Jialuo Yang, Tieh-han Chao, Tzu-chien Liu, and Yoshinobu Shiba. His writings just never stopped. There is another level of significance with this donation. In 1958, former Director-General Chiang Fu-tsung and others set up a “Song History Symposium” in the Hainan Academy’s old library facilities. Although it was not under the jurisdiction of the library, it was located at the library until 1987 when it was moved out. Artifacts, historical materials, and meeting minutes all testify that NCL promoted the trend of Chinese studies. These materials are all in Professor Wang’s donation. Regardless of whether they be artifacts or written materials, the donated items are beneficial to later scholars in exploring previous scholars’ thoughts. Through a more topic-centered archive, the library can provide an abundance of historical data and materials to research.
Director-General Tseng visited Professor Wang and his wife in May before the outbreak in Taiwan. At the time, he was in good spirits and took library staff on a tour of his collection. After the meeting, his two sons traveled back to Taiwan from the U.S. to help put his books in order. In addition, many of his students who were now retired professors helped organize his manuscripts. However, his health is not as good now, so he asked his wife, Ms. Kuo-jui Sun to represent him at the donation ceremony. The donated books were processed and entered into the catalog so as to be available for the launching of the “Amazing Vista, Tranquil Mind: Song History Research Material Archive Area” for public use. Director-General Tseng stated that NCL is using this donation as a start and will, in future days, continue to acquire related books from Taiwan and abroad to provide even more replete research resources.
A review of 40 years of Chinese studies in Taiwan and future prospects; a celebration and an academic forum were held.
Two lectures were held as part of the Center for Chinese Studies 40th Anniversary Celebration. Professor Peter K. Bol from Harvard University and Professor Rur-bin Yang from Tsing-hua University both spoke. Both are important international scholars in Chinese studies. Through these lectures, they shared their long-term observations of international exchange in Chinese studies and Taiwan’s Chinese studies field. In addition, a day and a half academic forum was held, called Cultivation and Growth: Retrospect and Prospect of 40 Years of Chinese Studies in Taiwan. Invited were important scholars and experts in Taiwan to provide a roadmap for the future of Chinese studies. In all, the forum put on eight sessions. Discussion topics include classical studies, unearths documents and philology, linguistics, classical literature, modern and contemporary literature, Taiwan literature, Taiwan history, Ming-Qing social history, intellectual history, gender history, medical and health history, art history, the pre-Qin masters, Song-Ming Confucian studies, Buddhist studies, Daoism and folk religions, anthropology, and international Chinese studies.
NCL cultivates and promotes Chinese studies in Taiwan; academia calls for government attention in looming Chinese studies crisis in Taiwan
Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng stated that now Chinese studies has incorporated more of Taiwan’s local characteristics compared to the past, creating core cultural values that are unique on the international stage. For 40 years, NCL has used all of the resources available to it to promote Chinese studies, including in the archival of Chinese materials, the preservation and reading of special collections, international collaboration and publication exchange, the archival of digitized materials, the development of digital humanities, Chinese studies publications, unique exhibitions of special collections materials, research grants for foreign scholars to come to Taiwan, and the development of various scholarly exchange events. All of these have created a steadier, more open, and more scholarly image of Taiwan’s Chinese studies and have been the object of international approval.
For the last ten years, NCL has focused its efforts in establishing Taiwan Resource Centers for Chinese Studies overseas. Through 37 of the Centers in collaborating libraries overseas, as well as more than six hundred exchange partners in eighty countries, it has continued to promote Taiwan’s Chinese studies and other research achievements to countries around the globe. In particular, since 1989 grants have been awarded to 522 foreign scholars from more than 44 countries to come to Taiwan to conduct research in Chinese studies topics. Many of these have become influential scholars at important Chinese research institutions overseas. Scholars from these countries have given high praise for NCL’s professional information services, scholarly freedom, the importance placed on culture by Taiwanese, and the open accessibility of government documents and research materials. Through this, Taiwan is honored for not only standing on the frontlines of promoting Chinese studies and protecting cultural values, but also for being an important fortress for academic freedom in the world.
Authors, including Academician Fan-sen Wang, also individually sent out a warning of the looming crisis in Chinese studies in Taiwan and called for the government and academia to pay attention: students in the literature-history-philosophy disciplines lack basic Chinese ability, the number of Taiwan students studying overseas is decreasing which will affect Taiwan’s internationalization, there is a gap between research and teaching talent, young scholars do not have a clear professional path forward, fewer avenues exist to publish research, organizing basic research materials lacks planning and support, and the issue of access to and the development of digital databases in Taiwan. They recommend the government give these issues serious consideration to strengthen Taiwan’s status in the Chinese studies field.