• 2015-07-13

On the 13th of July, NCL Director General, Shu-hsien Tseng and the UM Vice Chancellor, Professor Dato' Dr. Mohd Amin Bin Jalaludin, signed a memorandum of cooperation on "Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies" and held the inauguration opening ceremony. This marks the NCL 15th TRCCS set up overseas and 2nd Centre established in Malaysia. The first one was established in 2013 at the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman(UTAR).

On the same day the NCL, the UM and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman jointly organized for the first time a Taiwan Lecture on Chinese Studies with the subject on “Dream of the Red Chamber and Doraemon: Historical research in the digital age”. Prof. Yi-Long Huang, Academician at Academia Sinica, was invited to share his research results on the “Dream of the Red Chamber” using electronic resources. It was an opportunity for people in the academic field of Malaysia to see a world-class master of style. It also gave the audience a unique sense of awe and inspiration and at the same time enabled more people to see Taiwan's rich academic research, bringing about a greater space of cooperation between NCL and Malaysia.

The University of Malaya has a long history, and ranks first among the universities in Malaysia. It is the first university that set up a Chinese department, and has had very close academic relationships with many universities in Taiwan. It is a hub of the study of Chinese Studies in Malaysia. Moreover, University of Malaya Library is Malaysia's largest university library having a total collection of more than one million titles. Its East Asian Studies Library possesses the "Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times" completed in the 6th year of Yongzheng (1728). The encyclopaedia contained 10,000 volumes, 160 million Chinese characters. It is the existing largest and best preserved books. Last year, the NCL signed the "MOU on the Union Catalog of Chinese Rare Book Database" with the University of Malaya Library thus acquiring their rich collection of ancient Chinese materials, so that researchers around the world can find relevant information in the NCL’s database.

In order to promote international cooperation and exchange in Chinese Studies, since 2012, in many parts of the world, the NCL has set up the TRCCS in university libraries and research institutions with dense population of Chinese Studies researchers. After each TRCCS is established, the NCL selects quality books published in Taiwan, audiovisual materials and electronic resources to maintain the TRCCS. The University of Malaya is NCL’s very important partner in Malaysia. It is vital that the University of Malaya is specifically selected to establish the TRCCS.

This year the NCL has provided a total of 550 titles, 615 volumes of Chinese books to the TRCCS at UM. In the future, the NCL will successively offer related materials from the second year onwards. At the opening ceremony Director General Tseng offered a special gift: “Annotated Poetry of Su Dongpo”. This is the replica of a national treasure of the Republic of China with more than eight hundred years of history. This gift will certainly enrich the collections of UM Library. It is also a witness to a historic moment of mutual cooperation opening up opportunities for future cooperation. In addition, the NCL will also provide the digital resources, including Taiwan digital archives and electronic databases for the professors and students of UM.

In their speeches, Vice Chancellor, Professor Professor Dato' Dr. Mohd Amin Bin Jalaludin and Dr. Nor Edzan Che Nasir, Chief Librarian of the UM, expressed their joy for the cooperation with the NCL for two consecutive years. They also thanked the NCL for the precious gift of the replica of a national treasure as well as Taiwan Chinese Studies publications and electronic resources thus providing students and researchers abundant references.

The UM Library also presented a print work of a series of paintings about Malaysia’s Father of Independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman, UM’s Residence artist, Stephen Menon, to the NCL as a gift.

Director General Tseng on her part, pointed out that setting up a TRCCS at the UM has far-reaching implications in the promotion of Taiwan-styled Chinese studies, as well as in extending the influence of Taiwan’s research achievements and publications in Malaysia. The NCL hopes to continue its efforts to build future partnerships with libraries worldwide and explore all possible opportunities for cooperation.

Furthermore, the NCL also continues to maintain close cooperation with UTAR where the TRCCS was established two years ago. The NCL invited Prof. Yi-Long Huang on the 15th of July to give a Talk on “The line between historical fact and legend: is Fuk'anggan Qianlong's illegitimate son” at UTAR, Perak Campus. This is the 2nd Taiwan Lectures on Chinese Studies. In both speeches, Prof. Huang has full use of the e-research tools of the modern era, highlighting the tremendous impact and challenges of the information explosion era on Sinology research. It may produce not only leads to great potential for Chinese Studies in its future direction of development, but also a deep enlightening and thought-provoking.

NCL Director-general, Tseng Shu Hsien giving a speech at the signing ceremony and inauguration of the TRCCS at the University of Malaya (UM)

NCL Director-general, Tseng Shu Hsien and University of Malaya Vice Chancellor, Professor Dato 'Dr. Mohd Amin Bin Jalaludin signed the Memorandum of Cooperation of TRCCS

In front of the TRCCS Plaque : NCL Director-general, Tseng Shu Hsien (L, 1) University of Malaya Vice Chancellor, Professor Dato' Dr. Mohd Amin Bin Jalaludin (L,2), Taiwan Representative to Malaysia, Cheng XiangYun (R,2)

NCl held a “Taiwan Chinese Studies Lecture” at the University of Malaya inviting Academia Sinica academician, Huang Yi-nung (right)  as speaker. Malaysia “Red Chamber” expert Professor Chen Guangcai (left) as the moderator