Director General of Taiwan’s National Central Library (NCL), Ms. Shu-hsien Tseng and Mr. Larry P. Alford, Chief Librarian of University of Toronto (UT) Libraries, on 23rd September signed a memorandum of cooperation on "Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies" (TRCCS), followed by the inauguration opening ceremony. It marks the 16th overseas TRCCS established by the NCL.
In his congratulatory remarks, Ambassador Rong-chuan Wu, Director General of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Toronto, pointed out that Taiwan, with its rapid economic development, did not leave culture in the cold. In fact, Taiwan has preserved and renovated Chinese culture to the extent that a unique Taiwanese version of Chinese civilization has been created in Taiwan. To illustrate his point of view, DG Wu mentioned the example of Professor Huang Yong-chuan, who has promoted 1,500-year-old Chinese art of flower arrangement with knowledge and skill adopted from ancient books.
In their remarks, Chief Liberian Alford and Ms. Vinitha Gengatharan, Director of International Strategy & Partnerships of UT, said that UT has 50 graduate and 150 undergraduate students from Taiwan and has several cooperative projects with Taiwan’s academic institutions, such as Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. The collaboration covers a lot of ground, including biological engineering, ICT and social science. They are excited about the prospective advancement of cooperation between Canada and Taiwan brought about by the establishment of TRCCS in Toronto.
At the opening ceremony, Director General Tseng donated replicas of the Annotated Poetry of Su Dongpo, a national treasure of the Republic of China that is more than 800 years old, and the Diamond Sutra, the only existing copy of the earliest wood block print book with dual color.
In her remarks, Director General Tseng mentioned in particular that the TRCCS will not only help expand academic exchanges and promote Chinese Studies with Taiwan characteristics, it is also a very important international window, through which more people can read good books published in Taiwan and access rich online materials for Chinese studies, showcasing Taiwan’s efforts and achievements in promoting Chinese studies.
