Feb. 13 to Feb. 19
A 2011 news report states that while judging the 3rd annual Ten Outstanding Young Persons (十大傑出青年) awards in 1965, Chu Sung-chiu (楚崧秋) wondered why there weren’t any women among the nominees.
Chu thought that was unfair. “We should be kinder to women,” he thought, and launched the Ten Outstanding Young Women award in 1966, which is still held today.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
While it’s undisputed that Chu is the founder of the female awards, there are some discrepancies between the report and official records. According to the Ten Outstanding Young Persons yearbook, Chu was a judge for the 4th annual awards, which took place in December 1966. The first award ceremony for outstanding women had already happened 10 months prior.
Also, the official rules for the Ten Outstanding Young Persons stated explicitly that all nominees had to be men, adding in parentheses, “We equally respect the accomplishments of young women in society, but we must follow the rules of [contest organizer] Junior Chamber International.” The awards remained male-only until at least 1987 when two women made the final cut — so there would be no reason for Chu’s puzzlement. Perhaps he was displeased instead.
Unfortunately, no alternative accounts could be found. Chu barely mentions his involvement with the awards in the book Interview with Mr. Chu Sung-chiu (楚崧秋先生訪談錄), listing it as one of several public services he started in his bid to rejuvenate the floundering China Daily News (中華日報).
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
Regardless of how things started, judging for the first class of outstanding women concluded on Feb. 13, 1966, with the award ceremony held 10 days later.
THE FIRST OUTSTANDING CLASS
Several names stand out from this class — most notably Chi Cheng (紀政), who entered politics after a decorated track and field career where she was known as the “Flying Antelope,” “Yellow Lightning” and “Flying Woman of Asia.” Serving in the legislature and as national policy advisor to former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Chi still showed her feistiness at age 69 by publicly asking Ma to step down in 2013.
Photo: Lee Hsin-hung, Taipei Times
Chi had represented Taiwan in the Summer Olympics twice by the time of her selection — although she came up empty in both tries. She finally captured a bronze in Mexico City in 1968, earning Taiwan its second ever Olympic medal after Maysang Kalimud, better known as Yang Chuan-guang (楊傳廣), won a silver in 1960.
She would dominate the competition for the next two years, winning 153 medals over 154 tournaments, breaking or tying eight world records and was named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year in 1970. While heavily favored to win a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics, she never made it that far. She earned her final medal at the Asian Games in Bangkok on Dec. 11, 1970. Two days later, she injured her leg, cutting short her brilliant career.
Conductor Helen Quach (郭美貞) was born in Vietnam and educated in Australia and Italy, but she was eligible for the award since she had Republic of China citizenship. Prior to her selection, she represented Taiwan during the 1965 Malko Competition for young conductors in Denmark.
Later that year, she visited Taiwan for the first time under invitation from the ambassador to Italy, holding a series of concerts to great fanfare. In 1979, she moved to Taipei to start and run the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, which folded after four years.
Finally, we have Tang Le-sung (湯樂誦), who made the list for founding Ti-hwei Children’s Home (體惠育幼院) in 1963. The number of children in her care swelled quickly to more than 60, and it was hard to make ends meet. In addition to working a night shift as a hospital nurse, she reportedly collected leftover rice and vegetables from vendors and made clothes out of discarded cloth from funeral homes.
Tang’s institution is still running today, having taken in more than 400 children. According to a 2013 Global Views Monthly (遠見雜誌) report, Tang still worked at the home every day despite being in her late 70s.
Interestingly, one notable former resident of the children’s home is Chang Li-li (張莉莉), who went on to become one of the two first female winners of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons award.
Taiwan in Time, a column about Taiwan’s history that is published every Sunday, spotlights important or interesting events around the nation that have anniversaries this week.
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April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist