Vice president sings praises of unsung heroes

The Central News Agency (CNA) yesterday awarded ten "unsung heroes" of Taiwan's devleopment, saying they have made significant contributions to the realms of arts, music, sports, social work and technology, both locally and worldwide.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was invited to present the awards and lauded the recipients for their accomplishments.

"The ten recipients are all under the age of 40, and perhaps were still infants when the Kaohsiung Incident took place. All recipients are elites of the Kaohsiung Incident era," Lu said yesterday.

Lu also encouraged the recipients to combine tradition and innovation, as well as to learn to work toward goals that are "both local and global."

The recipients were Lee Ching-chun (李靜君), a dancer and artistic director; Chen Ruei-bin (陳瑞斌), a pianist; Liu Jui-chi (劉瑞琪), an art history assistant professor; Solomon Chih-cheng Chen (陳志成), a physician who helped fight malaria in Malawi; Brian Hsieh (謝佳廷), an environmental expert who puts technology into conservation efforts; Wu Chung-chih (吳忠幟), an electrical engineering professor; Chen Jung-kai (陳榮凱), a pioneer in the field of mathematics research; Tu Jia-jin (涂嘉晉), the founder of a semiconductor company; Wayne Wun-shaing Chang (張文祥), a biomedical researcher; and Wang Cheng-pang (王正邦), an Olympic silver medalist in archery.

Many of the award recipients had nominated themselves, while some were surprised by their nominations.

Wang, now a senior at Hualien Physical Education High School, says he once planned to give up archery because of the tough and tedious training.

"But I became determined to continue after thinking that I have been in this sport for so many years. I must redouble my efforts because my dream of winning a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has yet to come true," he said.

The panel of judges for this selection included 10 university presidents, including Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城), president of National Chengchi University and Frank Hsia-san Shu (徐遐生), president of National Tsing Hua University.