A project to publish the first "Encyclopedia of Taiwan," which could become a Taiwanese version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, was officially launched yesterday, a publisher and the Council of Cultural Affairs announced at a press conference.
The structure of the encyclopedia is expected to be laid out within the first six months and the first six volumes will be completed in two years, comprising the first phase of the project, said Wang Jung-wen (王榮文), chairman of the YLib Group.
"Creating an encyclopedia is a national project. It will take billions of dollars, a huge amount of manpower and help from academia. Hopefully, we will be able to show the readers the variety and identity of Taiwan when the project has been completed," Wang said.
"We wish to use the Korean edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica as an example, which means a comprehensive encyclopedia that highlights its regional characteristics," said Iris Du, executive director of the project.
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The project aims to first be an encyclopedia about Taiwan before moving on to the next stage -- presenting a view of the world from a Taiwanese perspective.
It also hopes to offer an interpretation of Taiwanese culture and become a knowledge base of information about the nation, Du said.
"It took China 15 years and the collaboration of more than 20,000 academics to make its first national encyclopedia. It cost the Encyclopaedia Britannica US$32 million for the revision from the 14th edition to the 15th. This project will not be an easy task," Wang said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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