The nation’s leading research institute recently unveiled a new digital archive with the aim of making academic resources more accessible to the public.
The online database consists of information from the diaries of Tan Yankai (譚延闓), the first chairman of the Nanjing National Government, and includes graphs, photos and an interactive game, Academia Sinica said.
The diaries, which were written by Tan between 1895 and 1930, provide important information about the Qing Dynasty and the early development of the Republic of China, including the daily lives of people during that time, the institute said.
Writing in Chinese calligraphy, Tan recorded facts about the meals that were served in his family, and created character sketches of other well-known figures such as Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
The database is the first online archive of its kind and will hopefully encourage public interest in such digital resources, Academia Sinica said.
It also features a game in which users can fill in key words to create their own diaries in classical Chinese.
“It makes history less boring and more accessible,” said Wang Fan-sen (王汎森), vice president of the institute.
Tan, a well-known calligrapher and gourmet in his time, was the grandfather of Chen Lu-an (陳履安), a former president of the Control Yuan.
“My grandfather was keen on learning about new things and would be tickled if he could see this,” Chen said after a member of the production team demonstrated a game that created a n amusing diary on Thursday.
One of the major challenges in transcribing the diaries was the recognition of the cursive style of calligraphy, said Lin Ming-yi, a member of the production team.
It took five years to complete the work of transcribing the 2.5 million characters into a readable form, Lin added.
Tan’s diaries will be published in their entirety in about two years, said Chen Yung-fa (陳永發), director of the project.
The database can be accessed at digiarch.sinica.edu.tw/tan.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
RSS