Taoist deity Shennong (神農大帝, God of Agriculture) was yesterday conferred with a distinguished honorary doctorate by the Chiayi County-based National Chung Cheng University in a gesture of gratitude for a local temple’s donation of land during the university’s founding.
Shennong was the first deity to receive a diploma from a Taiwanese university and possibly the world’s only divine being with a doctorate, university president Wu Jyh-yang (吳志揚) said.
When the school was founded in 1989, it was built on 131 hectares of farmland previously owned by the the Shennong-worshipping Gufeng Temple, 60 hectares of which were a donation, a crucial factor in the decision to build the university in Chiayi rather than Yunlin or Tainan, which were vying to host the new university, Wu said.
Photo: Yu Hsueh-lan, Taipei Times
For the conferment ceremony yesterday, the divine being’s idol was clothed in an custom-tailored academic robe and its head was adorned with an academic square cap.
Wu moved the cap tussle, in view of people who attended as Shennong’s guests of honor.
Renowned embroider and tailor Chou Jang-ting (周讓廷) from the county’s Putzi city (朴子) was commissioned by the school to make Shennong’s academic robe.
Chou said tailoring Shennong’s robe took 100 hours in comparison with the typical 10 hours needed for most other temple idols.
The decision to accept the conferment of the degree from the school was made unanimously by the temple’s board of directors, Gufeng Temple Secretary-General Lai Hsiao-te (賴孝德) said, adding that members of the board felt this was a happy event.
Wu said that while many universities had conferred honorary degrees to people who had contributed to their founding or distinguished members of society, including former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) who received a National Chung Cheng University honorary doctorate, the distinguished honorary doctorate given to Shennong was the highest honor of its kind.
“It is only appropriate for us to demonstrate our gratitude to the temple,” he said, referring to the temple’s donation.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS