President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) praised the Tang Prize awards yesterday, saying they showcase the nation’s soft power and value.
The Tang Prize encourages important research that benefits humanity, promotes Chinese culture and showcases Taiwan’s value, Ma said at a meeting with the five Tang laureates at the Presidential Office prior to the awards ceremony held at the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall later yesterday.
The five laureates are: former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, immunologists James Allison of the US and Honjo of Japan, Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih (余英時) and Albie Sachs, a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Brundtland, who won the Tang Prize for sustainable development, called for more efforts to promote sustainable development during her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony.
People who inhabit the planet today “must be responsible not only for the present, but also for all future generations,” the 75-year-old said, adding that the world is facing challenges such as climate change, energy shortages, emerging diseases, cultural clashes and a shifting world order, while the ability to chart urgent and necessary change has been desperately lacking.
“As nation states, we are not able so far to be wise enough and farsighted enough to do what is needed,” she added.
Allison and Honjo shared the Tang Prize in biopharmaceutical science for their work, which has helped advance immunotherapy. They were honored for their discoveries of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) as immune inhibitory molecules that led to their applications in cancer immunotherapy.
“I’m pleased to accept this prize not only for myself, but also for those scientists who have labored for decades to achieve the goal of mobilizing the immune system, a successful approach for the treatment of cancer,” Allison said in accepting his award. “We’re entering an age where we can think of actually curing many types of cancer.”
Honjo called for closer cooperation between the academic and private sectors.
“Interaction between academia and industry should be mutually beneficial,” Honjo said. “Academia should expect a reasonable return from industry in order to allow the next generation of scientists to nurse the seeds of their latest research.”
Yu, who won the Tang Prize in sinology, expressed hope that the awards would attract more young people to the study of sinology and bring new perspectives to the field.
The 84-year-old Princeton University emeritus professor said during his acceptance that he believes sinology as a scholarly endeavor is more in need of encouragement and support “now than ever before.”
The study of sinology has undergone a “gradual, but very significant” transformation in recent decades, with more and more sinologists interested in understanding the growth of Chinese civilization on its own terms rather than interpreting it according to the historical model of the West, he said.
However, that should not be mistaken as advocacy of isolationism, Yu said, adding that sinology has become “thoroughly globalized” today, unlike in the first half of the 20th century.
Sachs, a lawyer and human rights activist who fought apartheid, said he was “overwhelmingly proud” to receive the Tang Prize for rule of law, as well as proud of the achievements of his country.
Although he grew up under apartheid, Sachs, 79, said his countrymen have been able to transform South Africa by developing a creative and people-centered view of the law.
Sachs said the rule of law protects people’s rights to education, housing, nutrition and health, protects the Earth from damaging depletion, honors cultural diversity and promotes creativity.
“May this magnificent prize encourage us, and all in the world, to keep our heads high as we journey arduously towards more complete justice for all,” he said.
The Tang Prize was established in 2012 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) to honor leading lights from around the world in the four fields.
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