National Tsing Hua University chair professor of philosophy Yang Rur-bin (楊儒賓) has donated to the university’s museum his personal collection of more than 2,000 historical pieces collected by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during its retreat from China to Taiwan in 1949.
Yang and his wife, Fang Sheng-ping (方聖平), who is also a chair professor at the university, on Saturday last week donated the relics, whose themes include war, politics, religion and economy. The couple has taught at the university for more than 30 years
The relics are to be on display at Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall (中山堂) until Dec. 29.
Photo courtesy of National Tsing Hua University
The university said that the museum, which is under construction, would open to the public in 2022.
The collection includes correspondence by major politicians and religious leaders on issues such as victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the evacuation of citizens from the Ta-chen Islands (大陳群島), the retreat of the KMT government to Taiwan and the subsequent cross-strait situation.
Residents of the Ta-chen Islands, off the east coast of China, retreated to Taiwan with KMT troops in 1955.
A letter written by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in late May 1949 to general Tang Enbo (湯恩伯) is also part of the collection.
In the letter, Chiang ordered that only the minimum amount of gold required to maintain the city finances was to stay in Shanghai, with the rest to be shipped to Taiwan.
Communist troops took over Shanghai only four days after Chiang wrote the letter, making it proof of the urgent need to transport the gold to Taiwan. The gold later became an important source of funds to drive Taiwan’s economic development.
In another letter, Master Wu-shang (無上法師) said he hoped to install the sarira — bead-shaped objects purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters — of legendary monk Xuanzang (玄奘) in Hsinchu City’s Lingyin Temple (靈隱寺).
Xuanzang traveled overland from China to India in search of Buddhist sutras, a story that has been immortalized in the classic novel Journey to the West.
In the second half of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army reportedly found Xuanzang’s sarira during construction. It was split into three parts, which were stored in Beijing, Nanjing and Japan.
After the war, Japan agreed to return the part in its possession to the KMT government, sparking a contest between Buddhist leaders in Taiwan. The sarira was eventually sent to Hsuanguang Temple (玄光寺) near Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) at Chiang’s insistence.
“My salary comes from the university and [as it is a state-funded institution] it is taxpayers’ money, so the donation is simply putting the money back where it came from,” Yang said, adding that he hopes the relics would become treasured parts of the museum’s collection.
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights