Pursuant to the country's policy of science development, the annual summer Science Seminar sponsored by the Academia Sinica and other institutions of learning will be larger than its two predecessors. There will be more scientists coming from overseas and more participants.
The seminar will open July 1 and last 50 days. Major topics will be chosen to meet the demands of a fast-growing economy. Space science may also be introduced. Dozens of renowned Chinese scholars now teaching abroad have accepted invitation to lecture. Among them is nuclear physicist Wu Ta-yu.
The seminar provides local experts, teachers, students, and technicians with opportunity for contacts with Chinese and foreign authorities from the United States and other countries.
In the meantime, impetus to nuclear development for peace is coming from the International Atomic Energy Agency under a United Nations program of technical assistance. The Republic of China, one of the 40 countries participating, will receive equipment for nuclear physics research. Assistance given in 1966 will be worth nearly US$1 million.
Gains in Education
Enrollment of freshmen in colleges and universities will top 17,000 this fall, about 1,000 more than last year. The Ministry of Education expects the total number of students to pass the 64,000 mark. Last summer, 43,466 high school graduates sought admissions to colleges and universities and slightly more than 16,000 were admitted. A total of 29 institutions—compared with 28 last year—will take part in the joint entrance examination this summer.
At the primary-school level, the problems of big classes and half-day sessions are still to be solved. New classrooms are being constructed in a 2-year program. By the 1968 academic year, all primary pupils in Taipei should be on a full-day schedule.
The International Academy of the Sacred Heart has been opened in suburban Taipei by the Sacred Heart, which has established 190 schools and colleges in all parts of the world. The 4-year girls' school offers a college preparatory program including courses in science, history, art, language, and other subjects—all in English.
Encyclopedia Sinica
Chung Hua Ta Tz'u Tien (Encyclopaedia Sinica), a lexicon on an encyclopedic scale compiled by Prof. Yang Chia-lo, has started to come from the press.
For the first time in free China, a photo-composing machine is being used. The inclusion of rarely used words would make type founding and typesetting time-consuming and almost impossible. Japanese Sha Ken photo-composing machines combine type faces and camera to produce any writing in variable sizes. Printing is a Sino-Japanese cooperative venture. On the ad hoc committee of publication are legislator Li Wen-chai, Prof. Beauson Tseng, and other distinguished scholars. The 80 volumes of the first edition (3,000 copies) will be published over a period of 10 years.
Yang said he has made use of first-hand material derived from some 70,000 sources, including works on philology, philosophy, history, literature, science, pre-Chin classics, and religious scriptures. Among them are the hand-written first Chinese dictionary, Shu Wen Chai Tzu, in chuan calligraphy and scroll form, and remnants of the celebrated Yung Lo Encyclopedia published in the Ming dynasty.
Prof. Yang (right) and Volume I of his lexicon. (File photo)
"The Encyclopedia will be the biggest lexicon on Chinese culture and learning for the 3,500-year period from the oracle-bone writing to the end of the Ching dynasty," Yang said. Inspired by the Oxford Dictionary, Yang began the compilation more than 30 years ago. Friends encouraged him and scholars showed interest. Yang said Chang Chi-yun, former education minister, and legislator Li Wen-chai helped him in many ways. Volume I was dedicated to President Chiang Kai-shek on his 73rd birthday, but publication had to be suspended because of difficulty in raising funds.
Yang said he is especially grateful to the U.S. State Department, which helped him send some of his materials to America when the Chinese Communists seized the main land in 1949.
Yang compared his works with Japan's Dai Kan Wa Ziten and other dictionaries. Statistics attest to the magnitude of his work:
1. For the one-stroke, first word in the Chinese dictionary yi - (meaning one, etc.), the Encyclopedia Sinica has 108 definitions. Explanations of terms and phrases plus these definitions total 2,000,000 words.
2. For the word ch'ieh (meaning the conjunction "and", the auxiliary verb "will", etc.), which was at first. pronounced chu (a substitute for six, as in "sixth moon", etc.), a comparison with the Japanese dictionary shows: number of definitions, 118 to 26; number of pronunciations, 7 to 4; number of compound words (terms or phrases), 254 to 225.
3. The Kang Shi dictionary, the biggest up to the end of Ching regime, has 40,545 single words. The Chung Hua dictionary, compiled in the early years of the ROC, includes 50,000. The Encyclopedia Sinica has 60,000 single words and 1,300,000 compound words; definitions and explanations and quotations add up to nearly 200,000,000 words.
"An interested Westerner who knows how to look up words in the Kang Shi dictionary will have no difficulty with the Encyclopedia Sinica," Yang said. However, a romainized index will be included.
Yang said: "The explanations are not as long as the entries in a Western encyclopedia and the definitions are not precise. But I have taken pains to set forth the structural, pronunciation, and conceptual changes in each word."
Yang teaches at the Taiwan Normal University and Fujen University, and is concurrently professor and deputy chief of the graduate division of the Institute for Advanced Chinese Studies. He was the managing editor of a series of works embracing philosophy, history, and literature—22,608 titles in 800 volumes— published by the World Book Co.
Postal Museum
Free China is fast becoming known for its museums. The newest is a postal museum, opened March 20 on the 70th anniversary of China's postal service. The unique display is housed in the suburban Taipei office of the Directorate-General of Posts near scenic Green Lake. In addition to exhibition rooms for stamps, there is a library with a rich collection of philatelic publications. Slides and movies will be shown from time to time. The museum is open to the public daily except Mondays and the day after national holidays,
An interesting addition to the National Historical Museum in Taipei is a 15 by 8 foot oil portrait of the Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi of the Ching dynasty - a donation from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Dr. David W. Scott, curator of the famous U.S. museum, discussed the return of the portrait with director Pao Tseng-peng of the NEM when the latter was in Washington last year.
Drama Awards
To mark Drama Day February 15, a ceremony was held at the National Arts Hall in Taipei. Presentation of awards to drama contest winners preceded a meeting of the Chinese Motion Picture and Drama Association.
Henry Kung, president of the association, cited spectacular progress in drama and the movies. He said career opportunities are increasing in show business.
New Grandma Artist
Free China has discovered another Grandma artist. She is Mrs. Wu Lee Yoko. Her first exhibition of watercolors and sculptures was held in Taipei March 10-15.
The 70-year-old amateur artist had been skilled in embroidery for half a century. Finding that needle and thread did not give sufficient expression to her talent, she opened a new garden of the fine arts. Her rolling hills and sprawling bushes, toy-like houses, and clownish figures arc colorful, attractive primitives.
Wu Chao-hsien, her son, is also a water-colorist.
Facts and Figures
Facts are the best indicators of free China's cultural and educational growth.
1. In 1965 more than 1,000,000 copies of booklets and magazines in more than 10 languages were distributed by Government Information Office in many parts of the world, together with 120,000 news photos, 6 documentary films, and 80 newsreels.
2. Provincial statistics show Taiwan has 29 newspapers, 43 news agencies, 759 magazines, 737 publication agencies, and 73 record manufacturers.
3. Taiwan has a student population of 2,949,017, with this breakdown: 1,619,604 males and 1,329,413 females; 64,010 in colleges and universities, 593,109 in middle schools, 2,198,127 in primary schools, and 74,807 in kindergartens.
4. Every fourth person in Taiwan is a student or a teacher. Of the island's 12 million people, 3,000,000 are students or teachers.
5. There are 45 colleges and universities, 521 middle schools, 2,072 primary schools, and 600 kindergartens.
6. Vocational schools total 121, offering courses in agriculture, industrial and business skills, seamanship, nursing and home economics.