2009 International Academic Conference on Min Nan Culture Kicked Off at NCKU

TAINAN, Taiwan--(Business Wire)--
International Academic Conference on Min Nan Culture kicked off at 9am, Oct.
23rd at the Conference Room in the Library of National Cheng Kung University
(NCKU). It was organized by NCKU Department of Chinese Literature and Culture
Affairs Bureau of Kinmen County, and co-organized by Graduate Institute of
Culture and History of South Fujian (Min) of National Kinmen Institute of
Technology (KMIT) and Dept. of Culture and Tourism of Tainan City Government.
NCKU President, Academician Michael Ming-Chiao Lai, attended together with Mayor
of Tainan City, Mr. Tain-Tsair Hsu, as well as Prof. Da-Hsuan Feng as the Senior
Executive Vice President of NCKU, along with about 300 scholars and attendees
from China, Hong-Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and Canada. The main
theme of this conference is to promote and appreciate the tradition of Min Nan
culture and to set solid foundation for close international cooperation in the
future on Min Nan culture studies.

President Lai hosted the opening ceremony and sincerely welcomed all attendees.
President Lai commented that, in 1661, Lord with the Imperial Surname, Koxinga
(Cheng Cheng-Kung, aliased Zheng Chenggong, who came from Quemoy (Kinmen) to
Tainan to expel the governance of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde
Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) away from Taiwan in 1662. Systematically, Koxinga
brought Min Nan culture to Taiwan. Tainan was the state capital and is certainly
a symbolic city of Min Nan culture. National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)
located in Tainan City, indeed named after Koxinga, is a main university in
Taiwan and has shared many similarities with Kinmen. For example, a majority of
overseas alumni of NCKU come to Southeast Asia to which Kinmen has many people
emigrated. NCKU has participated in many academic activities such as Presidents`
Forum of Southeast and South Asia and Taiwan Universities (SATU Presidents`
Forum) to establish close and active relationships within Southeast Asian
universities. Additionally, Cheng Kung in the official name of NCKU - National
Cheng Kung University, is truly named from "Cheng Cheng-Kung", Koxinga`s first
name. NCKU and Kinmen are both the research hubs of Min Nan culture. Therefore,
NCKU has imperative responsibility and willingness to hold this conference.

Mayor Hsu of Tainan City commented that NCKU began as a college of engineering
and gradually transferred to a comprehensive and world-class university. He
praised President Lai`s contributions to promote NCKU and bring in fame to NCKU.
Moreover, Mayor Hsu commented that "we need to envision more broad views to
become much more in globalization and internationalization. This is also the
main vision of NCKU now. However, we could not forget our root. If we neglect
our origins, we would be lost in the global market. Hence, we have to focus more
on those local factors specifically belonged to us, not anyone else. That is our
niche." Mayor Hsu of Tainan City, hence, strongly recommended that Tainan is the
best place to hold "2009 International Academic Conference on Min Nan Culture",
regarding that Tainan is an ancient and historical city full of Min Nan culture
for a long time since 1661. Mayor Hsu of Tainan City also made a wish that
renaissance of great Taiwanese culture could be emerged from Tainan City, a city
full of culture but vividness, as well as endeavor but romance.

Prof. Feng mentioned that, though he was born in India, he was raised in
Singapore with Guangdong culture, but profoundly influenced by Min Nan Culture
for a long time. Many Fujian people had emigrated to Southeast Asia and pounded
great influence in economy, education and culture in that region. The Min Nan
culture has, hence, become a very important one in the culture clan of the
world.

Prof. Feng found out that the 1,000-year history of Kinmen can be coincidently
divided into four parts. The first part is called "ancient south Fujian
culture", which centers on Master Chu Hsi. Master Chu Hsi brought Confucianism
into Quemoy, which made Quemoy always the center of Confucianism. The second
part is called "nearly modern south Fujian culture", which centers on Koxinga
(1624-1662). Koxinga was based around Quemoy (Kinmen) and Amoy (Xiamen),
nowadays called "Kin-Xia", with which he was able to dominate the sea at that
time with a hope to recover the South Ming Dynasty from Qing Dynasty. In 1687,
Kinmen established a Wu Jiang College to revere Zhu Xi. Coincidently, Sir Isaac
Newton also published his epic Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in
1687.

The third part is called "modern south Fujian culture", which begins with the
latter part of the 19th century to the mid-20th century. During this period,
many Min Nan habitants unwontedly emigrated to Southeast Asia to seek a better
life as their lives in Min Nan were so miserable. Even nowadays, though many
descendants of theirs have been neutralized and royal to their residential
countries, they still have a very deep link in their feelings with Kinmen.

The last part started from 1949 when China and Taiwan were engaged in a hostile
and malicious relationship, which is now still perplexed. During this period,
Quemoy (Kinmen) was well known for its unsinkable position in a frontline of
Cold War. Quemoy (Kinmen) was even mentioned for 16 times in the third
presidential debate of President Nixon and President Kennedy on October 13,
1960. Prof. Michael Szonyi of Harvard University recently published an
interesting book about Quemoy with the title "Cold War Island" that contains a
complete description on the history and development of Quemoy.

In addition, Kinmen with its particular geographical location has rooted the Min
Nan culture deeply in China, Taiwan and South Asia. If for some historic reason
that Kinmen became integrated with China, the link between Taiwan and South Asia
will not be as solid as it is now. Furthermore, the current situations on both
sides of Taiwan Straight will become totally different. Hence, Kinmen will
become the center of the "Kinmen-Xiamen-Southeast-Asia Greater Life-Circle" and
provide great opportunities to tertiary education in these regions.

NCKU and KMIT made a declaration to form a strategic coalition and partnership
toward a trend of the improved cross-strait relationship and on a basis of
social responsibilities before. The aim of this declaration was to jointly
promote Min Nan culture which enriches the Taiwanese literature, to outline the
development and blueprint of Kinmen in the twenty-first century, and to build
modern Kinmen-Xiamen living community and to share economic development with
Southeast Asia. Hence, NCKU, Kinmen and the Min Nan culture will be connected
with each other deeply.

About National Cheng Kung University (NCKU):

NCKU is located in the ancient city of Tainan, the historical and ancient
cultural capital city of Taiwan, which boasts more than 50 national relics
sanctioned by the government and is approximately 250 kilometers south of
Taipei. It is connected to all major cities in Taiwan by the recently initiated
state-of-the-art Taiwan High Speed Rail. Further, this historical heritage is
the pride of Tainan City and represents a rich cultural resource to NCKU. The
technological sectors in the Southern Taiwan Science Park offer students at NCKU
with a stage to apply what they have learned into practice.

With three quarters of a century of distinguished history, with well over
130,000 powerful alumni now dotting the globe, many have achieved supreme
successes in arts, business, education, science, technology and healthcare and
are ready and willing to assist the 22,000 academic selective students and 1200
academic faculty members. Currently, both have an international flavor, with
enormous regional support, and there is a permeating culture of proactive
intellectual growth on the world`s stage NCKU in Tainan, Taiwan, has evolved
from its engineering genesis into a powerful and comprehensive research
international university in the Asia Pacific.

Since NCKU`s establishment in 1931, it has developed into a research intensive
and comprehensive university with integrated academic fields in nine colleges:
Liberal Arts, Sciences, Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science,
Planning & Design, Management, Social Sciences, Medicine, and Bioscience &
Biotechnology. NCKU currently offers 40 undergraduate programs (excluding the
Program of Bachelor`s Degree), 78 master`s degree programs, 54 doctoral programs
and 20 master`s degree programs for working professionals.

Photo: http://www.cna.com.tw/postwrite/cvpread.aspx?ID=41663

NCKU
Julia (Ying-Chen) Liu, +886-6-275-7575 ext. 50042
Press Officer
yingchen@mail.ncku.edu.tw

Copyright Business Wire 2009