In response to Culture Minister Lung Ying-tai's efforts in garnering corporate support to assist Taiwan's diverse cultural sector, Taipei-born business tycoon Samuel Yin has pledged to donate NT$116 million (US$4 million) to the Ministry of Culture's (MOC) newest project "Spotlight Taiwan” on January 28.
Differing from the Taiwan Academy series, the Spotlight program is aimed at creating non-governmental channels for the world to learn more about Taiwan. Under the initiative, US$4 million will be provided over four years to 40 selected universities and institutes abroad so that they can hold lectures, forums, workshops, exhibitions and festivals promoting Taiwanese arts and culture.
According to the Ministry, many prominent foreign academic establishments have already expressed their willingness to participate, including the University of Cambridge and the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies in the United Kingdom, Leiden University in the Netherlands, Heidelberg University in Germany, Boston University and the University of California, Los Angeles in the United States as well as the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Yin, chairman of Ruentex Financial Group, is a renowned philanthropist who announced in 2011 his plans to donate 95 percent of his total personal wealth to charity. He also launched what he hopes will become known as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize -- the Tang Awards -- earlier this week. He said that Lung's statement, "Taiwan's rich cultural legacy remains its calling card to the world,” quite resonated with his personal ideals.
In a public speech acknowledging the chairman's generosity, the Culture Minister said she hopes that more corporate figures will follow Yin's suit. In order to transcend the barriers of a challenging political reality, "let us help Taiwan shine on the world stage by the merits of its culture,” she concluded.