In memory of the 156th anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s birthday, the opening ceremony of “2021 The Practice of The World For All People and Great Love-Sun Yat-sen’s Thought and Contemporary Academic Conference,” organized by National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology and co-organized by The ROC Society of Ethnicity and Multiculturalism was held at Chungshan Lecture Hall at 9AM today (Nov.13). Besides Director-general Wang Lan-sheng, who gave a welcome speech on behalf of the hall, the distinguished guests including Deputy Minister of Mainland Affairs Council, Chiu Chui-cheng, President of Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology, Lo Wen-jui, and Chairman of The ROC Society of Ethnicity and Multiculturalism, Hung Chuan-hu, also gave speeches. More than 80 attendees including scholars, experts, award-receiving young scholars, and general public attended the conference. Last year, it was the first time for National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to hold the academic conference in Hualien together with Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology. The extended conferences respectively held in Taipei (Nov. 13) and Huailen (Nov. 17) are expected to present 31 papers.
The opening ceremony of today’s conference started with Director-general Wang Lan-sheng’s speech. He said the spirit of “equality” and “fraternity” in Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s thought is consistent with “great love” in Tzu Chi’s career. Sun Wen Theory has played a significant role in the political trend development of the world in the past hundred years and been practiced in Taiwan. The great love of Tzu Chi is also fulfilled in society and life. At any corner of the world, where there are crises, there is the great love from the volunteers of Tzu Chi Foundation. There are 15 papers published in the conference with the great content regarding Sun Wen Theory from the perspectives of religion, politics, theory, and practice.
In his speech, Deputy Minister of Mainland Affairs Council, Chiu Chui-cheng, said Sun Yat-sen’s thought is broad and profound. It is the topic not only worth discussion in contemporary academic research but also meaningful in terms of the ROC’s freedom, democracy, prosperity, and sustainable development because the historic moment, when Dr. Sun Yat-sen and numerous revolutionary martyrs founded the first republic in Asia—ROC, will never be forgotten. The ROC started from Xinhai Revolution, and the main spirit of Xinhai Revolution is to break the autocracy and establish a free and democratic country and society. President of Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology, Lo Wen-jui, expressed his belief that Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s thought of “the world for all people” and fraternity shares the same spirit with Tzu Chi’s “all people are connected like a big family” and great love. He expects more scholars to engage in the exploration and research on Sunology and Tzu Chi Buddhism and welcomes everyone to attend the academic conference in Hualien.
To promote Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s spirit of fraternity and “the world for all people,” National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall has engaged in the innovation and inheritance of academic research in recent years. As a center of the study of Sunology in Taiwan, it is also an important platform for young scholars’ academic inheritance, innovative research, and paper presentation. At this conference, Director-general Wang Lan-sheng gave the award “Selected Publication of Theses, Dissertations, and Books” in person to the two young scholars, Lu Jia-ying and Lin yu-ren. It is expected that through the academic exchange and conversation of the conference, we will have the deeper understanding about “the world for all people” and great love and think about putting them into practice in our daily life so that Taiwan will gradually step towards the society of great harmony in Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s ideal.