Taipei, Sept. 15 (CNA) A week of lectures and other activities kicked off in Taipei Monday in celebration of the first Tang Prize, an international academic award established by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin in 2012 with the aim of supplementing the Nobel Prize.
During the week, the five Tang Prize laureates will speak about their life's work Sept. 19 at the Taipei International Convention Center and participate in forums around Taiwan, according to the Tang Prize Foundation.
The laureates are Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, who won the prize for sustainable development; James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, who shared the prize for biopharmaceutical science; Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih, who won the prize for sinology; and Albie Sachs, a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, who was named the winner of the prize for rule of law.
Brundtland will speak at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung Sept. 17; Yu will take part in a forum at Academia Sinica in Taipei Sept. 20; Sachs will give a lecture at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung Sept. 20; and Allison and Honjo will speak at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan Sept. 21.
Tang Prize Week, Sept. 15-21, will also feature a reception on Monday, a concert by the Taiwan Philharmonic on Tuesday, a banquet on Thursday, and two exhibitions that opened earlier this month and will run until Sept. 28.
One of the exhibitions showcases the lives and work of the laureates, and entries in the Tang Prize Medal and Diploma Design Competition.
The other exhibit highlights selected National Palace Museum paintings and calligraphy from the Song Dynasty and Tang Dynasty -- from which the award takes its name.
(By Christie Chen)ENDITEM/pc
