A European hub in the field of Chinese studies, the Chiang Ching-kuo International Sinological Centre at Charles University in the Czech Republic celebrated its 20th anniversary on April 28, 2017. Tang Prize Foundation board member Ovid Tzeng spoke at the celebration, giving the audience of Sinologists from Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and the Czech Republic an overview on the origins and aims of the prize.
Tseng, who is also a member of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and long-time advocate of Sinological studies, hailed the foundation for reinvigorating interest in the Czech Republic and the rest of Europe for the study of China. As the Tang Prize is an international prize which itself awards accomplishments in Chinese studies, the celebration presented a perfect opportunity for bringing the core values of the Tang Prize to the attention of the European community.
Attendees to the event, all respected scholars in the field, were invited on this occasion to sit on the review committee for grants offered by the CCKF. The committee noted that compared with previous years, the program received more applications with more original and forward-thinking topics. Upon hearing about the founding and goals of the Tang Prize from Tseng, the committee expressed their approval of such a prize and voiced their hopes that a scholar from Europe would someday be chosen as a recipient of the Tang Prize in Sinology, not only giving Europe recognition in the field, but also giving young scholars a model for academic accomplishment.
