Though the 2020 Tang Prize Week was cancelled due to the pandemic, modern technology has helped the Foundation overcome geographic barriers and stage four Masters’ Forums on sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, Sinology and the rule of law, allowing the latest and previous Tang Prize winners to give talks, answer questions, and interact with the audience online and at the venues, successfully turning these occasions into a feast for the minds and souls of all the participants.

Restrictions imposed because of the pandemic also saw an exhibit of South Africa’s constitutional history go virtual. This online event was made possible by the Tang Prize grant offered to its 2014 laureate in Rule of Law, Justice Albie Sachs, who used the money to fund a project that aims to record and archive stories of the making of South African Constitution and Constitutional Court. Shortly after the exhibit came another exciting news. After our laureates Dr. James Allison and Prof. Tasuku Honjo won the 2018 Nobel Prize, the 2016 laureates in Biopharmaceutical Science Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Dr. Jennifer Doudna, as many had expected, were named recipients of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for the breakthrough they achieved in precise gene editing.

As a Taiwanese saying goes, “a gourd at home, prosperity comes along.” Gourds have long been seen as a symbol of good wishes. During this festive season, the Tang Prize Foundation decided to choose the gourd lights made by artisans who survived 2009’s Typhoon Morakot as a gift for its laureates and associates, sending them our best wishes for a new year blessed by safety, prosperity and fulfillment.