Taipei, June 21 (CNA) The Tang Prize in sinology has invigorated scholars in the field and helped raise the status of sinology research, Tang Prize Foundation board member Ovid Tzeng said Wednesday.
Tzeng, who recently visited the Czech Republic to promote the Tang Prize in Europe, told CNA in an interview that many European scholars have expressed interest in the award.
Academic disciplines such as physics and chemistry have always received more attention than humanities and social sciences, and scholars in the latter fields have found it difficult to secure research grants, but the Tang Prize in sinology offers the monetary support that they need, Tzeng said.
It has also raised the importance and status of sinology, said Tzeng, a former minister of education.
He said sinologists not only study the past but also learn from history and look to the future.
Sinology is also not just the study of one ethnicity, but of the influence of various ones that culminated to form the essence of sinology, Tzeng said.
The Tang Prize awards, founded by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin, honor people who have made significant contributions in the fields of sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology and rule of law.
Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih won the first Tang Prize in sinology in 2014 for his research and insight into the intellectual history of China.
American scholar William Theodore de Bary was the 2016 winner for his pioneering contribution to Confucian studies.
