Tang Fei, former premier of Taiwan, and Kuo Tai-Chun, a former press secretary to the president of Taiwan, were the inaugural speakers for the Wan-Lin Kiang Endowed Lecture Series Exchange in Chinese Studies.  They spoke of the highly contentious March election in Taiwan, which resulted in a razor-thin victory for the Democratic Progressive Party leader, Chen Shui-bian.

Assumpta Kiang, who established the annual lecture with the School of Social Sciences and the Center for Asian Studies in memory of her husband, Wan-Lin Kiang, was pleased with the program’s kickoff.  “It was very successful,” says Asumpta Kiang.  “I am very grateful that General Tang accepted my request for he is a very low key person.” 

“My husband was educated in the States but he was also greatly influenced by the 5000 years of rational thinking and forming of the Chinese traditional cultural,” says Kiang.  “He was an engineer turned in to a very successful banker.  He loved music, arts and literature and promoted cross-cultural enrichments.  When he passed away unexpectedly I felt his love for mankind should not be buried.”

Tang Fei is a senior adviser to the current president of Taiwan and a visiting scholar with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He served as premier in 2000. Previously Tang had served as minister of national defense (1999-2000), chairman (1998) and vice chairman (1995-98) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander-in-chief of the Air Force. He also served overseas as a deputy military attaché to the United States (1972-75) and as chief military attaché to South Africa (1979-82).

Kuo Tai-Chun is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She was the first woman to hold the office of press secretary to the president of Taiwan (1990-95).

Pledging a total of $125,000, Kiang hopes to promote a better understanding of China’s changing political economy, its growing relations with global forces, and the social and cultural consequences of its transformations.

“I hope this program will bring a lot of fresh ideas from the rational thoughts and culture to the community, especially to the young people,” says Kiang.  “I am very thankful that UCI gave me this opportunity to do something meaningful for the society.”

A total of $25,000 will be used by the Center –  $5,000 annually – to support the lecture series exchange in the 2003-07 academic years.  $100,000 will support the creation of an endowment at UCI for the lecture series in future academic years.

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