2020 Fo Guang University Newsletter
2019 FGS University Presidents Forum successfully conclude
The 2019 Fo Guang Shan University Presidents Forum was a four-day event in which 123 Presidents and scholars representing 32 universities, 16 countries and 4 continents participated enthusiastically. Educators from home and abroad gathered together and met during the conference where twenty-three pairs of universities have signed contracts with each other. Among them, the five universities of Fo Guang Shan have signed a total of 12 contracts of cooperation with universities in various countries, so the event can be described as fruitful.
The University President Forum was established by the founder of Fo Guang Shan, Venerable Master Hsing Yun, in order to consolidate the strength of the Buddhist community, coordinate Buddhist universities altogether, and then integrate them into the global university system.
On the afternoon of November 8th, the closing ceremony of the forum was held at Fo Guang Shan. The moderators shared the conclusions of the forum and also Venerable Tzu Hui gave a speech in representation of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, leading the forum to a successful conclusion. This year's topics of forum also made this forum content more exciting and profound.
In the speech, Venerable Tzu Hui said that after a few days of getting along with each other, the distinguished guests discussed many good solutions in Buddhist education. The annual FGS University Presidents Forum is a very good cause. It is hoped that the presidents and scholars develop broad and good affinity with each other so that better results can be accomplished in the following year. On behalf of the Venerable Master Hsing Yun, she also presented the Prajna Paramita scripture scrolls written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun as a gift for each school's representative.
Yung, Chaur-Shin, the president of the FGS International University Consortium, said that Buddhism is not only a religion, (we do not only promote it) but also provide more research on Buddhist morals and ethics.
It was found that each participant tried their best to share knowledge and (personal) experiences, and cared about the development of Buddhist universities.
FGS University Presidents Forum has also provided a good example for the international exchange of Buddhism for all mankind, allowing different countries to work together for the goal of university education and to continue to promote happiness to humanity.
"Golden" performance
On the afternoon of November 8th, the closing ceremony of the forum was held at Fo Guang Shan. The moderators shared the conclusions of the forum and also Venerable Tzu Hui gave a speech in representation of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, leading the forum to a successful conclusion. This year's topics of forum also made this forum content more exciting and profound.
In the speech, Venerable Tzu Hui said that after a few days of getting along with each other, the distinguished guests discussed many good solutions in Buddhist education. The annual FGS University Presidents Forum is a very good cause. It is hoped that the presidents and scholars develop broad and good affinity with each other so that better results can be accomplished in the following year. On behalf of the Venerable Master Hsing Yun, she also presented the Prajna Paramita scripture scrolls written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun as a gift for each school's representative.
Yung, Chaur-Shin, the president of the FGS International University Consortium, said that Buddhism is not only a religion, (we do not only promote it) but also provide more research on Buddhist morals and ethics.
It was found that each participant tried their best to share knowledge and (personal) experiences, and cared about the development of Buddhist universities.
FGS University Presidents Forum has also provided a good example for the international exchange of Buddhism for all mankind, allowing different countries to work together for the goal of university education and to continue to promote happiness to humanity.
"Golden" performance
Lai, Guan-Jie, a senior student of the Department of Cultural Assets and Reinvention of Fo Guang University, won the ninth place in Group A of the second stop of the 2019 ICF Junior & U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships, with outstanding performance, and became the first and only athlete in Taiwan to achieve the best results in international races.
In this year's National Games, he won two gold medals for Yilan County, and represented Taiwan in the 200-meter single-handed Canadian canoe competition in the 2019 ICF Junior & U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Romania. He finished in 40" 115 seconds taking the fourth place and set the record of best result for the history of Taiwan's athletes in ICF Junior & U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships.
While studying at university, his mother was suffering from terminal cancer, and the challenges that followed led Lai Guanjie to want to give up on the idea of canoeing. When he shared the award-winning glory, he burst into tears; he remembered his deceased mother, so he thanked those who accompanied him through the difficult times along the way, thanked the coach for nurturing him, and thanked Fo Guang University for its support and encouragement so that he could be carefree during the game without stopping!
Established ten years ago and working tirelessly, the Fo Guang University Women's Basketball Team won the championship for the first time in the Division I Women's Group of the Taiwan UBA's League. In the 2019 summer vacation's Invitational BLIA Cup University Basketball Tournament, they faced the Nagoya College University Women's Basketball Team in the finals. In the end, FGU lost with a close final score of 70:72. But the defeat was still glorious, and the game ended with warm applause.
There are 4 main players in the Fo Guang University team who have just returned from the Universiade in Napoli. After returning, they were still practicing in the Chinese Taipei Women's National Basketball Team and competing in the BLIA Cup almost at the same time. Therefore, Fo Guang Women's Basketball Team got praised for their performance and are looking forward to the next challenges!
The 6th World University Student Go Tournament was held at the University of Sydney, Australia, from July 7th to 13th, bringing together world-renowned universities such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Tokyo and Cambridge University, and uniting the best players from each school to compete for the highest honor in Go at International University Student Level.
Fo Guang University sent Guo, Zai-En from the Department of Management, Lin, Ming from the Department of Foreign Languages, and Li, Si-Cen from the Department of Foreign Languages of the University of the West in the United States, all represented the FGS International University Consortium.
Among them, Lin Ming passed the competition in each round and defeated several famous Go players such as Lin Xiao Tong of Tsinghua University, Huang Jia Le of Peking University and Minako of Osaka University. She lost to Xie Jia Xuan of the Wuhan Institute of Physical Education in the semi-final and eventually won the third place in the world. This achievement marks the best result of any participant representing Taiwan ever. She is the pride of FGU and the pride of Taiwan.
On October 25th, professor Wu, Shi-Wen and student Jiang, Qin-Yu from the Department of Health and Creative Vegetarian Science of Fo Guang University jointly participated in the "Fifth Hakka Cooking Competition of the Straits" held in China.
Teacher Wu, Shi-Wen won the "Double Gold Award" in the group of Hot Dishes and Pastry. Jiang, Qin-Yu won the "Double Special Gold Award" in the group of Individual Hot Dishes and Cold Dishes. Both of them won multiple awards and returned triumphantly. This competition attracted 37 teams from both sides of the Strait to compete on the same stage, exchange Hakka cuisine and cooking skills, and display the essence of Hakka food culture. The designated items for the contest were Hot Dishes, Pastry/Pasta and Cold Dishes and participants had to prepare two dishes within one hour. After four days of fierce competition, Mr. Wu, Shi-Wen's dish named “Hakka First”won the gold prize of the Hot Dishes and Pastry group; Jiang, Qin-Yu's dish called "Hakka's scent", won the gold prizes of the hot dishes and cold dishes group.
Campus life
This year, Fo Guang University has enrolled a total of 785 students. The trend of declining birthrates leading to drastically reduced numbers of college students is a problem faced by all universities in Taiwan. Fo Guang University, which is about to reach its 20th anniversary, is a young emerging university among the 100 universities in Taiwan. How can it grow against the current trend, stabilize existing departments, develop new sources of students, and maintain full enrollment? President Yung, Chaur-Shin says that in addition to the national educational quality of Fo Guang University, there are more than 300 temples in Fo Guang Shan and more than 200 sister schools, which provide students with a wealth of opportunities for exchanges abroad. Moreover, the faculty members of Fo Guang University hope that students will not drop out of university for economic reasons, that disadvantaged students can study at ease and that the ones who have fallen can build confidence in FGU. In recent years, Fo Guang University has been focusing on connecting with the local area. For two consecutive years, the high school with more students attending Fo Guang University has been the National Lan-Yang Girls' Senior High School. This year, FGU has recruited 120 students from Yilan, which is equivalent to one in every seven students of Fo Guang University. We expect that in the future, children in Yilan will be able to study at local universities, and graduates of Fo Guang University will continue to start their careers in the local area.
Fo Guang University has entered its 19th anniversary. Every bit of the way to run the school, we would like to thank everyone for growing up with us, Fo Guang University. Therefore, today (9th) held the "Thanksgiving Ceremony of the 19th Anniversary of Fo Guang University".
Venerable Tzu Hui, Chairman of Fo Guang University, came to the school and had a connecting talk with all faculty members, mentioning many stories of Venerable Master Hsing Yun. During the event, a special award was given to thank the faculty members who have served for ten years, and the lucky mascot, "Taiwan Macaque", selected by teachers and students of the school was announced. President Yung, Chaur-Shin said that the development of a school requires a very long period of support planning to achieve success. In the 19 years since the founding of the school, we must thank Venerable Master Hsing Yun and Fo Guang Shan, as well as people from all walks of life in Yilan County for their assistance and the trust of all students' parents in the school, along with the efforts of all teaching and administrative staff. We expect to cultivate more talents that meet the needs of our society.
On October 1st, the five-day "Vegetarian Expo" was held in Yixing Dajue Temple Temple. Mr. Wu, Shi-Wen from the Department of Health and Creative Vegetarian Science of Fo Guang University, led five students including Jiang, Qin-Yu, Lin, Yu-Chen, Xie, Ming-Han, Ye, Jun-Ming, Liu, Zheng-Yuan from the department to set up a booth at Yixing Dajue Temple.
After the event, in order to thank Fo Guang Shan, Da Jue Temple, and Fo Guang University for providing such rare learning opportunities for teachers and students from the Department of Health and Creative Vegetarian Science, all the income from the booth was donated to the building of the temple.
Everyday students would wake up at 6am and start working. They completed every single step from the beginning to the end including prepare work, fried the filling, frying it and brewing up tea. When the products were done, they had to deliver them to the booth for sale. Some people were responsible for the production of meals, and others for the on-site sales. They showed their skills and made all the work go smoothly.
Fo Guang University's Exhibition, “Beyond from Above” and “Seeing Yilan”, first appeared on the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum. It was also the first time that the Buddha Museum exhibited student works. A special opening ceremony was held on August 11. A total of 75 creative design and award-winning works of students from the Department of Product and Media Design of Fo Guang University were displayed, as well as 4 special industry-academia cooperation works; the Department of Communication showed Yilan's long-term record as a video.
President Yung, Chaur-Shin saw the excellent works of the students and could not hide the joy and pride in his face. He said that after ten years of preparation, the FGU student's works entered the Buddha Museum for the first time! Among the works exhibited this time, 24 works were shortlisted for the German "Red Dot Award: Design Concept", and another 12 works were shortlisted for the“Young Pin Design Award”.
