The General Education Center of STUST recently held the course "Building an Asian Community (International Celebrity Lecture Series),"inviting Jian-Ren Chen, former Vice President and current Distinguished Researcher of Academia Sinica, to give a speech. Dr. Deng-Maw Lu, President of STUST, personally led the senior executives and staff of the relevant units to receive Academician Chen with great warmth.

[President Deng-Maw Lu of STUST (fourth from the right) and the school executives were taking a group photo with Academician Jian-Ren Chen of the Academia Sinica (fourth from the left).]

The speech was given on the topic of "COVID-19 Pandemic Containment, Economic Revitalization, and Resilient Development," a discussion on the effectiveness of Taiwan's pandemic containment from the perspective of scholars and experts that analyzed the impact of international relations, economic circulation and life interaction, attracting a total of 220 teachers and students from the university to listen.

[Deng-Maw Lu, President of STUST, was delivering a speech in the course "Building an Asian Community (International Celebrity Lecture Series)."]

"Building an Asian Community (International Celebrity Lecture Series)" is a large-scale general education program subsidized by the Eurasian Mutual Foundation, a Japanese consortium, organized by Prof. Zhao-Yin Luo of Applied Japanese Department. The 16-week courses are planned per semester, with ten thousand US dollars (about NT$2 million. An internationally renowned scholar is invited as a lecturer every week to give a speech on topics customized by the lecturer for the week, sharing different experiences, new ideas, etc. It is meant to help students develop an international perspective and strengthen the concept, connotation, and development trend of the Asian community.

[Academician Jian-Ren Chen of the Academia Sinica came to STUST to give a speech, expounding Taiwan's efforts during the pandemic containment period, and the value of various pandemic containment measures, democracy, and freedom.]

Based on the concept of "great general education," The development of general education at STUST constructed a good environment to facilitate the promotion of general education. The surrounding attractions of education—“Heaven and Earth” and “By the Waterside”—go well with the educational concept of general education lectures. The center invite masters to give speeches at the university from time to time, which is also an important direction in the development of general education at STUST.

[Academician Jian-Ren Chen of Academia Sinica was having a speech at STUST.]

The economy and people's lives in Taiwan have been greatly affected by the pandemic. As Academician Jian-Ren Chen mentioned in his speech, owing to the international community's delay in warnings about the pandemic, improper grasping of the opportunities to hold down the impact of the pandemic, and the prudent and correct attitude our government took when the pandemic broke out, Taiwan was able to accurately grasp the situation of the pandemic and make appropriate defenses immediately. He also analyzed the attitudes of the international community that the world should work together on the issue of pandemic containment, putting much emphasizing the concept and common sense that human society is a community of life. He summarized the importance of pandemic containment in a word—"no one is safe unless everyone is safe." Thanks to the joint efforts of human beings all over the world, the pandemic and be effectively curbed and the spread of the pandemic can be slowed. During the questions and discussions after the meeting, Academician Chen had a lively interaction with the participating students. He was quite positive about the questions raised by the students, and he encouraged and presented each of the questioning students with a signed book—A Class of Public Health Literacy for Young Adults.

[Lecture on the Construction of the Asian Community (International Celebrity Lecture Series)]

Academician Jian-Ren Chen repeatedly stated modestly in his speech that the success of Taiwan's pandemic containment depends on the efforts of all the 23 million people and their trust in the government, so that the pandemic containment can indeed achieve the advanced prevention measures. This is why the containment has been prudent and correct, becoming what we call “precise control.” This not only won the recognition of Taiwan's achievements in pandemic containment all over the world, but also has showed Taiwan's achievements in promoting democracy and freedom.

[Lecture on the Construction of the Asian Community (International Celebrity Lecture Series)]

Deng-Maw Lu, President of STUST, said that academician Jian-Ren Chen was invited to give a speech in this general education course. In addition to allowing teachers and students of STUST to better understand the efforts made by the government during the pandemic containment period, he also thanked everyone for his or her efforts in pandemic containment work. He encouraged people to get vaccinated as a high coverage ratio of vaccines can also make pandemic containment more effective. He hoped that everyone can continue to work together so that our society can released from any containment measures earlier and return to our normal lives. This also holds true of Taiwan, a free and democratic country, which is the greatest contribution that Taiwan has made to the international community.

[Dr. Deng-Maw Lu (right), President of STUST, was presenting a letter of appointment and a certificate of appreciation to Academician Jian-Ren Chen of Academia Sinica (left).]

[A group photo of the participants in the Lecture on the Construction of Asian Community (International Celebrity Lecture Series).]