President Ma Ying-jeou met with officers and members of the Overseas Chinese Women Writers Association at the Presidential Office on the morning of November 8, and lauded the writers for their contributions in the world of Chinese-language literature.
In remarks to the gathering, the president noted that the organization was founded 21 years ago by over 20 overseas women writers from Taiwan and mainland China, all of whom had enormous experience in the writing community, including Chen Ruoxi, Yu Lihua, and Qi Jun. The association presently has over 200 members from the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, he said. The majority of the association's members are veteran authors who have resided overseas for over 20 years, the president said, pointing out that they have continued with their craft in their adopted lands. While some of the women writers are engaged in work unrelated to literature, they still use their spare time to pen new works. These women, the president said, have played a major role in passing along the legacy of Chinese culture overseas, and their works have touched many people.
President Ma said that publishing houses in Taiwan and overseas place great importance on the literature produced by the organization's members, including Chen Ruo-xi's 歸 (The Way Back), Shi Shuqing's 維多利亞俱樂部 (Victoria Club), and Ping Lu's 何日君再來 (When Will You Come Again?). These novels have been translated into many languages, helping to expose people in other places to Chinese culture, the president said. President Ma also expressed his hopes that the women writers will take advantage of this visit to Taiwan to catch up on current events in recent years and to share their insights with the global ethnic Chinese community through their works.
President Ma commented that Taiwan's publishing industry issued 40,575 titles in 2008, versus a total of 149,988 titles in mainland China. While mainland China published 3.7 times the number of titles here, the mainland's population is 57 times that of Taiwan, which means that Taiwan's per capita publishing activity is roughly 15.4 times that of the mainland. This, he said, attests to the emphasis that Taiwan places on publishing. The president also mentioned that while many people throughout the world read Chinese, the majority of the 40 million people who use orthodox Chinese characters reside in Taiwan. As cross-strait ties grow closer, he hopes mainland China will encourage its people to be able to at least read orthodox characters even while continuing to write in simplified characters. He said that this is important in passing along the legacy of Chinese culture.
The president explained that Taiwan's National Cultural Association is currently compiling a Chinese dictionary with versions in orthodox and simplified characters. The database for this dictionary, which will be accessible via cloud computing, is expected to be completed by the end of this year. After that even more people will be able to familiarize themselves with the development of Chinese culture, and in particular the evolution of Chinese characters. Meanwhile, the "Taiwan Institutes" that his campaign headquarters advocated establishing overseas are not meant to counter the "Confucius Institutes" that mainland China is creating abroad, he said, but are intended simply to teach Chinese and showcase the soft power developed in Taiwan over the past six decades. President Ma said that amendments to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan that were passed in January of this year call for the upgrading of the Council for Cultural Affairs to the Ministry of Culture. He furthermore pointed out that the recently passed Law for the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries will help funnel greater resources and assistance to those industries.
The delegation, led by Chen Ruoxi, the founding chairwoman of the organization, was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Emile C. J. Sheng to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen.