The TSMC Education and Culture Foundation, established in 1998 to coordinate the Company’s sponsorship as part of its efforts in corporate social responsibility, devotes its resources towards education, promotion of art and culture events, community building, and the employee volunteer program.
In 2013, the TSMC Foundation contributed over NT$73.5 million to its long-term projects of promoting education, culture, and arts. In 2013, the Foundation infused more resources in science education. In addition to supporting a long-term science educational project, The Foundation for the first time in 2013 sponsored the Center for the Advancement of Science Education at National Taiwan University (CASE) to hold “TSMC Cup – Competition of Scientific Story Telling,“ which target young people aged 15 to 18 nationwide in order to inspire their interest for science, and to train short talks by incorporating the four major capacities of listening, speaking, reading and writing into this innovative contest.
In continuing to promote arts and Chinese Culture, the TSMC Foundation sponsored the National Symphony Orchestra to produce the stage version of Wagner’s Die Walküre for the very first time in Taiwan. Following “The Analects of Confucius“ and “The Writings of Chung-tzu,“ Professor Hsin Yih-yun, invited by the Foundation, launched the broadcasting program “Mo-tzu in Hsin’s View“ to lead the audience to understand Mo-tzu’s philosophy. TSMC’s six-year consecutive support of the broadcasting program shows the commitment and endeavors toward the Classical Chinese Philosophy.
Aside from financial sponsorships of culture and educational projects, the TSMC Foundation supports TSMC Volunteer Society, organizing employees to devote themselves to the caring of the underprivileged of the communities.
Commitment to Education – Supporting Educational Programs to Target the Needs at Different Age Levels
Talents are essential to the development of the society. As a leader of Taiwan’s knowledge-based industry, TSMC regards cultivating talented people for society as a core responsibility. Thus the TSMC Foundation tailors various programs to target a whole range of education needs at different age levels.
At the primary-school level, the TSMC Foundation is concerned about the unbalanced development between urban and rural education. To bridge the urban-rural gap, the “TSMC Aesthetic Tour“ and “TSMC Science Tour“ takes children from remote townships to visit National Palace Museum, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Taiwan Science Education Center, National Museum of Natural Science and National Science and Technology Museum. Over the last 11 years, more than 87,000 students from remote townships have participated in the tour to cultivate their appreciation of art and experience the charisma of science. The Foundation also continued to support CommonWealth Magazine’s highly successful “Hope Reading Project“. Through the project, the Foundation offers 200 primary schools of remote townships 20,000 books every year. By providing 190,000 good books with children in remote and underprivileged areas of Taiwan since 2004, the Foundation hopes to promote literacy and inspire interest in reading among these children so that they will have the opportunity to open the window of hope. In addition to sponsoring these activities, the TSMC Foundation supports the Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s expansion of the “TSMC Children’s Art Education Center,“ due for completion and inauguration in 2014. The center will be an important cradle for cultivating children’s art appreciation.
At the high school level, to enhance teenagers’ full development to knowledge of science and humanity, the Foundation supported and organized scientific camps, contests, and humanity activities. In 2013, the TSMC Foundation for the first time sponsored the Center for the Advancement of Science Education at National Taiwan University to hold “TSMC Cup – Competition of Scientific Story Telling“. Racing through the different stages of the Competition, students will cultivate the capacity of logical thinking, argumentation and presentation skills. Together with the dynamics of teamwork, the Competition provides a complete scientific experience and training, and gained overwhelmingly responses from teachers and students. In 2013, 188 teams across the nation participated. The Foundation also continued to support three science talent camps – Wu Chien-Shiung Science Camp, Wu Ta-Yu Science Camp and Madame Curie Senior High School Chemistry Camps – to provide talented students with the opportunity to hold discussions with world-class scientists with the goal of inspiring students and helping them realize their potential. “Senior High School Academic Train,“ organized by National Tsing hua University, invited professors from the University to introduce senior high school students to the latest knowledge of technology and common knowledge for daily life and science. The courses will be held in 12 senior high schools located in northern, central, southern, eastern and Kinmen areas. The TSMC Foundation also collaborates with the Wu Chien-Shiung Foundation to work on “Lifting the Ability of High School Physics Experiments,“ providing professional development for 282 science teachers.
In the humanities, “the TSMC Youth Literature Award“ has for 10 years encouraged talented young writers to create new works. AS being the most important stage for the youth of Taiwan to inspire their interest and talents to literacy, in addition to the writing competition and lectures, the activity also created the special editorial pages of United Daily for the former winners, who were invited to create new works, showing their talents and progress. The sixth “TSMC Youth Calligraphy Contest“ held three workshops at three high schools to inspire students to appreciate the beauty and cultural richness of calligraphy. The Foundation arranged the former winners and the calligraphy devotees to visit Taiwan Calligraphy master Professor Chung-Kao Du. Professor Du, who shared his 50-year experience of calligraphic writings with the participants and encouraged them to keep on pursuing the art of calligraphy.
At the college and society level, the TSMC Foundation held the 2nd TSMC Literature Award to encourage under-40-year-old writers to create Chinese novels between 60,000 words and 80,000 words. Winners not only received big cash prizes but also a contract with the book publisher, INK. This competition offers young writers an excellent forum to showcase their talent and opportunity to be published, underscoring TSMC’s commitment to supporting literature. The TSMC Foundation continued “TSMC Scholarship“ to support and encourage underprivileged students attending National Tsing Hua University and National Central University. Also, the Foundation continued to endow chair professorships to enhance academic research of Taiwan universities.
Promotion of Arts and Culture – Sponsoring Taiwan Arts Groups and Promoting the Chinese Classics
The TSMC Education and Culture Foundation has, for years, devoted its efforts to promoting Taiwan Art Groups. In 2013, the TSMC Foundation supported National Symphony Orchestra to produce the stage version of Wagner’s Die Walküre for the very first time in Taiwan. Under the leadership of Maestro Shao-Chia Lü, Die Walküre gathered together the prestigious director Hans-Peter Lehmann, who for years has served as assistant director at the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, along with Taiwan art groups and top vocal singers from Taiwan and abroad, all of whom showed marvelous creativity and performance levels. The production indeed set a milestone of Taiwan Opera Performing Art history.
In addition to support Taiwan Art Groups, the TSMC Foundation commits to promote Chinese Traditional Classics in the long term. Through presenting lectures, producing broadcasting programs and publishing audio books, the Foundation relives the Classics and enables audiences to easily understand traditional Chinese philosophy and wisdom. Among these projects, since 2008 the Foundation and IC broadcasting company collaborated to invite Professor Hsin Yih-yun to produce the Chinese Classics broadcasting program, which are extremely popular and gained huge attention from Chinese audiences all over the world. Following The Analects by Confucius and The Writings of Chuang-tzu, in 2013, Professor Hsin introduced Mo-tzu, whose thought was as important as Confucius’ at Chinese Spring and Autumn Period. Through Professor Hsin Yih-yun’s rich knowledge and vivid examples, Professor Hsin delivered Mo-tzu’s philosophy of promoting diligent and thrifty and comprehensive love to the public.
Noting the importance of preserving historic sites, the Foundation continued to sponsor the Taipei Story House’s Literature Salon. Cultural activities such as regular author readings on the site gave the old building a new life and attracted the general public to this cultural heritage site. The Foundation also donated NT$10,000,000 to the revitalization of Dr. Sun Yun-suan’s residence, in memory of Dr. Sun Yun-suan, who was former premier and known for his contribution to the economic development of Taiwan.
Community Building by Arts – Organizing Hsinchu Arts Festival to Cultivate the Public’s Art Appreciation
The foundation has long played the role of “fine art planter“ and hopes to spread the seeds of fine art to the community through continuous art activities. At TSMC’s site communities, Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan, the Foundation annually organizes “Hsinchu Arts Festival“ to present a broad spectrum of performances for the inhabitants’ interests in art. Presented annually for the past 11 years, “Hsinchu Arts Festival“ has become a main art event gaining a huge nationwide attention. International artists presented by the Festival include Cho-liang Lin, Midori, Ann-Sophie Mutter, Shlomo Mintz, Yun-di Li, Kun Woo Paik, Garrick Ohlsson, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Sir James Galway. The Festival also gathered the Chinese theatre masters, including Pai Hsien-yung, Wu Hsing-kuo, Wei Hai-ming, and Li Bao-chun, to present phenomenal performances at the communities.
During 2013, the Foundation again invited the most prestigious artists to join the Festival, such as the winner of 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition, the Russian pianist Yulianna A. Avdeeva, who fascinated the Hsinchu classical music lovers with her great technique and depth of music interpretation. The classical new star, British violinist Charlie Siem, played Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen and Hubay’s Carman Fantasy etc. The wonderful concert fascinated the students of National Cheng Kung University at Tainan. For an audience of more than 6,000, the Festival arranged an interactive concert, the Piano Battle, at Taichung Outdoor Arena. The Piano Battle, organized and performed by Paul Cibiss and Andreas Kern, sees the duo go head-to-head on stage, charming and enchanting the audience with a variety of classical pieces. The foundation, during the three-month Art Festival, arranged in total over 40 activities, from concerts, traditional operas and lectures, to family-oriented activities, attracting more than 25,000 people from local communities.