Emeritus Prof. Pang-Yuan Chi Awarded Honorary Doctorate by IU Bloomington

NTU campus received a rare visitor on February 25, 2019. Emeritus Prof. Pang-Yuan Chi (齊邦媛)—a distinguished writer, educator, translator, and scholar who wrote the masterpiece and best-seller “The Great Flowing River” in 2009, graced the campus to receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Indiana University (IU) Bloomington.

A retired faculty member of NTU’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Prof. Chi has made profound contributions to the literary circle. She is acclaimed for translating and introducing Chinese literature in Taiwan to the Western world. Besides compiling and overseeing the publication of An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Literature: 1949-1974 (1975), Prof. Chi took on the editorship of The Taipei Chinese PEN, a quarterly journal that translates and introduces contemporary Chinese literary works in Taiwan to the world, after retirement.

The conferral ceremony was opened by NTU President Chung-Ming Kuan (管中閔) and IU President Michael McRobbie. President Kuan appreciated Prof. Chi’s dedication to Taiwan’s education and her impactful role in pushing the 15-year partnership between NTU and IU a step further. President Kuan also thanked President McRobbie and the IU delegates for flying all the way to Taiwan while expressing hopes to see more substantial collaborations between the two schools.

Associate Dean of Liberal Arts, Prof. Ya-Feng Wu (吳雅鳳), presented an introduction about Prof. Chi’s contributions to education, translation, and literature at home and abroad. At the end of her address, she quoted three stanzas from Percy Shelley’s “To a Skylark” to sum up everyone’s respect and gratitude toward this great mentor. The ceremony concluded with the presentation of gifts and bouquets. One of the bouquets was composed of peonies—Prof. Chi’s favorite flower and Indiana’s state flower—the flower that has always reminded her of her fruitful life on IU’s campus in the “Blooming Town.”