The UCLA Asia Pacific Center received a gift of $1 million from the J. Yang and Family Foundation that will help permanently sustain the UCLA Taiwan Studies Program. Of the total, $750,000 will create the J. Yang and Family Foundation Taiwan Studies Endowment and $250,000 will establish the J. Yang and Family Foundation Centennial Scholars Fellowship Endowment.
UCLA Taiwan Studies Program was founded in 2014 with initial funding from the Taiwan Ministry of Education. It offers an active array of public programs, conferences and lecture series, visiting scholar exchanges and curriculum development, and research fellowships and travel grants for faculty and students. The Education Division, TECO-LA signed an MOA with Asia Pacific Center in 2017 to continue the second phase of collaboration to further examine Taiwan’s culture and identity in historical, global, and transnational contexts. In addition to the funding from the Ministry of Education, the gift, which was matched by a$125,000 grant from the UCLA Chancellor’s Centennial Scholar Match initiative, will aslo help provide scholarships to UCLA undergraduates and graduate students pursuing studies on Taiwan.
The donation signing ceremony and the press conference was held in UCLA on November, 16th, Ambassador Abraham Chu, the Director General and the Director of Educatioin Division Rebecca Lan of TECO were invited to attend the ceremony.
“My family has always valued education,” said Jackson Yang, the foundation’s president and CEO. “We greatly appreciate the opportunity to partner with UCLA to sustain scholarly research and teaching on Taiwan and are especially delighted that our gift will support scholarships for UCLA students.” President Yang and and his wife, Julie Yang are active philanthropists in the Los Angeles region and beyond. Mr. and Mrs. Yang was joined by his family to present in the significant occasion. Among the family members, 5 of whom grafuated from UCLA. His eldest son Frank Yang mentioned that his father often reminded them of the difficult life in his early life in Taiwan and Taiwanese people’s diligent spirit. The Yang family sincerely hopes their donation can set a good example for others to follow to help the young generations of Taiwanese people in American to learn more about Taiwan and enhance the visibility of Taiwan in the international academia.
The Asia Pacific Center is one of more than 25 research centers within the UCLA International Institute. The program has steadily expanded to serve as a resource center for UCLA faculty and students and the Los Angeles community. It maintains relationships with National Taiwan Normal University and National Chengchi University. In addition, The UCLA Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Studies Library has been designated a Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies by the Taiwan National Central Library.“This gift will enable us to carry Taiwan studies into the next generation and make our program an engagement hub that will advance both public understanding of and academic research and scholarly exchange on Taiwan,” said Min Zhou, director of the Asia Pacific Center and the Walter and Shirley Wang Professor of U.S.-China Relations and Communications. Cindy Fan, UCLA vice provost for international studies and global engagement also expressed her gratitude for Mr. Yang and his family ‘s vision and support. With the coordination of Ambassador Abraham Chu and Ambassador Jason Yuan, both Yang Family and UCLA were glad to achieve such meaningful collaboration.
The J. Yang and Family Foundation is a private 501(c)3 charitable organization based in Torrance, California. Mr. Jackson Yang is the owner of Seville Classic, Inc., in Torrance; chairman of the board of First General Bank in Rowland Heights, California; former president of the Taiwanese-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Los Angeles; and the 20th president of the World Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce. He is currently also Political Adviser to the Executive Yuan, the executive branch of the Republic of China (Taiwan) government, headed by the premier.
UCLA Asia Pacific Center received a gift of $1 Million from J. Yang and Family Foundation (The first row from left to right: Ambassador Abraham Chu of TECO-LA, President Jackson Yang and his wife Julie Yang, UCLA vice provost Cindy Fan, Chair of The UCLA Foundation board Shirley Wang, former Ambassador Jason Yuan and Director of Asia Pacific Center Min Zhou.)
