Cyber Island is a display platform established by the Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project. As a result of the effort of the bodies involved in the Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program, artifacts that are precious, are historically significant or have research value have been digitized. To increase the diversity of contents, from 2005 digital information has been collected from the public, including Taiwan’s mountain and river ecology, society, activities, architectural landscape and daily life digital information, the aim being to display Taiwan’s great vitality and splendor and encourage the public to engage in digitization work, together building a new digital society.
This is the third Cyber Island Photography Competition. The aim is to use photo series with city, transport and campus themes to tell stories and show Taiwan from various perspectives.
The prize giving ceremony and the “Cyber Age” photography exhibition opening tea party began with melodious music. Mr. Liao Ping-Hui, Director of the National Science Council’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ms. Liu Ts'ui-Jung, Vice-president of Academia Sinica and Lin Fu-Shih, the Dean of the College of Literature, National Chung Hsing University University, were in attendance. Director Liao expressed the hope that value can be added to digital archive contents by industry and that the contents can be promoted internationally and said that the many themed works on display this year are not just impressive but can also be used to hear the voices of the people. Vice-president Liu said that digital archives work has entered its seventh year. In the past, collecting bodies focused on the digitization of historical artifacts and now, after the establishment of Cyber Island, the present can be recorded, immediately archiving history. Dean Lin expressed his thanks to the participants in this photography competition and all guests at the ceremony. Cyber Island was established in 2006 and has developed into “Cyber Age” in 2008, aiming to promote the sharing of splendid archive contents with a selfless and progressive spirit.
After the speech, Mr. Chou Ming, the director of the Sound of Formosa—Chang Lien-Cheng Saxophone Museum Digital Archive Project, led four of third-generation Chang descendant Chang Tsung-Yao’s daughters in performing a number of tunes and also told the legendary story of Chang Lien-Cheng—Taiwan’s first saxophone maker. Chang Lien-Cheng was born into a farming family. From a young age he liked painting and, for a time, studied under a teacher from China and made his living selling paintings. He excelled not only at painting; he was also a talented musician. He formed a light music ensemble with his friends. A member of the local gentry, Chang Ji-Pan, had a saxophone and was the core of the ensemble. Chang’s house suffered a fire and the ensemble’s only saxophone was burned and could not be played. Using his natural talent and enthusiasm, Chang Lien-Cheng made the first Taiwan–made saxophone, taking the first step into this cultural industry. In cooperation with domestic and foreign traders he took his saxophones into the international market, at one time producing one third of the world’s saxophones and winning the title “musical instrument emperor.” At present, third generation descendant Chang Tsung-Yao is building the Chang Lien-Cheng saxophone brand.
Taiwan’s music industry does not only have saxophones, there is also the Violin Heaven—Chimei Museum’s Violin Collection Digital Archives Project. Mr. Chung Tai-Ting is a master violin maker and adviser to the Chimei violin collection. Under the guidance of his first teacher, Ms. Wang Li-Chun, he followed the Cremona violin making spirit. He studied at the US Chimneys violin making school. Over 10 years of study have allowed him to cleverly merge the romance of Italy and the precision of the American school, creating his own unique violin making style. He introduced a violin made by the son of master violin maker Omobono Stradivari in 1740. It is one of the few relatively complete examples of this violin in the world. The body is relatively narrow and the violin is 35.7 cm long. The back is made from two flat pieces of maple. The dark orange varnish matches the best tradition of Cremona. He was also invited to participate in the French Violin Exhibition, laying down a good foundation for Taiwan-overseas cultural collection exchange.
At the end of the ceremony, Professor Nanette Chen of the Department of Music, National Taiwan Normal University gave a violin performance that left the audience with a deep impression. Without any electrical equipment or speakers the beautiful and moving strains of the violin filled the venue. This was a perfect end to the Cyber Island photography competition prize giving ceremony and also announced the success of the “Cyber Age” photography exhibition.
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