[Editor's Note] Tradition and innovation

As society moves forward, it maintains its balance thanks to the seemingly opposed forces of tradition and innovation. These forces are not opposed, however. They complement each other, and are equally indispensable to us. The sustenance that we derive from tradition enables us to explore the unknown. Without roots, we cannot grow. The minute we stop growing, we begin to wither away. That's why we need to understand both of these phenomena.

The summer sky over Taipei had a distinctly high-tech hue all June. First there was the 2000 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2000), which attracted such marquee names as Bill Gates, John Chambers, and Carly Fiorina, not to mention the renowned economists Lester Thurow and Robert Mundell. The event highlighted Taiwan's prominent position in the information age, and provoked much thought about "the new economy." WCIT 2000 had barely ended when US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair jointly announced completion of the Human Genome Project, an important part of which was carried out here in Taiwan by a team from Veteran's General Hospital and Yang-Ming University. This team sequenced the fourth chromosome.

Academia Sinica's Institute of Botany, in the meantime, has been taking part in an international project to map the rice genome. And in late June, Academia Sinica's President Lee Yuan-tseh announced that his organization would establish a gene research center next summer to study the functions of individual genes. Lee said that Taiwan cannot afford to fall behind the rest of the world in this area.

All of these developments will have a huge impact on the future well-being of the human race, yet for many of us they are distant and unfamiliar. This is particularly true of genetic engineering, considered the biggest breakthrough in the life sciences since genetics and molecular biology. Man has begun to probe the very origins of life. For most of us, our understanding of gene technology leaves off with the cloning of Dolly the sheep, but this was just the opening volley in a startling surge of progress. The big news today is the sequencing of the human genome. We have found out how to read "the Book of Life," but it is written in a language comprehensible only to a relatively small number of scientists.

But even though most of us don't understand genetics, the products of genetic engineering are creeping into our lives. Genetically modified food products include some types of soy sauce, tofu, soybean milk, cooking oil, canned foods, papaya, tomatoes, salmon, cotton... The list is longer than you might think. The ROC Department of Health is now working at top speed to formulate labeling requirements for genetically modified foods by the end of this year. We all need a basic understanding of this technology, for it will change human destiny.

So how exactly do scientists make genetically modified products? Do these products affect our health? How might they change our lives? How did scientists sequence the human and rice genomes? How will gene modification affect humans and other species? When we play God with our genes, will we be re-creating the Garden of Eden? Or will we bring upon ourselves the sort of disasters dreamed up by Michael Crighton in Jurassic Park?

Once the ball is rolling, you can't stop it. The key of genetics is now in the hands of a few scientists, but they've already begun unlocking doors with it. It is up to us, the everyday people of this world who will have to live with the results, to understand the issues at hand and make informed judgments. That is why we chose this subject as our cover story this month. We have attempted to present a complex subject in a manner the average reader can appreciate.

The complement to innovation is tradition. It grows in the rich cultural topsoil that forms the milieu of our lives. We interact with this cultural topsoil, and the byproduct of this interaction is history and civilization. Civilization always moves forward, and the result is the scientific breakthroughs that we are seeing today. But a human race that has lost contact with tradition would be like an orchid cut off from its roots. That would leave an unfillable void at the heart of life. The cold feeling of alienation that has grown up in our urban civilization makes itself obvious to us in many ways. Fortunately, not everyone is seduced by our glittering society. Some hold fast to their own ideals. Nature photographer Lin Chun-chi, the subject of Hooked on Weeds, is one such person. So is Yen Shen-horn, whom we interview in Land of a Thousand Lakes. Another such man is Edward Yang, the noted cinema director who recently won a grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival with A One and A Two. These people are like the "soil" of our culture. In today's fast-paced world, such people keep us from losing our bearings entirely.

Science and technology are not evil in and of themselves. Our material surroundings should naturally be put to use. The pursuit of knowledge, wealth, leisure, and entertainment is a part of our lives. We just have to strike a proper balance between the many different directions life would take us. We hope you'll find this issue of Sinorama interesting and informative as we explore both the innovative and traditional aspects of our world.