When the curtains were drawn on Academia Sinica's 27th Convocation of Members, only 15 new academicians had been selected from among 38 candidates, the fewest chosen in the academy's history. According to Academician H. T. Kung of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences Division, though new scientific fields are constantly opening up, this year the division had few candidates doing multidisciplinary work or conducting research in a new field. Consequently, they elected only six.

Academician Hsu Cho-yun found it worrying that only three new academicians were selected for the Humanities and Social Sciences Division. He said that modern society was saturated with technology; that computerized, technological barbarians were everywhere, and the humanities were largely ignored. If society continued its frenzied ways in pursuit of it knows not what, where would we end up? This prospect terrified Hsu.

On the other hand, it was one of those few elected to Humanities and Social Sciences who attracted the most attention at this year's conference. At 85, Professor Hsia Chih-tsing is not only the oldest person ever elected to Academia Sinica, but also received the highest number of votes. This was his third nomination, and his election this year was generally viewed as an honor late in coming.

Hsia's seminal work, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, was a major contribution to literary studies. It created a tremendous stir when Hsia completed it in 1961. In those days, Taiwan had little contact with the Chinese mainland, and was largely unaware of the literary movements and works that had swept through it in the 1930s and 40s. Locally, anti-communist and modernist works too sterile to inspire Taiwan's next generation of writers dominated the literary scene. Hsia's book introduced Taiwanese to the likes of Shen Congwen, Lu Xun, Ba Jin, and Eileen Zhang.

During this year's convocation, news that several heavyweight scholars from National Taiwan University had accepted positions at China's Peking University led a number of academicians to raise the issue of Taiwanese scholars' relatively low salaries. Academician Paul C. W. Chu of the Mathematics Division, who is president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that over the last few years HKUST had successfully used high salaries to attract outstanding faculty from around the world. These new faculty had in turn enabled HKUST to better meet the needs of Hong Kong's developing tech industry, to establish a top-tier research institute, and to raise standards for technology in Hong Kong. Though technologically advanced and possessed of many talented people, Taiwan must address the problem of faculty pay, which could compromise Taiwan's academic competitiveness.

Chen Chien-jen, Minister of the National Science Council and an academician in the Life Sciences Division, said that the law in Taiwan requires salaries for assistant research fellows and associate research fellows at Academia Sinica to be paid on a civil service scale. The system was rigid, and only senior researchers could be hired as distinguished fellows or earn "outstanding speaker" fees to supplement their salaries. Chen believed the current system needed to be abandoned in favor of one that pays civil servants and scholars on separate scales.

As for the recent efforts by China's Peking and Tsinghua Universities to hire faculty from Taiwan, Vice President Cyrus C. Y. Chu and Academician Kuan Chung-ming both noted that these have been one-offs; the mainland had so far been unable to attract Taiwanese faculty en masse. But Taiwan must be on its guard--its leading position, once lost, would be very hard to regain. Paul Chu, meanwhile, believed that the "brain circulation" isn't necessarily a bad thing. He argued that Taiwan needs to take the long view, but also that it must recruit talent from around the world and use the mainland as a base for development if it is continue to succeed.

The convocation also produced a number of recommendations aimed at making Taiwan a better place in which to conduct research in the humanities and social sciences. A proposal to establish channels for young scholars to pursue further education elicited a great deal of discussion. Many academicians argued for shortening the time it takes to obtain graduate degrees in these fields in Taiwan--currently usually three years for a master's degree and an additional four years for a PhD. Scholars trained in Taiwan had lower status than those trained abroad, and most schools made young assistant professors responsible for administrative tasks on top of their teaching workload. The result was that young scholars had little time for research. If this situation were not rectified, we could soon find ourselves without young faculty in these fields. Some academicians suggested that Taiwan implement the system of grants and research sabbaticals used abroad to enable young scholars to focus on research.

Wong Chi-huey's assumption of the position of President of Academia Sinica in October was another topic of discussion among members. The 58-year-old Wong, who was elected to Academia Sinica in 1994 and to the US's National Academy of Sciences in 2002, is well known in international academic circles and is regarded as one of the likeliest ethnic Chinese candidates for a Nobel Prize. His achievements include developing processes that use enzymes to rapidly synthesize complex carbohydrates and proteins, which can in turn be used to develop new drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. He is also working with partners in the US to develop technologies to enable bacteria to mass-produce proteins.

Asked where he would lead Academia Sinica, Wong responded that he would further Lee Yuan-tseh's policy of improving the academic and research environment in Taiwan; foster cooperation with Taiwan's universities; and promote the utilization of the academy's scholarly research to contribute to society and the nation. When work began on sequencing the human genome several years ago, it ignited global interest in biotechnology. To help make Taiwan competitive, Lee brought Wong back to Taiwan to run Academia Sinica's Genomics Research Center. Most people believe that the choice of Wong will be a catalyst to Taiwan's leaders in this field.

The convocation also featured lighter moments. Academician Chen Ning Yang, a Nobel laureate, created a stir when he arrived in Taiwan with his wife, Weng Fan. Their marriage in 2004, when he was 82 and she was 28, shocked Chinese communities around the world. This was the couple's first visit to Taiwan since their marriage, and their apparent marital bliss was the envy of many. Asked about Yang's remark that Weng was "God's last gift to me," Weng's face lit up as she replied that Yang was "God's best gift to me."