Former President Ma Lectures on Law at Soochow University

Overwhelming response to sign up for the very first lecture entitled “Taiwan's Status under International Law” by former President Ma Ying-Jeou at Soochow University jammed the online registration system. In less than one minute, the 240 seats available had all been booked. Accepting the non-paying honorary Chair Professor position at SCU for 2016-2017 academic year, Ma started his first monthly “Yen Chia-Kan Law Lecture Series” available only to SCU faculty members, students, exchange students and scholars on 26 September 2016 in Puren Lecture Hall. 

SCU President Wei-Ta Pan introduced the former President as a faculty member of SCU since 1997. Ma’s SCU faculty ID card was numbered 86000032, meaning he was the 32^nd member joining SCU in the 86^th year of the ROC. “Starting now, this ID card is activated again,” said Pan, praising Ma’s talk on public international law as rich, insightful and interesting, a comment fully agreed upon by students and faculty members present. Pan expressed his appreciation to Ma’s returning to Soochow because Ma brought new horizons to SCU campus with his experience in the field of law and politics.

Ma elaborated on the development of international law against the historical background of Taiwan since Dutch colonial rule 392 years ago. Ma cited important cases by presenting multimedia video clips and quotes from the past, while the audience listened attentively.   The 3-hour lecture ended with photo ops with Ma when lots of students and faculty members waited in long queue until 5 p.m. Many students spoke highly of Ma’s lecture and said they could not wait for his second lecture next month. 

President Pan said it was a great honor for Soochow University to have the former President coming back to SCU campus as Chair Professor. Students all expected Ma would be able to help broaden their horizons in each of the monthly theme lecture. As Cai Yuanpei, a renowned Chinese educator back in the early years of R.O.C., once remarked that a university is a place to embrace academic freedom with an open mind, Ma’s talk and the interaction with SCU students this day was the embodiment of this ideal.