Taipei, May 22 (CNA) An "Encyclopedia of Taiwan" project, which seeks to publish the first encyclopedia about Taiwan and eventually become a "Taiwanese version" of Encyclopedia Britannica, was officially launched Tuesday, a publisher and the Council of Cultural Affairs (CCA) announced in a press conference.
The structure of the encyclopedia is expected to be laid out within the first six months and the first six volumes will be completed in two years in the first phase of the project, said Wang Jung-wen, chairman of the YLib Group.
"The compilation of an encyclopedia is a national project. It will cost billions of dollars and will require huge manpower resources and great help from academia. Hopefully, we can show the readers the variety and identity of Taiwan with the completion of this project," Wang said.
"We wish to use the Korean edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica as an example, as it has the requisite regional angle," said Iris Du, executive director of the project.
Lee Yuan-tseh, a Nobel laureate and former director of Academia Sinica, has accepted the offer to preside over a committee of hundreds of professors from universities and institutions that will oversee the editing of the encyclopedia.
The second stage of the project will be to present a global view from a Taiwanese perspective as well as to interpret Taiwanese culture and serve as a platform for the overall knowledge base in Taiwan, Du said.