Tu Cheng-sheng

Tu Cheng-sheng
杜正勝
Minister Tu in 2007
22nd Minister of Education of the Republic of China
In office 20 May 2004 – 20 May 2008
Director of National Palace Museum
In office 20 May 2000 – 20 May 2004
Personal details
Born	(1944-06-10) June 10, 1944 Mida Village, Okayama District, Takao Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan (vic. modern-day Mituo District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
Nationality	Republic of China
Political party	Democratic Progressive Party
Education	National University of Tainan National Taiwan University (BA, MA)

In this Chinese name, the family name is Tu.

Tu Cheng-sheng
Traditional Chinese	杜正勝
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dù Zhèngshèng Wade–Giles Tu4 Cheng4-sheng4 IPA [tû ʈʂə̂ŋʂə̂ŋ] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tō͘ Chèng-sèng

Tu Cheng-sheng (Chinese: 杜正勝; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tō͘ Chèng-sèng; born 10 June 1944) is a Taiwanese politician and historian. Tu served as the minister of education of the Republic of China during Chen Shui-bian's second term as president.

Education and career

Tu Cheng-sheng graduated from the Provincial Tainan Normal University (present-day National University of Tainan) in 1966. He also attended the National Taiwan University in 1970 and majored in history (bachelor's degree 1970, master's degree 1974). He is a specialist in the history of ancient Chinese society, culture and medicine.

In articles of 1986, 1987 and 1992 Tu explored semblance between the city-states of the ancients Western civilization and the state formations of early China.

He served as Director of National Palace Museum from May 2000 to May 2004. He also served as a director of a research center on history and languages of the Academia Sinica and a professor at the National Tsing Hua University.

Personality

Tu gained notoriety for his colorful and abrasive behavior. After being filmed asleep at a 2007 meeting of the Legislative Yuan, he was photographed picking his nose in response to public criticism. Also that year, he grabbed a reporter's microphone and shoved a cameraman into a wall.

Publications

• 杜正勝 (2000). 走過關鍵十年 / 1990-2000 [Going Through the Ten Critical Years: 1990-2000] (in Chinese). ISBN 957-469-141-1.
• 杜正勝 (2003). 臺灣的誕生 : 十七世紀的福爾摩沙 [The Birth of Taiwan: Formosa in the 17th Century] (in Chinese). ISBN 957-28159-1-1., translation: Ilha Formosa: the Emergence of Taiwan on the World Scene in the 17th Century
• 杜正勝 (2004). 新史學之路 [New Road for Historical Studies] (in Chinese). ISBN 957-14-4027-2.
• 臺灣的教育改革與臺灣的未來 [Educational Reform in Taiwan: Retrospect and Prospect] (in Chinese). 2007. OCLC 173372350.