Page 73 - 42-Winter 2014_Final

Culture (1997-2005)
Tzu Chi in the USA
1989 – 2014

s Tzu Chi’s Missions of Charity and Medicine have
grown to touch more people around the world,
Athe availability of English-language materials has
become increasingly important. Tzu Chi World U.S.A., Tzu
Chi’s first publication in the United States, went into print
in 1991. At the time, it was a four-page newspaper written
entirely in Chinese. Two years later, in August 1993, it
started to include one page in English. In 1995, it was
expanded to ten total pages, four of which were in English.
In 2000, Tzu Chi World U.S.A. shifted its format from
a newspaper to a magazine, and it began to include
stories with much more depth, as well as more English
content. In 2002, Tzu Chi USA Journal was launched as a
quarterly magazine with content entirely in English, and
Tzu Chi World U.S.A. returned to being a purely Chinese
publication.
In 1999, a group of local Tzu Chi volunteers in the
technological hub of California’s Silicion Valley first set
up an English-language website for Tzu Chi. Just as they
were testing the functionality of the website, the 921
Earthquake struck Taiwan on September 21. Volunteers
translated the news as it arrived from Taiwan and posted
it on the new website immediately. These news reports
inspired many people to donate money to the Northwest
Regional Office to support the relief effort. Volunteer
Meishiang Hsieh, who was responsible for this Northern
California English-language website, then organized the
English web translation team in 2000 to create a formal
group to handle translation.

Around the same time, volunteer Stephanie Fan,
leader of the cultural team at Tzu Chi USA Headquarters,
started organizing and training a group of volunteers
to translate Life Wisdom, Dharma Master Cheng Yen's
daily teaching on Da Ai Television. Thanks to their hard
work, the first broadcast of Life Wisdom featuring both
Chinese and English subtitles aired on April 1, 2000. These
broadcasts bring the Dharma Master's words and the spirit
of Tzu Chi to English-speaking people around the world

www.us.tzuchi.org | 73