Magsaysay Awardees Digital Collection

Tang Xiyang

Description

2007 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Peace and International Understanding from China. During China’s Cultural Revolution, many years of forced labor in the countryside led Tang Xiyang to the beauty and healing power of nature; thereafter he began his lifelong advocacy for the protection and conservation of the environment. He became the editor of Great Nature magazine in 1980 and explored China’s nature reserves, writing prolifically about the richness of the country’s natural wonders. His subsequent travels to fifty national parks and wildlife refuges in Europe, North America, and Asia have all been chronicled in his book, “A Green World Tour,” a “bible” for China’s young environmentalists. In 1996 and every year since, Mr. Tang organized Green Camps for university students, these served as venues for young leaders to appreciate and be educated about China’s natural wonders.

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A Green World Tour and Other Books by Tang Xiyang
A Green World Tour, written by Tang Xiyang and his deceased wife, dedicated environmentalists Marcia Bliss Marks, introduced its readers to nature preservation as a global movement and became the bible for China's young environmentalists. (Magsaysay…

GreenCamp for College Students
GreenCamp, referred to as "the West Point Academy for Chinese Environmentalists," was launched in 1996 by Marcia B. Marks, Tang's deceased wife and himself. Its basic mission is to foster concern for the environment and engage the youth in its…

Yunnan's Golden Monkeys and the Founding of Green Camp
In 1996, the year Marcia Marks died, Tang invited 21 university students to spend their summer holidays in Deqin County, Yunnan, where local officials planned to harvest logs on a 100 square mile swath of old-growth forest, the unique habitat of the…

Tang's Lecture Tours
One way of Tang to convey information about nature and promote environmental protection, aside from writing articles and books and organizing green camps, is doing lecture tours to large audiences and providing training to camp participants. Tang…

Tang and Marcia
Some people describe the couple, according to Tang, as "a beautiful union of east and west cultures." (Magsaysay Response) In 1982, he met Amercian Marcia Marks during an investigation into elephants in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. Their common love for…

Tang's Pro-Democracy Advocacy
As survivor of China's Cultural Revolution and with wife murdered during that time, Tang believed in the essence of democracy. "Without democracy, he once said, there can be no everlasting green hills and clear waters." (citation for the Magsaysay…

Five More Crested Ibises Have Taken Wing
An article which was included as a chapter from Tang's A Green World Tour entitled "Five More Crested Ibises Have Taken Wing" won the Excellent Award at the 2nd Annual National Scientific Prizes in 1987. (Curriculum Vitae)

Marcia and Tang toured 50 national parks and wildlife refuges in Europe, North America and Asia. Colored photos of their tours were attached in "A Green World Tour."

Citation of Tang Xiyang as Magsaysay Awardee for Peace and International Understanding
Citation of Tang Xiyang for his Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding in 2007.

Environmental writer and activist, Tang Xiyang, delivered his lecture entitled "Heeding Nature's Wisdom: Preserving Humankind" in connection with his Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding in August 30, 2007.