Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
The Flushing-based school’s library received 366 boxes of 7,417 books ranging across 16 different categories, including art, anthropology, language and literature, history and social sciences.
TECO-NY Ambassador Tom Chih-Chiang Lee and Queens College President Elizabeth Hendrey celebrate the donation of the books. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
“I am thrilled to be here tonight as we celebrate an extraordinary donation of books from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York to our Benjamin Rosenthal Library,” Queens College President Elizabeth Hendrey said. “This generous contribution significantly elevates our capacity to teach and to explore East Asian history, literature and art. The books are written in traditional Chinese, English and bilingual formats, and this addition will position our library as a premier institution for Chinese scholarship. Whether a student is diving into classical Chinese poetry, studying traditional Chinese texts or conducting graduate-level research in East Asian civilizations, these texts will provide invaluable resources that enrich our undergraduate and graduate catalogs. Our library team is already hard at work cataloging these volumes, ensuring that they will become a vital part of our collections.”
Hendrey address attendees of the celebration of the books being donated to the library. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
“We will merge the collection in with our materials, so it will be a part of our regular everyday materials,” Queens College School of Arts and Humanities Dean Simone Yearwood said. “We are still currently assessing things to make sure what needs to be put into special collections, but we are definitely happy to have it, and we thank [TECO-NY] for making it available to us.”
(Left to right) Queens College School of Arts and Humanities Dean Simone Yearwood, TEC)-NY Ambassador Tom Chih-Chiang Lee, Queens College President Elizabeth Hendrey and Rexcel Group LLC President and CEO Ren Egawa. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
TECO-NY’s donated books will help enhance the East Asian Studies collection at the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library. As a result, the East Asian Studies and Chinese curriculum will benefit immensely, along with researchers interested in East Asian studies, classical Chinese, traditional Chinese literature and East Asian civilization.
Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
“What makes this donation so specially meaningful is how perfectly it reflects our campus community. At Queens College, we feel that our strength lies in our extraordinary diversity,” Hendrey said. “Based on 2025 data from our Office of Institutional Effectiveness, students of Asian or Pacific Island descent make up almost 30% of our student population, the second highest demographic on our campus. As one of the most diverse campuses in the nation and one of the most diverse areas in the nation, we have a responsibility to ensure that our academic resources mirror the richbackgrounds of our community. This collection does precisely that, offering native speakers, heritage learners and scholars deeper access to their cultural roots.”
Attendees of the celebration. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud
“Queens College is truly a bastion of higher education. It has been for a long time, and it’s getting even even greater and reaching new heights. With this edition of 7,417 pieces, I can think of no better place to house this collection than right here at Queens College, which is, as President Hendrey mentioned, a place where so many people in our community attend to obtain their degrees of higher education. This collection will be an asset to people from Taiwan, people who are proud to be from Taiwan, like myself. But it’s also a collection for everybody, because Taiwan is such a model of of high technology, of culture. It’s rich in history,” New York State Sen. John Liu said. “And of course, a gleaming democracy that is a model for the entire world to emulate. So, a lot can be learned about Taiwan for natives as well as for people from this entire community.”
State Sen. John Liu speaks at the celebration. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud