Sophie Chang (philanthropist)

Sophie Chang (Chinese: 張淑芬; pinyin: Zhāng Shúfēn), born in 1944, is a Taiwanese philanthropist, author, and painter. She serves as the chairperson of the TSMC Charity Foundation and holds positions in several other non-profit organizations.^[1]

Chang is the chairperson of the TSMC Charity Foundation, an organization that works to promote general welfare in Taiwan. She has been the president of the TSMC Volunteer Society since 2004,^[2] where she is involved in responding to disasters and emergencies. ^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Chang created the "Sending Love" public welfare platform to promote corporate "social responsibility" and to encourage corporate philanthropy.^[8] She also established the "Network of Compassion" platform, which includes over 7,000 volunteers, hospitals, and health services to provide medical care for low-income, isolated senior citizens. This network has utilized government participation to promote rural education in elementary and junior high schools.^[9]

Chang has supported the integration of filial piety education into school curricula through collaboration with local authorities and the Ministry of Education.^[10] She advocated for the inclusion of the subject in the Ministry of Education's syllabus and created the National Filial Piety Education Workshop with the Ministry of Education's National Education Department and the National Filial Piety Resource Center, alongside the National Education Administration.^[11] In 2019, she held the first National High School Filial Piety Education Microfilm Competition.^[9]

Her work has also extended to supporting initiatives aimed at expanding access to technological and vocational education in rural areas.^[12] She has also collaborated with the After School Association of Taiwan on programs involving leadership training and skills development for students.^[13][14] Chang has collaborated with the Bayou Foundation to narrow the educational gap between students in urban and rural areas, with support from Lai Ching-te, former mayor of Tainan City.^[15] In 2021, Chang launched a Technical Vocational Training initiative, partnering with Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) and the Yunlin County Government to provide students from a remote township with the resources to grow and sell champignon mushrooms.^[16][17]

Chang's disaster relief efforts include the year 2012, when she led TSMC in establishing a new tea plantation in the mountains of central Taiwan to help the indigenous people of Alishan rebuild the region following Typhoon Morakot in 2009.^[18] In 2014, Chang participated in a relief effort organized by TSMC in response to the Kaohsiung gas explosions. In 2018, she visited Hualien County following a 6.0 magnitude earthquake and coordinated a company initiative that brought approximately 700 TSMC employees to the region as part of a tourism support campaign. Additional visits were later organized to further assist in local recovery efforts. In April of 2021, Chang initiated a donation of 1,200 uniforms to firefighters who responded to the Taroko train derailment as part of an allocation by TSMC to help improve firefighters' equipment across the country.^[3]

Chang also organized a COVID-19 relief campaign through TSMC in 2021, which included support for hospitals in India^[19] and contactless testing stations throughout Taiwan.^[20] Later that year, TSMC jointly donated 15 million doses of the BNT vaccines to Taiwan with Foxconn, the Yongling Foundation, and the Tzu Chi Foundation, with Sophie Chang representing the company upon the arrival of the first 930,000 doses.^[21][22]

That same year, Chang collaborated with Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che, Taiyu Group Chairman Wu Yigui, and National Cheng Kung University President Su Huizhen to establish three solar power stations for the Ruifu Education Centre in Tainan. As part of a "green energy for public welfare" model, she also worked on installing power-saving LED lights in 32 schools in the rural township around Tainan to help reduce electricity costs for schools and support sustainability initiatives.^{[23][24][25][26]}

Chang is also a public speaker and delivered a speech at the 2020 International Women's Day Forum.^[27] In 2022, Chang was invited to join Caixin's ESG forum to discuss public welfare.^[28]

Chang began her artistic career using traditional ink before transitioning to oil painting in 2019. In 2020, she held her first solo exhibition, Boundless Love, at the Tainan Art Museum, ^[29] which showcased fifteen of her works.

Her art has also been incorporated into charitable collaborations. In 2021, her designs were included in Shiatzy Chen’s Spring 2022 fashion line,^[30] with proceeds benefiting philanthropic causes. In 2022, she participated in an art initiative supporting refugee relief efforts.^[31]

In addition to her visual art, Chang is the author of several published works, including Guide the Way, My Growth, and Progress on the Easel.

Chang was named one of the 50 most influential Asian philanthropists by Tatler Hong Kong in 2018^[2] and won the 14th Compassion Award with five others in 2019.^[32]

In 2019, Tatler Asia listed Chang as one of the Top 5 Taiwanese Philanthropists changing the world.^[33]

In 2021, Chang was awarded the Cultural Association Medal by the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture.^[34][35]

Sophie Chang is married to TSMC founder, Morris Chang, and has one stepdaughter.^[36][37][38]

Chang and her husband, Morris Chang, have two daughters.^[39]