News Release
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May 6, 2005
Boise State To Award Chinese Humanitarian Deng
Pufang Honorary Doctorate At 2005 Commencement
One of the world’s leading activists for the social and political rights of the disabled will be honored with an honorary doctorate by Boise State at the university’s spring 2005 Commencement ceremonies later this month.
Deng Pufang, founder and president of the China Disabled Persons Federation and founder of the China Welfare Fund for Disabled Persons, was the first Chinese citizen and the first disabled person to earn the United Nations Prize for Human Rights, which he received in 2003. Because of Deng’s organizations, which were established in the 1980s, an estimated 8.8 million disabled Chinese citizens have received rehabilitation services. He has been called a tireless advocate for humanitarianism causes that advocate for the rights of disabled people around the world.
Deng will be awarded BSU’s third honorary
doctorate when the members of the Class of ’05 receive their diplomas during
the May14 Commencement in Taco Bell Arena.
The son of the late China premier Deng
Xiaoping, Deng was the victim of his country’s brutal Cultural Revolution of
the 1960s and ’70s. When he was 18 he sustained injuries at the hands of
then-Communist leader Mao Zedong’s Red Guard that left him permanently
paralyzed from the waist down. Despite his disability, he graduated from
Beijing University in 1966 with a degree in technical physics.
In
the ensuing years Deng has worked worldwide on behalf of the disabled,
founding organizations and services in his native land as well as in India
and Africa.
In
addition to his U.N. Prize for Human Rights, Deng has received the Henry
Kessler Award for Rehabilitation International, the Asian and Pacific Award
of Disabled People’s International and similar honors.
Deng
also has ties to the state of Idaho. In 2002 he helped arrange a visit by
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and the Idaho Trade Commission to Beijing and met with
the governor and other officials during their trip. That same year he was
the guiding force behind a trip to the United States by China’s Orchestra of
the Handicapped, which performed in the Morrison Center during its stay in
Boise.
Deng,
61, will not be able to attend the May 14 Commencement ceremonies because of
health concerns. A representative will accept the honorary doctorate on his
behalf.
Boise State previously awarded honorary doctorates to Hollywood director and BSU alumnus Michael Hoffman and former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus.
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Contact: Jim Cook, Department of Music, 426-1773.
Media contact: Bob Evancho, University Relations, 426-1643
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Last reviewed on Thursday, December 22, 2005