The 53rd anniversary celebration ceremony was held at the Student Activity Center on Nov. 8, and contrary to the formal and austere atmosphere of previous years, this year’s ceremony was conducted in a very relaxed manner by hosting a tea party and a photography exhibition immediately after some usual awards ceremony, enticing interactions among guests, faculty members and students. Founder Dr. Clement C.P. Chang commented on the merit of such a convivial way of celebration in his opening speech and said, “any changes entail improvement and innovation.”
The awards ceremony began with Founder Chang awarding the winners of this year’s “Tamkang Golden-eagle Award” to six alumni, Yang Zheng-ming, Rao Shi-yong, Liu Fang-nan, Yang Zhi-jian, Chen Zhao-shen and Ye Qi-dong. All except Chen Zhao-shen came to receive the award personally. Rao Shi-yong and Yang Shi-jian even flew all the way from their overseas place of residence to accept this honor amid the applause of the faculty and students in the audience. Then, there was the award of the ISO14001 certificate given by the Director, Oscar Pao, of SGS Taiwan to TKU, which was accepted by President Chang Horng-jinh on behalf of the university. Finally, there were Awards of Appreciation for the fund-raisers. Hong Hong-hsiang, Chen Ya-hong and Lin kun-zhung, members of Board of Trustees also attended the ceremony.
The music of the ceremony was performed by the TKU Chinese Music Club, and two members of Tamkang Chorus sang the National Anthem and TKU’s anthem accompanied by the soft, silky Chinese music which added another dimension to the songs. There was also music performed by the String Instruments Music Club at the tea party and photography exhibition. It provided a relaxing backdrop for the visitors to appreciate the photographs taken by TKU faculty and students.
In the ceremony, President Chang welcomed the alumni to return to TKU so they could witness the positive results invested by the university. The serene garden-style campus and lively faculty and students are the results of the efforts put in by all the previous TKU presidents. The efforts they have invested over the years have put TKU in a leading academic position among private universities.
TKU was the first private institute for higher education when it was founded 53 years ago, as pointed out by the Founder Chang. Now, there are more than 150 universities in Taiwan. He said light-heartedly that it would be hard not to be admitted by a university. He reminisced on the early days of TKU, when there were only rice fields on the Five Tiger Hill. Those big trees we see today on campus were all planted by the first generation of faculty and students. Today these trees provided the most needed shade for everyone to enjoy. He urged all alumni to return to the campus with their second or third generation of offspring to appreciate the beautiful and changeable scenery of the campus in the various seasons. These changes were also remembered vividly by the first year graduate, Chang Bo-hsin, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Chang Hwa Commercial Bank. He recalled that as he was in the middle of class in a wooden hut on campus one day, his teacher wanted him and other fellow students to walk up to Five Tiger Hill. It turned out that they were all going to the founding ceremony of the Tamkang Junior College of English. In those days, there were weeds everywhere covering a vast stretch of yellow soil on campus, a stark contrast to the green and prosperous scenery we are seeing today, he pointed out.
Lee Hsian-zong, the president of TKU Alumni Association, Taiwan, who is also a member of the Legislative Yuan reported in his speech that there are 14 TKU alumni among 225 members of Legislative Yuan, which form a formidable power in the Yuan. They established a Legislative Yuan TKU Alumni Association, which was the first organization of this nature in councils and parliaments. They are considering uniting TKU World Alumni Association to set up a new organization in 2005 to keep pace with the future development of TKU in order to better support all projects of the university.
Hou Deng-jian, the president of the World Alumni Association, on the other hand, with his background in running a cram school of English, was deeply impressed by the University’s determination to implement the ‘Junior Abroad Program’ in the past nine years. He believed that Tamkang surpassed the other 153 universities in this regard.
