Lanyang Campus has recently invited two well-known artists, who are both I-lan natives, to be the artists in residence. They are Chou Chen, a professional painter, and Professor Lin Miao-jian. Their main task is to bring art and beauty to the campus with their Chinese watercolor paintings and calligraphy. Some of their works, such as those of Chou Chen, can be seen on the walls of various floors in the campus’ main building, Clement Chang Building Complex.

Chou Chen graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), specializing in Chinese seal carving, Chinese watercolor and poetry. He has won several eminent awards, including an honorary Doctoral degree from an English university. His recent exhibition in Jian-Hsu Province, China, representing Tamkang, has won him high praise from experts in China, and the curator of the museum, where his works were on show, considers him “having inherited the true spirit of Chinese paintings.” Consequently, Chou has become their artist under special contract. He also teaches at the NTNU presently.

Professor Lin is in fact a student of Chou Chen. He is also an alumnus of NTNU, whose training over there has ensured his paintings to be the prized possessions of some of the key places such as the National Library as well as SunYat-sen Memorial Hall in Taiwan. His works, together with those of Chou’s can be seen all over Lanyang Campus. Professor Lin also enjoys writing and has published several essays on life in Lanyang in various places.

Their presence in Lanyang was orchestrated by Dr. Clement Chang, the Founder of TKU, who has been an avid supporter of arts, and would like to see Lanyand as a venue for various artistic expressions. Not only Chou’s and Lin’s paintings are on displays in Lanyang, so are those of other artists from Taiwan. One of the paintings on display, which is by Chou, depicts vividly the landscape of the campus overlooking a wide stretch of I-lan Plain, with the Kuei-Shan Island in the distance. This one is perhaps the most representative of all about what Lanyang stands for. (~ Ying-hsueh Hu )