Invited by College of Foreign Languages and Literatures (CFLL), Dr. Lee Ou-fan, Academician of Academia Sinica, Taiwan, delivered a speech “The Aesthetics of Modernism: Literature and Arts” at Chueh-sheng International Conference Hall on May 4 to discuss the role of music in literary works. There were so many people attending the speech that the large hall was packed with audience. Some latecomers even had to sit beside the windows to listen.

In the speech, Dr. Lee introduced Death in Venice, a novel by the German writer Thomas Mann, and then analysed the songs and how they displayed the characters’ mood in the opera adapted from the novel. Dr. Sung Mei-hua, Dean of CFLL, attended the speech and said, “Humanities are so profound that they embrace all kinds of knowledge.” Dr. Sung encouraged students of CFLL that apart from improving the practical language skills, they also need to increase the awareness of humanities to become well-educated people. ( ~Shu-chun Yen )