On Oct. 31 the first year of TedxTKU took place. “Even when I was standing on the stage I couldn’t believe that we actually pulled off a TEDxTKU assembly.” Said Curator and second-year student of the Department of English, Zi-heng Hong. He expressed, “I simply wanted everyone to have a chance to come in contact with and understand TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design).” He added without hesitation. He stated he believes that good things should be shared and that now many universities are beginning to hold TED assemblies. “I wanted TKU to stand out among them.” Zi-heng finished.

At the end of February, Zi-heng Hong invited his classmates of the Department of English to apply for the TEDxTKU license. That’s when the curator’s group began to take shape. The process was a gruesome number of complex applications, procedures and interviews. Zi-heng laughed as he talked about the interview, “It suddenly became as if English was our native language. We had to really train our ears and tongues to keep up with what was going on so that we could present our request in such a limited time frame. ” In the end they were successful and got license for TEDxTKU under the title “Different.”

Our direction was to emphasize the needs of the students and the areas of knowledge they were interested in.” Zi-heng explained. He also knew that because Tamsui is located in such a high and isolated position, it presented possible challenges for the speakers. Yet all of the challenges from location and self-confidence were overcome as they put together TKU’s first ever TED assembly, which will be a yearly event showcasing knowledge from great minds all over. (Article Written by Ling-tian Fan)