Dr. Owen Aldridge, former Director of Graduate Institute of Comparative Literature, Illinois University, USA, gave a lecture at Ching-sheng International Conference Hall last Wednesday at the invitation of Department of English, Tamkang University (TKU).

TKU Founder Dr. Clement C. P. Chang and Dr. Owen Aldridge were old acquaintance. He attended a seminar on comparative literature sponsored by TKU 30 years ago. Coincidently, Dr. Aldridge celebrated his birthday during his stay at TKU and TKU founder presented him a “long-lived” plate as a token to congratulate his birthday. More than 100 styles changing of the Chinese character “Hsou”(longevity) were written in the plate with the Chinese calligraphic arts to symbolize longevity. Dr. Chang and Dr. Aldridge renewed their friendship.

Dr. Aldridge gave a lecture on “Distinguishing the Western Religion from Reading Novels” at Ching-sheng International Conference Hall last Wednesday. He analyzed the different creed among Catholics, Protestantism, and Judaism and their demonstration in literature. Dr. Aldridge also exchanged views on religion, literature and teaching objectives with professors of TKU. He cited work of Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hauthorne as an example.