Reitaku University, a sister university of TKU from Japan, has established a “Tamkan-Reitaku Alumni Association” with TKU last Friday, March 11, turning a new page for a deeper cooperation between these two universities. This inauguration was launched when the dean of Reitaku’s College of Economics, Osamu Nariai, accompanied by Kazunobu Horiuchi, its director of the Office of International Exchanges and four other senior faculty members, arrived last Wednesday, March 9th, for a friendly visit.

The tie between Reitaku and TKU has sustained more than 20 year with the first exchange agreement signed in 1982. During this period, these two universities have cooperated on numerous interesting projects. In early days, TKU set up a special class just for the exchange students from Reitaku and in 1988, Reitaku financially supported the building of a dormitory, Reitaku International House, for their students on a lot provided by TKU. Furthermore, the language exchange programs that were launched in 1993 have seen through at least thousands of exchange students traveling back and forth studying Japanese and Chinese languages as well as cultures. Such a productive common history shared by both universities gave rise to the idea of establishing a co-alumni association and was thus realized last Friday. The signing ceremony was hosted in the Ching Sheng International Conference Hall, promising better days are yet to come.

Apart from the alumni association, Reitaku’s dignitaries also met with the faculty and students of the Institutes of Japanese Studies and American Studies as well as the Department of Economics in a discussion forum. After that, they were received by and dined with Dr. Feng Chao-kang, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and deans and chairs of related colleges and departments to discuss their English multi-media courses and the possibility of cooperating with TKU in this matter. Two further dignitaries, Nakayama Osamu, the Dean of Reitaku’s College of Foreign Language (CRL), and Mitsuma Masamichi, the chair of its Chinese Department, arrived one day later to talk with Sung Mei Hua, the Dean of TKU’s CFL and Yang Ming-tu, the Chair of TKU’s English Department about possible exchange programs. Chair Masamichi also spoke with their students who are presently in TKU and their teachers here in a separate meeting.

Their trip was not an entirely all-round business affair. They took some time off to visit Dr. Flora Chang and some scenic spots in and around Tamsui, which include the Fisherman’s Wharf and the Palace Museum. They left TKU on Saturday, March 12th. (Ying-hsueh Hu)