Led by Computer Science and Information Engineering Associate Professor Hui-huang Hsu, China Studies master sophomore Wen-zheng Cheng with 8 other students participated in the 8th Winter Camp by Jilin University which is one of TKU’s sister universities from Dec. 19 to 26. More than 200 teachers and students from a dozen universities such as Taiwan University, Chengchi University and Feng Chia University took part and exchanged experiences at the Camp.

The lively activities included lectures on the Northeast culture and the history at Jilin University, visits to Changchun City and Harbin City, skiing, skating and ice sculpture. Before they went there, Prof. Hsu and the 9 students had discussed performances for the evening party at the Camp during their dinner meetings and rehearsed them a few times. Wen-zheng Cheng’s performance was a kind of song-and-dance drama made up with edited extracts of various songs. Compared with the traditional folk dances by the Mainland students, ours were more lively and creative.

In exchanges with the Mainland students, Wen-zheng Cheng discovered that their life styles were more systematically patterned as they went to bed early and got up to study early while Taiwanese students’ life styles were various, and their studies were multi-dimensional. Speaking of the Camp life, he said that the visit to the Manchu Imperial Palace was really interesting as they saw many historical relics of the last emperor Puyi. It was very fresh and exciting for them to visit the Northeast Tiger Forest Garden and see tigers running and jumping in front of them. In addition, skating on the frozen reservoir left a deep impression on them. “I felt down flat on the ice with my face down in my first try!” Wen-zheng said. But it was really a unique experience to dig a hole into the thick ice to catch fish not far from the fish market. ( ~Dean X. Wang )