Tamkang University began as an English College. The English College later evolved into what is now known as the TKU Department of English. Therefore, Tamkang’s 60th anniversary is also the English Department’s 60th anniversary. To celebrate, the Department of English will be holding a day of fun and entertainment, a warm up for the TKU Diamond Jubilee.
In lead up to the event, the Department of English has invited around 600 department alumni to share in this historical occasion. The Director of the Department of English, Huang Yi-min, noted that “the event will not only be a celebration of the department’s 60 years of academic excellence, but also a forum from which to strengthen faculty and alumni relations”.
Among the alumni scheduled to take part are the Chairman of Cathay United Bank, Gregory Wang; the Founder of the Kojen English School franchise, Kenneth Hou; the Founder of the Joy English School franchise, Peggy Huang; the Central Manager of Caves Bookstore, Deng Yun-yi; and the Dean of the School of Dance at the National University of the Arts, Assoc. Prof. Ping Heng.
As part of the entertainment, the English Department have organized special Tai Chi and ballroom dancing performances; while the Department of English Association has produced a tributary music clip, which blends touching music with past and present photographs of Tamsui Campus, depicting changes to the campus over the last 60 years. The Director of the Department of English Association, Lin Yan-jia, said that “by showing the guests picture after picture of the old campus, we hope to allow alumni to relive their university days, and in doing so, touch their hearts”. She also said that more pictures she flicked through, and the more history she unturned and unraveled, the more she found out about Tamkang’s venerable heritage, and the prouder she began to feel about being a Tamkangian. The final fixture in the scheduled program is a lively dance number, synchronized with upbeat music, to provide an ideal conclusion to a fun-filled evening.
