The end of September in Tamsui is filled with poetry. Walking into the Tamsui MRT station, poetry lines are displayed everywhere on signboards and red brick walls, making visitors feel as if they are in a kingdom of poetry. These poems are authored by 45 poets from 12 countries, who were invited by the Tamsui Cultural Foundation. On the 21st, they gathered in Tamsui, where the autumn breeze rustled, to participate in the 2023 Tamsui Formosa International Poetry Festival. This event spans 7 days and includes local exploration, landscape poetry reading and writing, and cross-school intellectual exchange activities.

The opening concert, held at our university on the morning of the 22nd, commenced with the song "茨後一欉茄苳" (A Bunch of Autumn Maple Trees Behind the Thatched Cottage) based on the poem by the Taiwan National Award for Arts recipient Kuei-Shien Lee, performed by educator and poet Shou-Zheng Du, followed by both local and international poets gathering at the Carrie Chang Music Hall. Italian poet and singer Angelo Torchia sang songs dedicated to Taiwan, and Kenyan traditional musician Wifred Ombiro Mose brought traditional instrument performances that ignited singing and dancing. The Tamkang University Faculty and Staff Choir was also invited to perform. Chairman Hui-Ming Hsu of the Tamsui Cultural Foundation delivered a speech in Taiwanese, welcoming the poets back to Tamsui, the Land of Poetry, after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The founder of the event, Kuei-Shien Lee, expressed once again his hope that through the Poetry Festival and his personal collection of documents, Tamkang University would become a prominent center for world poetry research. Several representatives from our university participated in the event, including Vice President for Academic Affairs Hui-Huang Hsu, Vice President for International Affairs Hsiao-Chuan Chen, Dean of the College of Foreign Languages Wan-Bau Wu, Dean of the College of Business and Management Li-Ren Yang, Dean of Library Sheue-Fang Song, and many faculty and students.