Tunghai University

5/7/11 – 6:00 pm (From Taipei)

Also in Taichung was our final university visit. Tunghai has a large beautiful campus with about 17,000 students. My professor, Dr. Peng, attended Tanghai for his undergraduate degree. One of the professors, who has lived in Taiwan for the past 20-some years but is originally from New Jersey, gave a presentation on the history of Taiwan and its current status. The presentation was well done and clarified some confusing topics. Why is there so much Japanese influence in Taiwan? That one’s easy; Taiwan became a Japanese colony for 50 years, between 1895 and 1945, after China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. Is Taiwan its own country or is it part of China? Taiwan has its own leadership, currency, and flag, but Taiwan is officially known as Taiwan ROC (Republic of China). Are the people Taiwanese or Chinese? Those ones are much more difficult to explain. There is a lot of ambiguity with those subjects. The professor also discussed the rest of the world’s image of Taiwan. Many do not know anything about Taiwan and many have an inaccurate perception of the country.

In the background is a church
designed by the famous Chinese-American
architect I.M. Pei.
Yes, there is a church on campus.

Before hitting the road back to Taipei, we toured the Central Taiwan Science Park. It is an industrial park that is owned by the government. Many high tech companies lease the land from the government in this park, including Dow. The six major industries in the park are Integrated Circuits, Precision Machinery, Computers and Peripherals, Biotechnology, Optoelectronics, and Solar Energy. The companies in the park are responsible for some very advanced technology and products. Many people think Taiwan consists of only OEMs and assembly plants. The Science Park is evidence that Taiwan is very strong in R&D (Research and Development). There are several other parks like this in other areas of Taiwan.