NTHU LIBRARY.

A boon to art and literature

Ever since NTHU was established, graduating classes and alumni have been making commemorative gifts to their alma mater, mostly facilities, but occasionally in the form of a work of art. For example, during the 1970s alumni commissioned the prominent sculptor Yuyu Yang to produce a number of sculptures, including Sublimation and Phoenix.

Following Shen's lead, during the past ten years alumni, senior faculty, and corporate sponsors have been making more donations in the form of public art and landscaping. For instance, in 2011 alumnus Hong-liang Hsieh (Physics, 1973) donated a replica of Rodin's sculpture The Thinker (Le Penseur) from his personal collection, which is now one of NTHU's most valuable assets; in 2015 Jin-bu Tsai (Power and Mechanical Engineering, 1981) donated Wings of Change, located at the entrance of Engineering Building I; and in 2019 the Gigastorage Corporation donated the sculpture Dedication, in honor of its founder, Ji-ren Chen (Materials Science and Engineering, 1989), who died in 2014. At the unveiling of Dedication, NTHU president Hong Hocheng announced that major donations have also been pledged for additional projects of a similar nature, including a museum of literature funded by novelist Mo-jen Wang, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by NTHU, and his wife, An-yi Chou; a museum of modern history, with major funding provided by Fan-cheng Tseng, the vice chairman and cofounder of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and Professor Rur-bin Yang of the Department of Chinese Literature; a collection of items relating to the history of East Asia funded by Professor Rur-bin Yang and his wife, Professor Sheng-ping Fang, of the Center for General Education; and a plan to convert the Main Auditorium into a concert hall, with major funding provided by United Microelectronics Corporation. In 2019 it was also announced that a world-class art museum will soon be built on the south side of campus, with major funding provided by Hong-liang Hsieh.

Substantial support for establishing the museum of modern history has been received from the Tsinghua Entrepreneur Network and the Club 100, whose members purchased at auction a number of cultural relics from Rur-bin Yang's collection, and donated them to NTHU, at the same time raising nearly NT$1 million for building the museum.

It was during Shen's tenure as president that NTHU's strong reputation in science and engineering began to be augmented by achievements in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The success of his efforts were made apparent in 1997, when the poet Kwang-chung Yu—who once referred to NTHU as a cultural desert—visited the campus and praised its remarkable transformation. In recognition of Shen's many contributions to this transformation, it has been decided to rename the uprgraded Main Auditorium the Chun-shan Concert Hall.

With the long-term support of all segments of the Tsinghua community, NTHU has gradually become a veritable oasis of arts and culture. In addition to the planned museums of literature, history, and art, as a result of the merger with National Hsinchu University of Education (NHCUE), NTHU now has colleges of art and education on the south side of campus, near the works of public art Confrontation, Conversation and Leaf, which won the 2020 recipient of the Ministry of Culture's Public Art Award.

The history of Tsinghua University can be divided into three phases. The first phase began in 1911 with the establishment of Tsinghua College in Beijing, and can be called “Tsinghua 1.0.” During this phase the emphasis was on modernizing China and reducing the culture gap between China and the West. During the second phase, “Tsinghua 2.0,” which began in the 1960s, the two Tsinghuas—one in Beijing and one in Taiwan—developed separately, first emphasizing science and engineering, and later adding departments in other fields. During the third phase, “Tsinghua 3.0,” the emphasis has shifted to educational diversity and interdisciplinary studies and research, with a people-centered institutional culture aimed at turning out graduates who are of noble character and equally at home in both the East and the West. All in all, these developments over the past ten years can be seen as marking the advent of what NTHU president Hong Hocheng sees as a cultural renaissance at NTHU.

When you step outside, stretch out your hand and take in a deep breath, and you'll notice a steady wind carrying the fragrance of art and culture across the NTHU campus. It originated from the Go Garden, the last behest and generous bequest of former NTHU president Chun-shan Shen—a true renaissance man. Now it's up to us to work together to keep that balmy breeze blowing well into the future.