A 14-member delegation from the China Friendship Association of Cultural Circles (CFACC) visited TNUA on September 3 to discuss the possibility of exchanges between the two sides.
The delegation from China, headed by the association’s honorary chairman Cai Wu, received a warm welcome from TNUA President Prof. Ju, Tzong-Ching, and other school officials.
Prof. Ju said with the frequency of cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait rising in recent years, TNUA has established sister ties with several arts institution in China, such as Beijing Film Academy and Shanghai Theatre Academy, and has worked closely with them in various performances and academic affairs.
He showed the guests around the TNUA campus and its facilities, including the Concert Hall, the exhibition rooms of the Center for Art and Technology and the KD Arts Gallery Store.
Mr. Cai was impressed by the beauty of the campus, the state-of-the-art facilities and various pieces of unique works of art by TNUA students and teachers. The guest of honor said TNUA is a university filled with the ambience of art, and he hopes both sides can increase their exchange activities in the future to enable mutual understanding and learning.
He noted that Chinese culture is rich, but apart from preserving its essence, efforts should also be made to get it grow in line with the times. It is an inevitable trend that arts, technology and others have to be enlisted to further enrich Chinese culture, and the creative works being showcased at TNUA’s center for Art and Techno-logy is an excellent example of such a trend, said Mr. Cai, who is also the incumbent culture minister of China.
Arts and cultural activities in both Taiwan and China have been vibrant, and many students are enrolling in arts schools. In Taiwan, the overall university admission rate is high at over 90%, but it is extremely difficult to get into TNUA, which admits only 8% of the applicants. It is also highly competitive to enroll in China’s famous arts institutions.
They concluded that it should be the common goal of arts educators to seize this opportunity to let arts take root and grow.