Each bend in the century-long river has not only created waves of stories, but also propelled the long history of NTNU. Located on both sides of Heping East Road, NTNU's main campuses have grown from the rice paddies of Koteicho a hundred years ago to the busy intersection of today's bustling Guting area. Their many demolitions and renovations have woven a constantly changing landscape. Whether it is the red bricks and tiles from the Japanese colonial era or the classical archways retained after revamping the old library, these are all traces of history left on this land. Looking at the old maps, artifacts, and photos, do you also feel transported back to the starting point of this journey that began a century ago?
From the campus site plans, images, and artifacts spanning from the early days to the modern era, you can observe the changes in campus buildings over the century. Faculty and students often remember NTNU primarily the way it was during their schooling or employment, making for a wide and diverse range of perceptions that is quite interesting to explore.
In the 1920s, the Governor-General of Taiwan, Baron Den Kenjiro, implemented various reforms, including the second Taiwan Education Ordinance. After its announcement in 1922, it brought Taiwan's academic structure to be more in line with that of mainland Japan, making it more comprehensive and systematic. In the same year, Japan established the Higher School under the Government-General of Taiwan in accordance with the Higher Education Ordinance. In 1927, it was renamed Taihoku Higher School Under the Government-General of Taiwan (Taihoku Higher School for short), which offered a four-year regular curriculum and a three-year advanced curriculum and was one of the 38 elite higher schools in Japan at that time, as well as the only one in Taiwan. During the Japanese colonial period, there were more than 2,000 graduates, of which about a quarter were Taiwanese.
The old higher school system was a part of tertiary education, which differed vastly from the new high school system in Japan. The goal was to train the best students to attend schools such as the Imperial University.
Initially, the Higher School Under the Government-General of Taiwan borrowed part of the premises of Taipei First Middle School (now Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School) for teaching until 1926, when the new school premises were completed and the school was moved to Koteicho District (now Guting). Such site is now the location of NTNU's Heping Campus. A map of the campus layout at that time shows the similarities with the current campus. The representative buildings of NTNU today, such as the Administration Building (formerly the Main Building), the General Building (formerly the General Classroom), the Assembly Hall (formerly the Lecture Hall), and the Wenhui Hall (formerly the Student Control Center), have survived from the Taihoku Higher School era.
The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937 gradually affected the daily operations of the school until the end of the Pacific War, when the teachers and students of Taihoku Higher School were assigned to the army to work on fortifications against the landing of American troops.
After the unconditional surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945, the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office originally planned to establish a school for literature and history, but later changed it to the preparatory site of the Taiwan Provincial College of Liberal Arts. Since the Taihoku Higher School was qualified to offer college preparatory courses with its well-equipped campus, equipment, and library, it was selected as the preparatory site. However, Chou Yu-Tung, who was appointed to be the principal of the school, was delayed in taking up his post, and there was an urgent need for the training of a large number of secondary education teachers, so it was changed to the preparatory site of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College. President Liu Chen once said: "The predecessor of the Teachers College was the Taihoku Higher School under the Japanese colonial era." After the restructuring of the Taihoku Higher School in December 1945, its students were taken on by the Taiwan Provincial Taipei High School (Taipei High School for short). Taipei High School ceased operation after the last group of students graduated in 1949.
Teacher training was crucial to national education and influenced national development. To fill the shortage of secondary education teachers due to the repatriation of a large number of Japanese teachers and to contribute to the reconstruction of Taiwan's education and culture after the end of World War II, the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office planned the establishment of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College, the first educational institution dedicated to training secondary school teachers in Taiwan, on the campus of Taihoku Higher School.
Taiwan Provincial Teachers College officially opened on June 5, 1946. It operated on the premises of Taipei High School, with the president and faculty members holding concurrent positions at both the Teachers College and Taipei High School. In 1949, when Taipei High School ceased operation, Taiwan Provincial Teachers College took over all the school buildings, school grounds, equipment, and property, as well as some of the teaching staff. The inventory of property handed over to the college contained records, books, equipment, and instruments of various disciplines, which greatly compensated for the lack of teaching resources after the war.
In 1951, the library campus and the land around Shida Road were allocated to Taiwan Provincial Teachers College for the construction of new school buildings. A number of renowned scholars were also invited to teach in various departments, thus enriching the faculty. Between 1946 and 1955, Taiwan Provincial Teachers College trained nearly 300 secondary school teachers each year for assignment to secondary schools throughout Taiwan, not only alleviating the post-war teacher shortage problem, but also laying the foundation for nationwide secondary education.
At the beginning of the Cold War, the Department of Home Economics Education and the Department of Industrial Education were established at Taiwan Provincial Teachers College with the support of the government and U.S. aid. At the same time, the college also cooperated with the government's education policy for overseas Chinese by offering Overseas Chinese Specialized Teaching Courses and accepting overseas Chinese students for further study.
In 1955, under the policy of "teacher education first, teacher training first", Taiwan Provincial Teachers College was transformed into the Taiwan Provincial Normal University, with the dual responsibility of teacher training and higher education. Subsequently, the university was ordered to establish the Night School Learning Program (the predecessor of the present School of Continuing Education) to enhance the training and counseling of in-service secondary school teachers. In addition, in response to the needs of the secondary education sector, the university sequentially added or subdivided departments on a college basis to deepen the specialization of students in individual fields and to improve the literacy of teachers.
During the 1960s and 1970s, with Taiwan's economy booming, the government invested resources in education at all levels in order to raise the standards of national education and meet the needs of national development. The university's staffing and funding were both increased and the university flourished.
In 1967, in conjunction with the upgrade of Taipei City into a special municipality directly under the Central Government, the university was transformed into the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). In the same year, the government allocated the grounds of today's Gongguan Campus (formerly the Silk Farming Improvement Station of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry of Taiwan Province) to NTNU. Furthermore, in 1970, NTNU received a portion of the educational loan that the Ministry of Education obtained from the World Bank. The funds were used for the construction of the College of Science building, the purchase of laboratory equipment, the construction of additional workshops, and the renovation of campus.
In conjunction with the implementation of the nine-year compulsory education in 1968 and the Teacher Education Law in 1979, NTNU established various departments, graduate institutes, and educational research centers to raise the quality of teaching and research, as well as to train modern technical personnel necessary for industries and to create a quality workforce for society.
In the mid-1980s, NTNU made a major effort to renovate the campus space. During the same period, the wave of democratization after the lifting of martial law also hit campus, causing significant changes in the landscape and architecture of the university and the campus atmosphere.
In 1994, the Teacher Education Law was amended to become the Teacher Education Act and the Ministry of Education gradually changed its teacher training policy to allow universities to apply to establish education departments and education programs to train elementary and secondary school teachers.
In the face of the increasing diversification of teacher training sources, NTNU has not only enforced our strengths in teacher training, but also significantly adjusted our departmental structure, integrated institution-wide resources, and planned key areas of academic research to develop into a full-rounded university equipped with an international perspective. Today, NTNU has 9 colleges and 63 departments, enabling students to pursue a wide variety of career paths after graduation.
All in all, although teacher training is no longer the only educational goal of NTNU, the self-expectations and demands of NTNU alumni have always upheld the philosophy of "striving for the best", rising to the challenges of the times with grace.
The university emblem, university song, and university motto symbolize the pioneering spirit, historical tradition, and cumulative culture of a university. The NTNU university emblem, university song, and university motto of each era not only speak to the changes that occurred across the century, but also bear witness to the responsibilities and self-expectations of NTNU from different periods.
Over the past century, the university emblem has changed from an upright triangle to an inverted triangle and to a circle today. These different shapes and symbols of the university emblem represent the institution's spirit during different eras.
The emblem of Taihoku Higher School, which contains natural elements such as the broad, full-bodied banana leaf and long, elegant coconut leaves, was created by the famous painter Shiotsuki Toho, who was a teacher of painting at Taihoku Higher School. In addition to presenting Taiwan's local imagery from the eyes of the Japanese, it also reveals the aspiration to nurture young students that pursue knowledge freely.
The inverted triangular emblems of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College and Taiwan Provincial Normal University were designed according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education at the time. The three corners were meant to emphasize "moral, intellectual, and physical education".
During the National Taiwan Normal University era, Professor Su Mao-Sheng, an alumnus of the Department of Art (now the Department of Fine Arts), designed a new ring-shaped emblem for his alma mater, which has been used ever since. The NTNU university emblem incorporates the distinctive elements of the teacher training period into six muduo (Chinese ancient bells with a wooden clapper), symbolizing awakening through education. The bells are arranged in a circle, representing the concerted effort to "strive for the best" in education. In the center of the design are the characters "師大" (NTNU) in addition to the character "台" (Tai) in yellow, the abbreviation of "National Taiwan Normal University". The entire composition displays a glorious, blooming flower, a reflection of the university's endeavor to blend the classical with the modern.
In 1952, President Liu Chen set the university's motto "Sincerity, Integrity, Diligence, and Simplicity" based on the principles of personal cultivation and development. "Sincerity" means no hypocrisy, no deceit, consistency in everything, and tenacity in choosing the good; "Integrity" means no partiality, no wrongdoing, openness and honesty in everything, and robust righteousness; "Diligence" means no laziness, no conformity, and constant striving for betterment and perseverance in everything; and "Simplicity" means no extravagance, no ostentatiousness, modesty, and humility in everything.
President Liu Chen hoped to instill the concepts of "Sincerity, Integrity, Diligence, and Simplicity" in the minds of NTNU students through the environment, so the buildings of the College of Liberal Arts were named with these words.
There was more than one school song in the era of Taihoku Higher School, but the first school song, Shizitou Mountain, was most often sung by the students and alumni at the time. In addition to depicting the classic scenes of school life through his lyrics, Principal Misawa Tadasu—who established the free and autonomous spirit of the Taihoku Higher School—also showed the importance he attached to the cultivation of academic knowledge and freedom in the text.
The school song of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College was written by President Lee Chi-Ku in 1948. Two passages in the lyrics of the song, "Education is the foundation of the nation and teachers are especially important" and "Teachers are responsible for the greatness of students after graduation", illustrate how the training of teachers for secondary education was the primary mission of the institution. When it was transformed into Taiwan Provincial Normal University, the lyrics of the song were slightly modified from "departments are divided into specialties" to "colleges are divided into departments" in response to the creation of new colleges and departments.
Now that NTNU has transformed into a comprehensive university, the development scope has gone beyond what is described in the school song. In consideration of the sentiments of alumni from all eras, the University Song Project Team was established in May 2019 to deliberate on revisions to the school song under the premise of writing new lyrics set to the same melody. A "meeting of experts and scholars to create the lyrics of the new version of the university song" was held to carry out professional writing and revision work.
After more than two years of administrative procedures and consultation, the new version of the university song lyrics was approved by the University Affairs Meeting on November 24, 2021. The 1948 version of the school song lyrics is still preserved and sung, but the new version incorporates a century of historical spatial-temporal changes and places a greater emphasis on NTNU's current vision.
This layout of Taihoku Higher School is from the Overview of Taihoku Higher School Under the Government-General of Taiwan published in 1934. The image shows the new school buildings built during the tenure of Misawa Tadasu, the second principal of Taihoku Higher School (1925-1929): general classrooms, student lounge, science and chemistry classrooms, the main building, gymnasium, lecture hall, dormitories, and the swimming pool.
The inventory of property lists the items handed over to Taipei High School by Taihoku Higher School. After the establishment of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College, the college shared its premises with Taipei High School and also used all the facilities of Taipei High School, including 20 offices (including office equipment), 25 classrooms, 20 laboratories (including instruments and specimens), one swimming pool, 8 library rooms, 32,451 books, 3 clinics, 252 student dormitories, and 176 faculty housing units.
In the 1950s, NTNU progressively received technical and financial assistance from the U.S. International Cooperation Administration (ICA), and not only trained teachers for secondary school subjects, but also cooperated with the U.S. to promote technical and vocational education and job-oriented education for housewives. This wooden chair originally belonged to the Department of Science and Chemistry of Taiwan Provincial Normal University, with "Sino-American Cooperation" written on the property label at the underside of the chair.
In 1955, it was approved for Taiwan Provincial Teachers College to be restructured into Taiwan Provincial Normal University, and President Liu Chen of the college was reappointed as the president of the university. The founding ceremony of Taiwan Provincial Normal University was held in the auditorium on the anniversary of the university, with Vice President Chen Cheng; Yen Chia-Kan, Chairman of Taiwan Provincial Government; and Chang Chi-Yun, Minister of Education, as the distinguished guests.
In 1955, the first "Audiovisual Library" (later renamed "Audiovisual Education Library") was established in Taiwan to promote audiovisual education. The 1958 "Overview in English" included scenes of the students from the Department of Industrial Education making rattan and bamboo products in workshops, students from the Department of Home Economics practicing sewing, and teachers and students during audiovisual education courses.
Founded in 1950, the NTNU Wind Ensemble was comprised of students from the Department of Music and musicians from other departments, and it toured throughout Taiwan during the winter and summer vacations. This felt flag, which combines the NTNU emblem and the shapes of wind instruments, was made to commemorate the summer concert tour around the island in 1968.
The bronze statue of Principal Misawa Tadasu of Taihoku Higher School was originally located at the site of the university motto stone monument, next to today 's auditorium. After World War II, the statue was lost and the school decided to formally change the base of the statue into a monument of the university motto in 1952, when the motto was established. The inscription on the monument was a gift from the Class of 1952 to the school. In 1985, this muduo (ancient Chinese bell with wooden clapper) was added to the top of the monument.
The school song shellac record released by Taihoku Higher School in 1929 was produced by the Taiwan branch of Columbia Records (Japan). It contains the first school song Shizitou Mountain and the second school song Island of the South, which were played and recorded by the school's music department. The NTNU Libraries have commissioned NTNU's Digital Archive Center for Music to assist in transferring the record to CD.
In 1986, the NTNU Alumni Association in the Philippines cast a bronze plaque inscribed with the university song lyrics (1948 version) and the university emblem from the Taiwan Provincial Normal University era to gift as a keepsake to their alma mater.
