Faced with the confrontation or tug of war between reality and ideals, NTNU teachers and students proactively chose to take action to resist tyranny or unjust situations. NTNU alumni of all eras have continuously engaged in dialogue with the world, carrying forward the spirit of truth seeking.
In September 1930, the students of Taihoku Higher School thought that the school was wrong to take severe disciplinary action against students without thoroughly investigating the facts, and therefore initiated a collective strike. This shows how Taihoku Higher School had a liberal school culture and students possessed the courage to pursue autonomy and speak out. In the early post-WWII period, the change of times, shifting academic structure, and ideological impact directly or indirectly led to the strike in Taihoku Higher School in 1946 and the April 6 Incident in 1949. Now, after decades of democratization, it is possible to reveal a more complete and multi-faceted view of the university's history through the gradual release of archival materials and historical artifacts.
In 1930, a star shortstop on the baseball team of Taihoku Higher School who was about to go to Japan was expelled from school for cheating on an exam, while another student who bought cigarettes under a pseudonym which was deemed as deceit by the shop was also expelled. The students believed that the school did not thoroughly investigate the facts and punished the students inappropriately. They made a petition to the school but were rejected. Coupled with their dissatisfaction with some teachers, they launched a class strike on September 10, holding a sit-in at the dormitories.
When the strike was in progress, various newspapers published the details of the incident and the students' statements. The Taiwan New People News pointed out that the students' strike was not unreasonable and demanded the principal to admit responsibility and resign; Showa News called on the school to consider how to educate talents instead of how to punish the students; Niitaka News took the side of the students and deplored the school for blaming the students without reviewing the situation; and Taiwan Daily News painted the students in an unfavorable light but appealed to the school to be lenient in its tone and comments. All of these reflect the importance that society placed on students' voices.
At the same time, the school also repeatedly persuaded students to end the strike and held meetings with student representatives, but to no avail. Finally, on the evening of September 10, a liberal-minded professor rushed to the dormitory before the police arrived and broke a window, shouting, "Go! Get out of here! Something big is happening!" The students ran out of the dormitory, gathered on the sportsground, sang the school song loudly, and disbanded.
The school staff was also pitted against each other because of the handling of the students and two of the liberal-minded professors were dismissed as a result. After the incident, the school announced a list of disciplinary actions, including 19 indefinite suspensions and 3 expulsions. But in actual fact, the school reinstated the suspended students shortly afterwards and the expelled students were issued graduation certificates after examination. In other words, the students who experienced disciplinary actions were not really punished.
After World War II, due to dissatisfaction with education issues, there were numerous student protests and clashes with the military and police. Under this atmosphere, the students of Taipei High School also petitioned the school administration and the authorities to address issues such as the reform of higher education, staff conduct, and the school's own existence and staged a mass strike on June 21, 1946.
More than 300 first and second year students of Taipei High School students on strike proposed that second year students be allowed to advance to the third year after passing the assessment test, retain the eligibility to go to university, and share the school premises with the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College.
On June 30, a group of petitioning students set up the Taipei High School Student Self-Governing Association and issued a letter in Japanese to the parents' association, Notice of the Emergency Parents' Association Meeting of Taipei High School, in order to get the parents involved. On July 1, representatives from the Education Department of the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office came to Taipei High School for a discussion and accepted the students request to hold an assessment for the school year. Those who passed would be allowed to advance. The students then ended the strike. Eventually, the first principal of Taipei High School, Chang Chin-Run, resigned and was replaced by the principal of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College who held both positions concurrently until 1949, when Taipei High School ceased operation.
At the beginning of the post-war period, Taiwan's society was generally looking forward to a new life with joy. However, the lack of resources, inflation, and the severe deterioration of social order led to widespread public discontent. Graduates of Taihoku Higher School, such as Ong Iok-Lim, Ong Iok-Tek, Chung Hao-Tung, Hsu Chiang, and Kuo Hsiu-Tsung, disappeared or were arrested, imprisoned, and executed because their ideologies were not accepted by authorities.
In the evening of March 20, 1949, students from Taiwan Provincial Teachers College and National Taiwan University (NTU) were arrested and beaten by the police for carrying passengers on bicycles, which led to discontent and petitions for the release of the detained students by the students of both institutions. On March 29, students from the two schools and the student self-governing associations of Taipei's secondary schools jointly held a gathering to unite the power of students. In the early morning of April 6, the Taiwan Garrison Command surrounded the First Male Dormitory of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College and arrested more than 300 students from the Teachers College and more than 20 students from NTU for "posting slogans, distributing leaflets, inciting people to cause disorder, disturbing public peace, and even damaging public buildings and detaining officers on official duty without permission".
After the arrests, Taiwan Provincial Teachers College temporarily suspended classes at the request of the Taiwan Provincial Government. On April 8, under the supervision of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the Committee for Rectifying the Conduct of Teachers College Students was established and students' eligibility was re-assessed through student re-registration and student screening. Although most of the arrested students were released in groups, as many as 36 students were expelled. Many of the students on the "black list" went into exile and many were subsequently arrested and shot or heavily sentenced.
Afterwards, Taiwan Provincial Teachers College strengthened its discipline and management and the school spirit gradually changed from liberal and open to conservative. The activities of student clubs were also greatly restricted. The ceasing of freedom of activities, the imposition of anti-Communist education on schools, heavy interference with academic freedom, and the loss of freedom of speech in society showed that this incident had a profound impact on Taiwan's education and academic development.
Starting in the 1990s, as Taiwan's society gradually opened up and moved towards liberalization and democratization, universities began to pay attention to the incidents that occurred on their campuses during the authoritarian era and launched investigations and research. NTNU also worked hard to democratize as a school. For example, the first election for university president was held in 1993, the Student Association was established in 1996, and the investigation of the April 6 Incident and the related remedial measures were launched in 1996.
The campus cultural assets preservation campaign initiated by faculty and students has successfully preserved old buildings and trees, and NTNU Youth—founded nearly 70 years ago—continues to serve as a bridge between students and the university. These reflective, passionate, and reconciliatory attempts have played a major role in moving NTNU and society forward together.
The presidents of public colleges and universities were all assigned by the government in the early days. In the 1990s, there was a call for university autonomy and professorial rule among the academic sector in order to promote democracy in schools and the development of universities. At the end of 1992, when the president's term of office was about to end, NTNU faculty and students launched a joint petition requesting that the new president be nominated and selected through a democratic process.
In March 1993, the Presidential Nomination Committee was officially launched, four candidates were finally selected, and an open forum was held. Faculty members, staff, and students were invited to ask questions and get answers from the candidates. In June of the same year, the voting process was completed and Professor Lu Xi-Mu was elected as the ninth president of NTNU, the institution's first self-elected president.
The culture of school autonomy and democracy extended down to the level of student self-governance. With the amendment of the University Act during the same period, it was stated that guidance must be provided to students for them to form self-governance organizations, as to provide students with opportunities to participate in university affairs. In 1995, the student clubs of NTNU passed the resolution to form the NTNU Student Association Preparatory Committee to oversee the formation of the Student Self-Governing Association.
In 1996, the NTNU Student Association Preparatory Committee nominated student representatives, faculty representatives, and administrative representatives to formulate the organizational guidelines of the Student Self-Governing Association. In June of the same year, the National Taiwan Normal University Student Self-Governing Association was officially established. In 2019, the name was changed again to National Taiwan Normal University Student Association. Nowadays, the Student Association is actively concerned with social issues and protects the rights and welfare of students. In addition, it also assists administrative units and consolidates the school's internal forces through various means.
With the political democratization of Taiwan, many taboos of the martial law era were challenged one by one. Since 1995, NTNU students and NTU students began to request their respective universities to release the files related to the April 6 Incident. In 1996, NTNU's College of Liberal Arts and related organizations first pushed for the investigation of the April 6 Incident and then worked with NTU and the Control Yuan to recruit scholars and student representatives to form the April 6 Incident Research Taskforce. On April 6 of the same year, a total of seven student organizations from NTNU and NTU formed the April 6 Incident Redress Committee and released the student version of the investigation report, calling on the investigation taskforces of the two universities to accelerate the pace of their research on the April 6 Incident. They also requested that the incident be included in the history of the two universities, that the student victims be given honorary degrees as compensation, that monuments be erected on the campuses of the two universities to commemorate the incident, and that April 6 be designated as the "Taiwan Student Day".
In 1997, a research report was released by the NTNU April 6 Incident Research Taskforce, which examined the cause, course, and effects of the incident and recommended that the case be transferred to the Control Yuan for investigation and redress of the victimized students. In March 1999, NTNU held an exhibition of materials concerning the April 6 Incident and recreated the historical events through campus tours. In May of the same year, the April 6 Incident Commemorative Activities and Forum for Victimized Students were held. In January 2001, the Minister of Education, Ovid Tzeng, apologized to the victimized students and their families on behalf of the government, stating that the incident had nothing to do with the Communist Party's subversion, but was based on the demands of social justice. Victims of the incident finally obtained redress. On June 8, President Chien Maw-Fa presented honorary bachelor's degrees to the victims of the April 6 Incident at the graduation ceremony.
Since then, every year, students have organized their own activities to commemorate the April 6 Incident and, in 2016, the NTNU school history was updated to include the April 6 Incident.
In order to increase the teaching space, in 1996, it was proposed to demolish the Union Building, Wenhui Hall, and the eastern side of the Administration Building, as well as to cut down the old trees in the vicinity to build a new Union Building. After several years of discussion, the project entered a critical stage in 2003. While preparing for the demolition of the old buildings, students and faculty members who advocated for the preservation of the historical buildings and the old trees initiated a Campus Space, Old Trees, and Historical Buildings Care Team Petition in the square in front of Union Building, sharing the results of the survey on the cultural landscape of the campus. They also asked Taipei City Government to conduct an identification survey for monuments. In the same year, Wenhui Hall, the Administration Building, Pu Building, and the Assembly Hall were officially designated as municipal monuments, causing the construction of the new Union Building to be put on hold. The construction of the building ended in 2005, allowing the wealth of historic and cultural heritage on campus to survive.
Founded in 1953, NTNU Youth Society, originally called the NTNU Youth Editorial Board, published a monthly newspaper-type student publication, Teachers College Youth. In 1955, the Editorial Board was restructured and renamed the NTNU Youth Society, and its publication was renamed NTNU YOUTH.
Students produce all the news reports and articles for the NTNU Youth Society, from which one can discern students' attitudes toward school policies. All the processes, from report orientation, material collection, editing and layout, printing, and publishing, to newspaper distribution, are carried out by its members. When the new media became the chief tool to disseminate news, NTNU Youth Society also transitioned into the NTNU YOUTH website to disseminate school news, so that different voices can be heard in real time and the role of independent media for students can be enhanced.
Born in 1929 in Puzi, Chiayi, Tu Ping-Lang was a student in the first class of the Department of Arts (now the Department of Fine Arts) of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College. During his time there, Tu joined the Taiwanese Drama Society, which performed many left-wing plays. When the April 6 Incident occurred, Tu escaped because he was not in the dormitory, but in the end he did not escape the fate of imprisonment.
During the summer vacation of the same year (1949), Tu and several classmates read leftist books at a book club and discussed the social situation and the way out for the youth. In 1952, he was arrested in Puzi, Chiayi, and on July 22, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "continuous participation in rebellious rallies". After the sentence, he was detained in Ankeng Military Prison in Xindian. Because he could draw and paint, he was often responsible for making event brochures or greeting cards. His family regularly sent him money, food, and supplies, and his parents visited him over 80 times, traveling north from Chiayi each time and leaving behind countless letters from his family.
After his release from prison in 1962, Tu Ping-Lang first taught art in a junior high school, then moved to Kaohsiung after his marriage, where he worked at the Ta Jung Steel Mill run by his friend and fellow former political prisoner Lee Tien-Sheng, and later went to work for Ta Hwa Enterprises. After leaving Ta Hwa, he was invited by fellow student Yang Ying-Feng to participate in several artistic landscape projects. Thereafter, he devoted himself to painting and became a human rights activist.
On June 21, 1946, 300 students of Taipei High School went on strike to protest against the academic structure, advancement system, and the future of the school caused by the establishment of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College. On the 9th day after the incident, the Taipei High School Student Self-Governing Association, a group of mostly first and second year students, issued this emergency notice written in Japanese and scheduled a parent-teacher meeting in the morning of July 5 in the lecture hall to solve the problems faced by the school with the help of parents.
After the April 6 Incident, Hsieh Tung-Min resigned as the president of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College and the Taiwan Provincial Government appointed Liu Chen to act in his stead. On April 6, 1949, Taiwan Provincial Teachers College suspended classes at the request of the Taiwan Provincial Government and students were re-registered prior to the resumption of classes. On April 8, under the supervision of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the Committee for Rectifying the Situation of the Teachers College was established to re-assess students' eligibility. This official document consists of the Rectification Plan for Taiwan Provincial Teachers College and the Regulations for the Selection of Students of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College, which were approved by the Vice President Chen Cheng, Chairman of Taiwan Provincial Government.
Hsu Chiang was a graduate of the 9th class of the category B science program at Taihoku Higher School (enrolled in 1933) and graduated from the medical department of Taihoku Imperial University in 1940. In 1946, he received his Ph.D. in Medicine from Kyushu University in Japan. In the same year, he was promoted to the position of associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of National Taiwan University, and in the following year, he became the head of the Third Division of Internal Medicine of National Taiwan University Hospital and a member of the Hospital Reform Committee. In 1946, Hsu Chiang contacted the Shanghai Taiwan Clansmen's Association and the Chinese Communist Party's underground organization, and later joined the Chinese Communist Party officially. He also studied left-wing ideas in secret with some doctors at National Taiwan University Hospital. Hsu Chiang was arrested on May 13, 1950 and then executed at the end of the same year.
In 1947, Huang Jung-Tsan, an artist who came to Taiwan from a Shanghai left-wing newspaper, made a woodcut print, Terror Check, depicting a scene from the February 28 Incident and expressing his criticism, care, and compassion for society. In August 1948, Huang took a position as a lecturer in the Department of Arts of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College, teaching sketching and printmaking. In December 1951, he was arrested in the staff dormitory of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College and sent to prison. From the files, it can be seen that he was sentenced to death by the Bureau of Military Law, Ministry of National Defense under the Punishment of Rebellion Act, accusing him of "having participated in a woodcarving association organized by communist bandits" and making reactionary propaganda. In November 1952, Huang Jung-Tsan was executed at the young age of 32 in the Machangding execution grounds in Taipei.
The author of New English Grammar, Ke Qi-Hua was a well-known English educator, writer, and poet, as well as a victim of the White Terror; he spent 17 years in prison. In June 1946, Ke entered the Department of English of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College, where he experienced the April 6 Incident during the semester. After graduating from college in June 1949, he returned to his hometown of Kaohsiung to teach. In 1951, he was arrested on suspicion of leftist ideology, and served hard labor and underwent ideological reform in Green Island for about two years. In 1961, he was arrested for the second time in connection with other case and the interrogators detained him for "preparing for rebellion" because he was suspected of "intending to change the national flag". He was released from prison in 1976.
On May 29, 1999, the 50th anniversary of the April 6 Incident, NTNU held the April 6 Incident Commemorative Activities and Seminar for Victimized Students, and made this crystal trophy with the words "Uphold the dignity of history/Restore humanity" inscribed on the base. The crystal has the university emblem in the center and is surrounded by six hollowed out round holes to serve as a memento of the April 6 Incident.
President Chien Maw-Fa presented honorary bachelor's degrees to the victims of the April 6 Incident at the graduation ceremony of 2001. They were: Mao Wen-Chang, Lou Pi-Chung, Hsueh Ai-Lan, Chuang Hui-Chang, and Lou Kao. The diploma contains the student's name, date of birth, time of enrollment, and department name, and states that the student "was unable to complete their studies due to political factors" and was awarded a degree by resolution of the University Affairs Meeting.
This model shows the distribution of campus buildings on the main campus and the library campus (now Heping Campus I and Heping Campus II) during the Taiwan Provincial Normal University era. During the controversy over the construction of the Union Building II, which lasted for nearly 10 years (1996-2005), Union Building, Wenhui Hall, and the surrounding natural landscape were preserved through the concern and efforts of faculty members, students, and the community.
