With the song of farewell finishes, the students are about to enter another stage of their lives. Looking back on NTNU's century-long history, the talents we have painstakingly nurtured can be found all over the world. The annual anniversary celebration in June is a great opportunity for NTNU students and faculty to gather with alumni from all over the world. Through collective memory and a common language, students and faculty of different generations can connect with each other and deepen their sense of identity and cohesion with their alma mater.
Head tilt down, with the tassels of the graduation cap moved from the right to the left, and having received the diploma from a professor, the childish faces of the students turn into those of adults in a blink of an eye. Their university path comes to an end at this moment of the graduation ceremony, which also opens a new chapter of their life. The diplomas of different eras not only present the various stages of the university's restructuring, but also shed light on their times and the historical transitions contained within. Whether it is the "Certificate of Completion" for students of the regular program at Taihoku Higher School, the "Ex Tempore Certificate of Completion" for students who graduated early due to the war, the "Ex Tempore Diploma" for government sponsored students after the war, or the official diploma obtained after completing the years of service, these artifacts not only mark the learning paths of alumni from the different eras, but also testify to the profound impact that war and the national education policy have had on students' careers.
The yearbook records the faces of students in their youth, and also records the self-expectations of graduates when they were young. The yearbooks of the Taihoku Higher School days not only have a variety of looks and delicate craftsmanship, but also hold the heartwarming autographs and doodles from classmates on the back page. In the days before digital printing was commonplace, it had been customary for NTNU graduates to write a message, phrase, or motto in the yearbook. This tradition can still be seen today, despite advances in printing technology.
After World War II, the Taiwanese alumni of Taihoku Higher School established the Taihoku Higher School Alumni Association in 1946 to establish a channel for alumni to stay in touch with each other. The Japanese alumni established the Banana Leaf Association around 1950, started to meet, and compiled a mailing list gradually. After the dissolution of the Banana Leaf Association, the Banana Soldiers Association, formed in the 1990s by students who entered Taihoku Higher School at the end of the war, once again perpetuated alumni ties. The alumni associations in Taiwan and Japan have been expanding through the relationships between the alumni of all periods, so that the contacts that alumni have built up during their college years can become a lifelong resource.
More than 100,000 alumni have graduated since the founding of NTNU and our alumni network spans the globe. In order to strengthen ties between alumni and their alma mater, alumni associations, departmental alumni associations, and alumni societies have been established in various parts of Taiwan and on different continents, and alumni from different countries have further consolidated into international alumni associations.
In 1980, the first graduation commemorative ceremony was held by alumni of the Classes of 38 and 39, the beginning of NTNU alumni reunion activities. In recent years, the Global Alumni Homecoming activities have been expanded, with a record of more than 1,000 alumni returning to their alma mater cumulatively, showing the unity of our alumni.
In 1951, President Liu Chen set the date for the school's anniversary celebration and, on June 5 of that year, the first celebration was held to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College. Since then, various activities have been held from the end of May to the beginning of June each year, including commemorative meetings, athletic games, concerts, alumni reunions, exhibitions, and theatrical performances to celebrate NTNU's anniversary.
Since the days of the Taihoku Higher School, the athletic games have been held in conjunction with the anniversary celebration. These are long-standing university-wide events at NTNU. Since 1963, the games have been rescheduled to the first weekend of November every year due to weather conditions. The faculty and students of all departments and institutes parade around the track in teams, while the athletes of each department put their best foot forward on the sports field. That feeling of coming together and the pursuit of glory is what makes the NTNU athletic game so impressive.
A school's age is not only a number, but also its life history, overall meaning, and core values, as well as the collective memory of all the people, events, and things that the school has accommodated. Since 1996, NTNU had held discussions on the evolution and continuity of its history. In the spirit of respecting history and seeking truth from facts, we coordinated communication concerning opinions and consensuses among alumni, faculty members, and students through various meetings. Later on, at the 121st University Affairs Meeting on November 21, 2018, an overwhelming majority of members voted to trace the history of NTNU back to the 1922 Taihoku Higher School era as the starting point for the institution's age. This was carried out in order to strengthen the sense of identity of NTNU alumni, faculty members, and students after referencing how universities in Taiwan and abroad drafted their school history.
Across this past century, all the faculty members, staff, and students of NTNU, and even alumni have been impressed by the rich array of activities that take place in the months leading up to the university's anniversary.
This is the reason for the emergence of the magazine NTNU Alumni Monthly, which was founded in 1963. In addition to the columns on alumni's achievements, teaching, and academic research, the magazine also publishes a special issue every year before NTNU's anniversary to report on annual events. Throughout the years, the Banana Leaf Association has also published Banana Leaf News to convey the good wishes of alumni from both Taiwan and Japan on the institution's anniversary.
In addition to a wide range of documentary sources and historical materials, personal recollections and physical objects are also essential elements in the compilation of school histories. As the types of school historical materials become more diverse, the stories contained in such history become more three-dimensional, thus generating greater reflection, emotion, and resonance. The NTNU Libraries continue to collect historical materials and artifacts related to NTNU from alumni, faculty, staff, students, and the general public. Through writing, you are invited to share your NTNU stories. Let's cherish our most unforgettable memories together and continue to enrich the history of the university, so that the legacy can be passed down through the centuries and endure for ages to come.
The certificate of completion was issued upon completion of the general program at Taihoku Higher School, and the graduation diploma was issued upon completion of the upper secondary program.
After graduating from the upper secondary program at Taihoku Higher School, students could enter the Japanese Imperial Universities without needing to take the entrance examination, in principle, except for the more popular schools, such as Tokyo Imperial University and Kyoto Imperial University, which required another examination.
In September 1945, one month after the end of World War II, the school resumed classes and Taihoku Higher School became Taipei High School. The principal of Taihoku Higher School, Nobu Shimokawa, granted ex tempore graduation diplomas to the Japanese students of the school and added a note on the back of the certificate stating that the students must remain in school until March 1946 in order for the diploma to be valid.
After graduating from the upper secondary program of Yu Chuan Public School (now Chong Wen Elementary School in Chiayi City), Wang Wen-Chin was admitted to Tainan Prefectural Chiayi High School (now National Chiayi Senior High School). He graduated early from Chiayi High School after being drafted into the army during his studies and then went north to attend Taihoku Higher School after World War II. Due to the restructuring of the school, he was enrolled in the third year of Taipei High School and became one of its first graduates. In August 1946, he received his graduation diploma and entered the College of Medicine, National Taiwan University.
This graduation diploma from the one-year specialized program of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College states that students should complete the required number of years of service after graduation in order to receive the diploma.
Margaret Sun entered the Department of Music at Taiwan Provincial Teachers College as part of its first class in September 1949. Majoring in voice, she studied successively with Professors Tai Hsu-Lun and Chang Chen-Nan and completed her studies in June 1952. This is the ex tempore diploma for Margaret Sun's graduation from the Department of Music, Taiwan Provincial Teachers College, where she completed one year of her four-year internship with passing grades.
Lee Hwa-Wei was enrolled in the Department of Education of Taiwan Provincial Teachers College in 1950 as a government sponsored student. According to the regulations, he had to teach for five years after course completion in order to obtain the graduation diploma. After completing his studies in 1954, he served at the university and the National Taipei University of Education Experimental Elementary School for two years before going abroad for further studies. As an exception, the school granted him the undergraduate diploma because he was still working in the field of education.
From 1967 until today, there have been many changes in the form and style of graduation diplomas from the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) era, with at least four revisions. In the 1970s and 1980s, graduation diplomas were uniformly printed by the Ministry of Education. In the 1990s, the Ministry of Education authorized each educational institution to design its own graduation diploma. In recent years, the current graduation diploma of National Taiwan Normal University is in both Chinese and English.
Taihoku Higher School had a yearbook for every class of the categories A and B humanities and science programs, respectively, each year. This is the graduation yearbook of the first class of Taihoku Higher School's category B science program from 1928 (Showa 3). In the outer box, there is a thread-bound photo album with a green cloth cover embroidered with banana leaves and two white lines; the photos are, sequentially, school sceneries, the principal, professors, graduates, and group photos inside and outside the school, with a signature page, graduates' address book, and a section for messages from the teacher.
The National Taiwan Normal University graduation yearbook of the Class of 1949 includes photos of school sceneries, personal photos of the faculty members and graduates, as well as the address book of graduates and faculty members. This item was donated to NTNU by Yang Yi-Chien of the Department of Education's Class of 1949, one of the first Distinguished Alumni (2001), at the university’s anniversary celebration in 1986.
The graduation yearbook of NTNU's Class of 1956 contained the university song, the university emblem, the university motto, photos of the president and faculty members, photos of the graduates, class group photos, candid photos on and off campus, and a contact list of faculty members, staff members, and past graduates.
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the death of Principal Misawa Tadasu, several members of the Banana Leaf Association, including the chairperson Kunisu Yoshimura, compiled a vivid collection of memories and descriptions of Principal Misawa.
After World War II, Japanese students from Taihoku Higher School established the Banana Leaf Association in Japan and began issuing the Banana Leaf Association Directory. The directory includes names, universities, places of employment, and mailing addresses. The contents are updated every few years according to the latest status of graduates.
In March 1945, students who had enrolled in the upper secondary program of Taihoku Higher School in 1944 and 1945 had to enlist in the army as a result of the call for enlistment. All teachers and students of the school were assigned to the army. These students became army privates and worked in Grass Mountain (Yangmingshan) on fortifications to prevent the landing of American troops. They later called themselves "Banana Soldiers". This anthology contains the memories of military life of the Banana Soldiers before and after World War II.
Wheel Tree was a class magazine published by the students who entered the general program of Taihoku Higher School in 1940. After World War II, their classmates' association began publishing New Wheel Tree to continue their friendship.
Ocean Tide was a newspaper published by the Alumni Association of National Taiwan Normal University in Japan. This item is the 3rd issue of the newspaper published in June 1971. The contents include research experiences, academic discussions, thoughts on studying abroad, life articles, creative writing and poems, as well as annual activity reports, accounting reports, and a member directory.
Four alumni from the Class of 1953 of the Department of Education, National Taiwan Normal University resumed the class magazine Class Training twenty years after their graduation. In 2003, one of the editors of Class Training, Chen Kuang-Hui, donated the first issue of the resumed publication on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his graduation.
In 1980, the first graduating classes (Class of 1949 and Class of 1950 alumni) of National Taiwan Normal University held their first commemorative meeting on the occasion of their 30th graduation anniversary, which can be considered the beginning of our alumni reunion activities. After the meeting, the alumni formed a commemorative magazine editorial committee, which not only compiled excerpts from the speeches and activities at the reunion, but also published 30 years' worth of teaching experience, memories, and family photos submitted by the alumni.
An ehagaki is a landscape postcard. In 1928, when the first commemorative celebration was held at Taihoku Higher School, a series of ehagaki were issued with the school's representative objects, the sceneries on campus, and special activities.
On December 8, 1946, Taipei High School held a school drama performance in the auditorium for its first anniversary celebration. The program included singing of the school song and drama and musical performances, and concluded with the Taipei High School dance.
For the 60th anniversary of the founding of Taihoku Higher School in 1982, the Banana Leaf Association made this square-shaped wooden music box as one of the keepsakes. The top lid of the music box is painted with two white lines symbolizing Taihoku Higher School, with its emblem inlaid between the two lines. The music box plays the tune of the first school song, Shizitou Mountain, which was often sung by the students of Taihoku Higher School during celebrations and gatherings.
This commemorative plaque was presented to NTNU by the first graduating class of its Night School. The Night School was established in 1958 to recruit high school graduates and to help the government train reserve teachers for junior high school education. It ceased operations in 1980. In 1984, the Night School was changed to a Continuing Education Division for in-service teachers and education administrators only.
In the afternoon of October 26, 1992, the Taihoku Higher School Alumni Association held a festive gathering at the Grand Hotel Taipei to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of their alma mater. Both Taiwanese alumni and Japanese alumni joined the event, while dozens of alumni from other older predecessor schools were also present. President Lee Teng-Hui was invited to give a speech to express his appreciation for his alma mater. This is a commemorative banner presented by the Banana Leaf Association to the participants, which is based on the long handkerchief tied around the waist of students in Taihoku Higher School.
