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Founded in 1962 and tentatively named Far East University by its founder, Dr. Chang Chi-yun, Chinese Culture University (CCU) was originally christened College of Chinese Culture by the late ROC President Chiang Kai-shek, henceforth mapping out the direction of its future development and educational ideals.
To many, the essence of Chinese tradition consists in literature, history, and philosophy, while the merits at least of modern Western civilization have been science and democracy. Yet, Chinese culture if it is to continue to grow and prosper in its present historical and global setting must inherit the best that the East and the West has to offer. It is for this and other equally pressing reasons and in light of the challenges faced by our young in Taiwan that CCU from its inception conceived an undergraduate program comprehensive enough to include all that is relevant in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
Long ago the sage-teacher Confucius created the six arts of education. Li (propriety) and Yueh (music) aimed at cultivating character and personality; She (archery) and Yi (charioting) aimed at training physical prowess; and Shu (academic studies) and Shu (arithmetic) aimed at developing the intellect. The arts, particularly the tradition Chinese arts, and physical education were therefore among the earliest departments established. After over forty years, it can well be say that the original disciplines concentrated in the arts that have played a leading role in the academic world remain culturally and professionally relevant and in the forefront among Taiwan universities. Such pioneering departments as Chinese Opera, Chinese Music, and Dance continue to enjoy nationwide fame as they are staffed by a faculty of specialists known to be masters in their fields of expertise. The University Museum, the only one of its kind in Taiwan, houses a wide array of artistic works of calligraphy and paintings. Its periodic exhibitions and workshops have helped promote art education.
The Physical Education and Martial Arts departments integrate Chinese and Western strengths, placing an equal emphasis upon the theoretical and the practical. Theories of physiology and physics are applied to assess student-athletes' potential in order that the highest possible results may be achieved. The university can claim to have trained the largest number of national athletes and competitors and coaches as well as the greatest number of sports participated in for international competitions. Undergraduate physical education courses aimed at fostering sportsmanship and team spirit result in inculcating in the young the virtues of fine character and a gentlemanly disposition.
One underlying factor Chinese culture, which has crossed countless national borders in the Orient and, in the historian's perspective, remains one of the world's five greatest existing civilizations has been able in the most recent centuries to benefit from contact with other great world cultures is that she has kept the channels of communication open through the dissemination of foreign languages among her own people. This phenomenon continues to this very day when the learning of languages can no longer be regarded a luxury but a tool necessary to master if both individuals and societies are to penetrate the depths of foreign cultures and thought.
Hence, to maintain an interactive posture vis-a-vis other cultures, from its beginnings the university took for granted the critical step to establish foreign language departments in English, German, France, Russian, Japanese, and Korean, these languages even now comprising the most complete college of foreign languages in Taiwan. Each year the university supplies well-trained manpower in Russian and Korean languages for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ever since the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the demand for Russian has become ever more urgent, so much so that a Master's program in Russian Language and Literature was added in 1991 to meet this critical demand.
In a world increasingly engineered by an irresistible thrust towards globalization, journalism and mass communication more than ever mould public opinion and spread culture. Journalistic education in Taiwan has nearly slavishly followed Western systems of reportage and points of view, hence militating against the necessity of meeting critical present-day cultural and social needs. To supplement and overcome such shortcomings, growing emphasis has been placed on the question of what constitutes Chinese writing and points of view and the methods necessary to implement if we are to recover our cultural essence and center. This natural impulse towards a renewal of identity has in recent years given a new look to both journalistic and mass communication education.
Architecture and environmental design are two precious Chinese cultural assets. At its inception, the University established the Architecture and Urban Design Department, followed by Urban Administration and Landscape Departments, which belonged to different colleges. Since 1993, these three departments comprise the College of Environmental Design, the coming together of which anticipated the reaping of maximum educational benefits.
It is evident that any thriving culture must preserve its creativeness and usefulness in order to maintain its energy. Since not all traditional, academic-oriented departments can meet the rising demands of a native culture such as ours in Taiwan, CCU has established a number of innovative and special departments that have met just such a need. Among these are included Chinese Opera, Chinese Music, Martial Arts, Choreography, Urban Administration and Environmental Planning, Labor and Manpower Resources, Advertising, Information Communication (formerly Printing), Tourism, Great Atmosphere Science (formerly Meteorology), Creative Writing, Land Resources, Social Welfare (formerly Child and Youth Welfare), Studies of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (formerly Three Principles of the People), Biological Technology, and Chinese Mainland Institute (formerly Mainland China Studies). A number of these departments have become the main sources of specialized manpower. For instance, Great Atmosphere Science regularly supplies over 70% of related professionals to governmental institutes. Additionally, the departments of Urban Administration, Labor, Information Communication, Tourism and Mainland China Studies supply a considerable percentage of manpower to related agencies.
In its four decades as an institution of higher learning, the University has experienced vigorous growth. As of 2003, it boasts 12 Colleges with 57 undergraduate programs, 39 Masters and 10 doctorate programs. The School of Continuing Education numbers 10 departments and 11 graduate programs. These totals outnumber those in all the universities in Taiwan. As an academic policy, inter-departmental curricular cooperation is emphasized. As an example, students in the Advertising Department can take courses in both the Fine Arts Department and the Information Communication Department. The Advertising Department in other universities cannot enjoy similar curricular flexibility. The future increase of new departments and programs will take into account world trends and social demands.
The university values international cultural exchanges. This is reflected in its emphasis on the following three academic activities: the hosting of international conferences, contracting sister universities, and conferring of honorary doctorate degrees.
In 1968 the First International Sinology Conference was held at the then College of Chinese Culture with 175 papers and 212 people in attendance from 21 countries. The Conference, unmatched in scale up to then, was the first large international conference of its kind in Taiwan. Since then there have been numerous international conferences from such wide-ranging topics and themes as Song History, Caves Studies, Multi-national Enterprises, Moral Values and Moral Development, Preliminary Prevention of Psychological Blocks, Instruction of Modern Chinese Literature, and Sinology to Comparative Studies of Eastern and Western Philosophies, ROC's Status in the International Community, Psychology, and Higher Education. These conferences and proceedings have produced papers of high academic quality which have been collected in many volumes.
Up to 2008, CCU had to its name 82 sister-university relationships worldwide broken down into the following: 26 Korean, 16 Japanese, 16 U. S., three U.K., three Russian, two Ukrainian, six French, two German universities, and one each with Outer Mongolia, Thailand, Liberia, Belgium, Holland, Austria and Dominican Republic. One of the sister universities in Russia is Moscow University recognized by many as a top ten institution of higher learning in the world. The exchange programs include faculty, students, publications, the hosting of international conferences and exhibitions, cooperative research projects, and mutual visitations of sports teams.
The University has conferred honorary doctorate degrees on over 300 persons from 30 countries, numbering among them statesmen, scholars, artists, religionists, entrepreneurs, and journalists. Among the notables have been former Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Kishi Nobusuke, Speaker of the National Congress, Mr. Nadao Hirokichi, founder of the Japanese Sannkei Shinnbunn, Mr. Shikanai Nobutaka, Korean Kyung Hee University President, Dr. Choue Young Seek, American General Albert C. Wedemeyer and the Filipino President's wife, Mrs. Ramos.
At its founding, the University established a press, which now has to its credit over 1,100 varieties of publications, the large bulk of which are the research results of its faculty. Its best seller is The Chinese Language Dictionary, a reference book that can be found in almost all major libraries worldwide. Other prominent publications of high academic worth include atlases of the Republic of China and the World, the new versions of The History of the Ch'ing Dynasty, The History of the Ming Dynasty, The History of the Yuan Dynasty, The History of the King Dynasty, The History of the Song Dynasty, The China Encyclopedia, and Five-Thousand-Year Chinese History. The university press has always encouraged its faculty to publish textbooks. In its history, the University has also published two English quarterlies, Chinese Culture Quarterly and Sino-American Relations, both of which have received favorable critical comments at home and abroad.
The lyrics to our school song go: "The overwhelming beauty of Mt. Yangming reflect the essence of reform." The author was not ironic in writing these lyrics for the simple words are meant to intimate the significance of political and social awareness in the life of the university student. Chang Er-chi, a scholar of the Ch'ing Dynasty, once said, "The will of the scholar is the source upon which the whole world is governed and the people find their happiness." Chang's cogent words set the goal for our entire academic community. The future of ROC hinges on the relationship between two political entities-Taiwan and Mainland China-on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. In 1973 the university established the Institute of Mainland China Studies (now the Chinese Mainland Institute), the first of its kind in Taiwan. Recent research has focused on issues ranging from political systems and international relationship to demography, resources, environment, catastrophe, and economy. In 1989, the University invited Mr. Chiao Sung-chia as its first visiting professor from Mainland China to teach in Taiwan. Subsequent visiting professors have followed and numerous academic conferences between the two sides of the straits have also been held here. Another ideal the University attempts to implement is its effort to improve the relationship between the two sides through the medium of cultural exchanges rather than the harsh confrontation that result from differing political ideologies.
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