On behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles (TECO-LA) signed an Agreement on July 27, 2022, with the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) to launch the Taiwan Huayu BEST-Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent Program. Under the Agreement and Program, all parties aim to deepen the existing educational partnership and cultivate global citizens with language skills and cross-cultural competencies.
This 3-year cooperation on Mandarin education promotes language instruction through academic collaboration and exchange of visiting scholars and students, including Mandarin Chinese teachers and teaching assistants selected by NCKU to provide instruction and cultural activities at UCI. Moreover, it will award the Taiwan Huayu BEST Scholarship, sponsored by the Ministry of Education (MOE), to allow UCI’s students to travel to Taiwan to learn Mandarin Chinese effectively. The inaugural group of 9 awardees arrived in Taiwan in mid-June this year for 10 weeks of intensive Chinese language study, and through the arrangement of NCKU, the recipients interacted with the Bilingual Experimental Program students at Tainan First Senior High School; they also visited the historical port Anping in Tainan City. Not only does this engagement help Taiwanese students to enhance in English learning and understand more of the American culture, it also benefits UCI’s students to fully immerse in a Chinese learning environment and provides them with the opportunities to deeply explore the diverse cultures of Taiwan.
Taiwan and the U.S. launched the “Taiwan-U.S. Education Initiative” on December 3, 2020, aiming to expand access to comprehensive educational cooperation between the two countries and safeguard academic freedom. Entering its second year, this initiative has connected 41 U.S. universities with 17 Taiwanese higher education institutions to work on Mandarin Chinese language instruction. Director General Louis M. Huang of TECO-LA addressed at the announcement reception hosted by UCI, that the collaboration program between TECO-LA, UCI and NCKU will deepen the partnership between the two outstanding universities, enhance mutual understanding and language learning among students, and advance educational cooperation between our two countries. We hope to jointly cultivate a new generation of global citizens with an international vision and cross-cultural communication skills, so that they can work together to shoulder the challenge of coping with global pressing issues.
UCI's Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Hal Stern gave his welcoming remarks at the hybrid reception hosted by UCI on July 28, 2022, and Director General Louis M. Huang, President Huey-Jen Jenny Su of NCKU and AVC Global Engagement Victoria Jones of UCI followed with announcing the trilateral collaboration. Mr. Jackson Yang of the J. Yang & Family Foundation, who funded the J. Yang Scholarship at UCI to support Taiwan-US academic cooperation and to encourage American and Taiwanese students to engage, attended the event virtually to jointly witness this fruitful achievement. Also, on behalf of the UCI School of Humanities, Dean Tyrus Miller, Chair HU Ying of East Asian Studies, and Prof. Ruohmei Hsieh, who is currently leading the Taiwan Huayu BEST scholarship awardees to study at NCKU, attended the event; 4 awardees My Nguyen, Amani Suad Butterfly Shahid, Ashly Yen Na and Angela Zhuoying Lu joined virtually. The awardees made a video to share their learning experience at NCKU and in Taiwan. Participants from TECO-LA include Director Rebecca Lan, Director Amy Wang, Deputy Director David Chen and Education Officer Huichen Pan. Representatives of NCKU who joined virtually were Vice President for International Affairs Hsiao-Wen Wang, Associate Vice President for International Affairs Charles Lin, and Director of Chinese Language Center Prof. Shin-Mei Kao.
National Cheng Kung University was founded in 1931 with a resounding reputation in both academia and industries. It stands out among 1,406 universities ranking 33rd on the 2022 World University Impact Rankings released by British Times Higher Education. In addition, the university's research funding from industries was ranked 1st in the 2021 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. NCKU is dedicated to building a future university with overall excellence in "Teaching, Research and Social Responsibility." The University of California, Irvine (UCI) was founded in 1965 as a top public research university. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates including three faculty, one postdoctoral fellow, and an alumnus. UCI ranked 9th among the nation’s best national universities in “US News & World Report” and ranked 2nd for Social Mobility for two years in a row. Since its establishment, UCI has cultivated countless scholars, experts, and talents, and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot.
