The Class Reunion of the Taiwan Provincial College of Engineering School (the former name of NCKU)

 

Sixty classmates and their relatives, a total of 86 participants, joined this class reunion in Pacific Grove from April 5 to 8, 2007, and made it the largest of its kind to date!

 

One of the classmates wrote three poems. He flew from Taiwan and came all the way here to share his emotional poems with us, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to hear his wonderful lines, which pointed out that we are truly “old” classmates. Graduates who studied in Taiwan Provincial College of Engineering School and graduated before 1958 have now reached or passed their seventies. I’m already 78, and there were others till older than me at this reunions.

 

The first reunion was held in Las Vegas, 2001, and hosted by Chen Zhu-Hua (陳柱華) and his wife Huang Han-Lin. Chen Zhu-Hua is the Dean of College of Engineering of Southern Illinois University. Motivated by the NCKU World Carnival held in Atlantic City, Chen decided to create an opportunity for these “old” classmates to have their “old” discussions. Seventy-nine people attended the 2001 reunion, and 46 of them were from the same class. The success of this event paved the way for others, and this was our fifth such reunion.

 

This class reunion was a four-day long event. We sang together and recalled other classmates that had passed away. One special guest showed up in this reunion. He majored in engineering, graduated in 1952 and later became the Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Dean of the College of Engineering, and the Dean of Academic Affairs; he is Li Ke-Rang, and we were honored to have this admirable professor joining the reunion.

 

The organizer this year was Long Zhong-Jun (龍中軍), assisted by Tang Yi-Ping and Chen Zai-Yan, and everyone who attended greatly appreciated their efforts to make this reunion happen.

 

During this reunion there were a lot of activities. We went to the Hearst castle and the aquarium, played mahjong, chatted and even sang together. It was like “yesterday once more.” One classmate even taught us how to line dance.

 

In addition to the recreational activities, three meeting were held; the first one was about photography and art, the second one was a flower slide show, and the last one was a book review. Moreover, the Chinese astronaut Jiao Li-Zhong’s parents, our classmates Jiao Zu-tao and Zhu Qing-Yun, played a clip about the astronaut’s activities.

 

On the last evening we voted for the time and location of our next reunion. Consequently, our classmates from Chicago volunteered to organize the next event, and He Bang will be the organizer.

 

Before we said goodbye to one another, we sang together and reminded one another that we shall meet again by Michigan Lake in YEAR.