Vice-President and Mrs. C. K. Yen and Premier and Mrs. Chiang Ching-kuo were among nearly 3,000 persons enjoying the first of four performances given by the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
A reception was given by Minister of Education Y. S. Tsiang in honor of the 36-member troupe. Minister Tsiang praised Miss Graham's achievements in modern dance and gave her a medal.
"A creative revolutionary" was Martha's early public image. Later people called her "a living legend." She danced regularly with her company until the age of 76.
From the school of dance she established more than 40 years ago in New York have come thousands of American dancers. Among them are Paul Taylor, Anna Sokolow, Merce Cuningham and Pearl Lang. This year half of the school's 10 scholarship student are Asians.
"I've just entered a new cycle of energy. I'm going through a rebirth. With anything artistic, one must die and be reborn," she said.
The death she referred to was a three-year period of illness and inactivity.
The 1974 Martha Graham Dance Company has new life and vigor. A handful of the dancers are drawn from her core of veterans; the rest are relative newcomers. As Peter S. Rosewald observed in the Wall Street Journal, this is a company "full of superb young dancers."
Her approach to dance began with her father, a physician, who "taught me that movement never lies; that truth is the most important goal."
She enrolled in the school of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in 1918 and quickly became the Denishawn Company's star, but she was not content.
After a year of contemplation and teaching at the Eastmen School of Music, Martha Graham began to find her own way. She introduced a new method of leverage, balance and dynamics to dance movement. She invented beautiful falls and recoveries, and turns on a changing body axis.
Her themes are large ones - interpretations of universal human experience, penetration of "the inner landscape" or psyche of man.
"Modern dance is the expression of a 20th century necessity, the desire to explore the possibility of movement as dictated by the inner world of man, in an absolutely formal sense. Dance is my means of communication. The great art I serve is life," said Martha Graham.
Student advisers learn about Taiwan
"The main purpose of our group visiting Taiwan is to understand Chinese culture and the educational and economic system.
"After a one-week stay we have learned a great deal. We must thank the Ministry of Education for inviting us," said Dr. Milton E. Wilson, dean of the Human Relations Department of Kent State University and one of eight visiting foreign student advisers from the United States.
E. Richard Salisbury, director of the Foreign Student Services at the University of Detroit, said that although adjusting to an alien language and environment is difficult enough, the most serious problem facing foreign students is a financial one.
"As for Chinese students in our school, I feel they have been able to overcome obstacles more easily than other foreign students.
"Financial problems are not serious most of the for Chinese students, because most of those studying in our schools are graduates who are given financial aid," said Charles F. Horstein Jr., foreign student adviser of Texas A & M University.
Having been a foreign student adviser for nine years, Jack B. Selbig of the University of Nevada at Reno said he knew every Chinese student in his school very well and thought they were outstanding in academic studies.
Although there are many gambling places in Reno to provide work opportunities for students, this cannot solve all the financial problems facing foreign students, he said.
Maxwell D. Epstein, dean of the Foreign Student Adviser's Office of the University of California at Los Angeles, suggested Chinese students in the U. S. should have contacts outside the Chinese community. He said Chinese students do not like to ask questions in class and are not very active.
Ambrose C. Davis, director of the Office of International Services of the University of Pennsylvania, advised newcomers to the U. S. to be cool and calm in coping with difficulties.
Science cooperation abets graduate work
Free China's college training at the graduate school level has made substantial improvement in the last 10 years thanks to the Sino-American science cooperation program initiated in 1964, an American educator said.
Dr. Joseph Platt, president of Harvey Mudd College and chairman of the U. S. Committee on Sino-American Science Cooperation, made the observation at the annual conference.
Dr. Platt said graduate schools in Taiwan have conferred doctor's and master's degrees on more than 1,000 students in the last decade.
In addition, more than 1,000 scientists holding the doctorate have been recruited for the Republic of China under the cooperative program since the mid-60s, Dr. Platt said.
Dr. Wang Shih-chieh, chairman of the China Committee, said a solid foundation has been laid for continued academic cooperation between the two countries.
Noting that the Sino-American relations have undergone some readjustment in recent years, Dr. Wang said "the fruits of our joint endeavors will prove to be far more lasting than any political realignment or accommodation."
The former president of the Academia Sinica listed the major achievements of the cooperation program as the establishment of six graduate centers, the introduction of a Ph. D. program in economics and the initiation of oceanic studies.
The science cooperation program began in 1964 under the joint sponsorship of the Academia Sinica and the U. S. National Academy of Sciences. Other American participants include the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council.
The Chinese delegation to the joint conference also included Finance Minister K.T. Li; Education Minister Y.S. Tsiang; Dr. Chien Shih-liang, president of the Academia Sinica; Dr. Ta-you Wu, chairman of the Committee for Science Development, National Security Council; Dr. Hsu Shien-siu, chairman of the National Science Council; and Dr. Yen Chen-hsing, president of National Taiwan University.
New foundation will help students
Lien Chen-tung, minister without portfolio, has set up a foundation named after his late father with 2,000 Huanan Commercial Bank shares worth about NT$6,000,000.
The Lien Ya-tang Foundation will help students at Taiwan University, Chengchi University, Chung Hsing University, Cheng Kung University, Tung Hai University, Soochow University and Fujen University through their undergraduate and graduate years.
To qualify, the recipient must be from Tainan city. The financial assistance will not exceed NT$5,000 and the limit is 20 recipients a semester.
Lien Ya-tang was a scholar of Tainan in the latter part of the 19th century. When Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895, he stayed on for a while, then left for the China mainland. There he started to write "The General History of Taiwan" which was to become a classic. It was the first book that dealt with the history of Taiwan systematically.
Dr. Lien Chan, the son of Lien Chen-tung and Mrs. Lien, heads the Lien Ya-tang Foundation. He is director of the Institute of Political Science, National Taiwan University.
College of Technology slated for Taipei
The first National College of Technology will be established here in Taipei. It will open a new era of technological and vocational education for the country.
The college will be opened early next year with 160 to 200 students.
Students who have graduated from a two-year junior college, have a year of work experience and have completed military service may take the entrance examination.
"Technical and skill courses will occupy 70 per cent of the curriculum. The college will maintain contacts with factories and make sure students obtain practical experience," said Chen Li-an, the president.
"Specialists are needed in today's society. Reduction in the number of students participating in the joint college entrance examination shows that concepts have changed."
Chen Li-an visited vocational institutions of the U.S. in February. He found teaching methods and materials good and said Taiwan could learn from them.
The college will open departments of mechanical engineering and textile engineering next year.
Chen Li-an is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former director of Technological and Vocational Education in the Ministry of Education. Chen Cheng, the late vice president of the Republic of China, was his father.
Temple of Matsu is popular and rich
The temple of Matsu, goddess of the sea, at Peikang in Chiayi county may have the largest following in Taiwan. It is also the richest of temples.
A 1974 audit showed NT$13,000,000 in the bank, 12,400 gold medals and plaques worth NT$4,800,000 and 5,353 shares in four leading private corporations.
The temple made NT$6,260,000 in fiscal 1974 by selling joss sticks and papers to worshippers.
Temples register as corporate persons but pay no taxes.
The Ministry of the Interior is the supervisory agency.
"We can tell them to use their money wisely," an official said. "But we can't tell them to do this or do that with the money."
Donations are deductible up to 30 per cent of income.
Girls enjoy taste of soldier's life
Military training is attracting girls.
"I like this vacation activity. Girls usually get no chance for military training and I want to have a taste of soldier's life," said Wang Wei-jen, a second-year student of Provincial Chiayi High School who attended Wu Fung military training supervised by the China Youth Corps.
"Parachute training is my favorite. You can never know how wonderful it is until you have jumped from a 34-meter tower," said Ni Chao-lin, a second-year student at Kim Hwa High School in Taipei. She was at the Fu Shoa camp in Pingtung. Both male and female participants enjoy parachuting and shooting the most.
A top marksman at Fu Shoa is Chi Min-li, son of Chi Sing-wen, the general of troops opposing the Japanese when they started their attack at the Marco Polo Bridge near Peiping July 7, 1937.
"I wanted to be a professional soldier," he said, "but myopia prevents. I enjoy the activities of the camp because they satisfy my dreams of being a real soldier."
Taiwan has a case of the butterflies
Taiwan has become one of the world's largest producers of butterfly decorations. About 2,000 aborigines are catching the butterflies. More than 8,000 farmers are collecting butterflies as a side job in the spring and summer.
Some 35 shops - most of them at Puli in central Taiwan - are processing 20 million or more butterflies annually.
Chen Wei-shou, 43, a teacher of biology at Cheng Kung High School in Taipei, found "butterfly valley" below Wang-ten mountain in Pingtung county.
Chen found that some 300,000 butterflies gathered on the seashore near Chao-chou with the first chill of fall. On the second day, the butterflies fly to the valley.
According to Chen, there are 396 species of butterflies in Taiwan.
West discovering herb medicine
"Only now foreigners are beginning to use herbs that the Chinese have used for centuries, such as digitalis and tyroxin," according to a Chinese herb specialist.
Dr. C.Y. Chen said the primary concept involved in Chinese medicine is that of Ying and Yang, the opposite forces of the universe.
If a person is ill, it is because his Ying and Yang forces are not balanced. If the patient has bloodshot eyes and is constipated, the Yang is too strong. If the patient is pale with white lips, the Ying is the stronger.
Different symptoms call for different herbal mixtures and there are 2,000 of them. Dr. Chen said a doctor who knows 100 is doing quite well. Prescriptions are filled at a pharmacy.
Dr. Chen said those taking herb medicines should watch their diet. Those who have Yang colds are not supposed to eat fried foods, but they will find it beneficial to eat lots of fresh fruits. Those with Ying colds should avoid hot foods.