Ten Chinese 4-H youth representatives will visit four Asian countries on goodwill missions this year under the International Farm Youth Exchange Program.
The 10 grassroots ambassadors will be:
Shen Yung-teh and Miss Chang Li-hui, both of Yunlin, going to the Philippines.
Miss Tai Chin-ying of Taitung and Chen Ming-kuei of Taichung, going to Thailand.
Chen Ching-kuo of Taipei, Miss Li Yu-hsiang of Hualien, Liang Cheng-yu and Miss Wei Su-chiung. both of Nantou, going to Korea.
Kuan Ming-cheng of Taichung und Miss Chan Hui-ou of Changhua, going to Japan.
All are either 4-H advisers or members recommended by farmers associations with the assistance of local governments and high schools.
The two going to the Philippines are leaving in May for four months. The others will leave in August for visits of from two to four months. The Asia Foundation will provide travel expenses.
The program was initiated by the Republic of China and the United States in 1957. It later was expanded to include the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Japan and Thailand.
Up to now, 70 Chinese 4-H members have participated. Twenty went to the United States, 18 to the Philippines, 16 to Korea, 10 to Japan, 4 to Thailand and 2 to Vietnam.
Sixty-eight farm boys and girls have come to Taiwan under the program. Included were 17 from the United States, 21 from Korea, 16 from the Philippines, 6 from Japan and 4 each from Vietnam and Thailand.
Opera troupe gives banner to Nixon
Wang Chen-tzu, president of the National Foo Shing Opera Academy presented a school banner to President Nixon.
Frederick Irving, acting assistant secretary of state for cultural and educational affairs, received the banner on behalf of President Nixon at a State Department ceremony.
Wang was accompanied by Dr. Chang Nai-wei, cultural minister-counselor of the Chinese Embassy, and Miss Wang Fu-jung, prima donna of the troupe.
During a three-day visit to Washington, the Foo Shing company gave two performances at Howard University.
Pavilion visitors top one million
The China Pavilion at Expo '70 welcomed its millionth visitor April 20, one day after Asia's first world fair had its ten millionth visitor.
This means that 10 per cent of Expo visitors are seeing the China Pavilion, which ranks as one of the top five national buildings.
The millionth visitor was Mrs. Mitsue Kato, a 42-year-old Japanese housewife.
She stepped into the China Pavilion at 2:58 p.m. and was congratulated by Yang Nai-fan, commissioner of the pavilion.
Mrs. Kato received a VIP tour of the pavilion, a set of National Palace Museum albums and handicrafts from Taiwan.
Academia Sinica president resigns
President Chiang Kai-shek has accepted the resignation of Dr. Wang Shih-chieh from the presidency of the Academia Sinica, the highest research institution in the Republic of China.
Dr. Wang, 80 and in good health, said he resigned "to give the Academia Sinica the chance to have younger and more vigorous leadership".
Dr. Wang succeeded Dr. Hu Shih as head of the Academia in 1962.
During his tenure, he initiated a science cooperation program between the Academia and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. This led to the signing last year of a Sino-American agreement on science cooperation.
The Council of the Academia Sinica will meet to nominate three candidates to succeed Dr. Wang. President Chiang Kai-shek will choose one of them as head of the Academia.
Law drafted on private schools
The Education Ministry has drafted a Private School Law for which the Ministry of Justice will be co-sponsor. All private schools would be required to register with the government as foundations.
Application would be filed by the board of trustees and not the board chairman so as to protect school property. Members of the board would be directors of the foundation.
The Education Ministry has decided to establish more undergraduate departments and graduate schools at state-operated colleges and universities in the next three years to train personnel needed in the nation's rapid economic and social development.
The new departments will be mainly those offering advanced courses in science and technology.
Gabon leader learns Chinese boxing
President Albert Bongo of the Gabon Republic is learning Chinese tai chi chuan (shadow boxing) from Chung Ta-cheng, an expert.
Chung went to Gabon April 11 specifically to teach President Bongo.
The Gabon leader has been eager to learn Chinese boxing since he heard that President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast enjoys better health since learning tai chi chuan from a Chinese coach.
Chung was recommended to President Bongo by Timothoy T.M. Huang, the Chinese ambassador to Gabon.
Tai chi means the ultimate and chuan means boxing. Origins of tai chi chuan supposedly go back to Huang Ti, the first emperor.
Movements of tai chi chuan were organized at the end of the Sung dynasty some 800 years ago by a Taoist named Chang San-feng. He watched a snake fighting a bird and saw that the snake waited quietly, then struck once for the kill. Chinese boxing emphasizes strength and power through poised motion.
Many Chinese learn tai chi chuan for reasons of health and longevity.
Movements have such descriptive names as "Brush the tail of the sparrow", "Golden, cock stands on one leg", "Embrace the tiger to return to the mountain" and "The crane spreads its wings".
Professor Cheng Man-ching, an authority, counts 128 movements. But many of these are similar and he has cut the number to 37, which may be carried out in less than 10 minutes. Two sessions a day are sufficient for fitness.
Vocational training after graduation
Taiwan's Provincial Department of Education has decided to provide three months of vocational training for graduates of junior and senior nigh schools who do not plan to seek further schooling.
The measure will help these graduates learn a trade and get a job.
Junior high graduates will total 235,440 in July and only 155,500 will go on to senior high.
The department said the nation's Fifth Four-Year Economic Development Plan, now in its second year, calls for 233,700 new workers annually.
The department said a meeting will be held in August to discuss coordination of education and economic development and improved teaching methods at senior high schools and colleges.
Few students care for their majors
A poll conducted by Professor Huang Tien-chung of Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences and his students shows that only 82.39 per cent of college students are satisfied with their major course of study.
Responses came from 5,745 students of 28 colleges and universities.
Many students feel frustrated because they cannot take courses of their own preference.
Only one of 23 students in the Animal Husbandry Department at National Taiwan University is genuinely interested in his major. All but 64 of 457 students majoring in statistics are satisfied.
Preferred fields of major study are business administration, education, medicine, law and arts. Agriculture is the least popular course.
Rules on foreign study to be changed
The Ministry of Education will make some modifications in regulations governing graduate study abroad.
Included will be:
— Permission for normal college graduates to leave after teaching one or two years instead of five.
—Termination of the rule that a grade average of 85 qualifies graduates to go abroad. Because grading varies from school to school, students will be required to pass a qualifying examination given by the ministry.
A total of 3,444 students went abroad in 1969, compared with 2,711 in 1968. More than 13,800 Chinese students are studying in the United States. Most will stay there permanently.
In the last 20 years, only 1,343 students have returned after completing their studies abroad.
The ministry has asked the World Bank for a loan to help develop education in Taiwan.
Cabinet studies broadcasting law
Television commercials may be reduced to 10 per cent of air time when a new broadcasting law comes into force.
The bill was drafted by the Bureau of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Education and is under study by the Executive Yuan (cabinet).
Paul H. C. Wang, director of the bureau, said TV commercials would be limited to 10 per cent and radio advertising to 15 per cent of air time.
Commercials now take up about 20 per cent of TV time.
The law will stress program balance. Educational, cultural, news and public service programs would have to make up half the total. TV stations would be required to produce 60 per cent of their own programs.
Licenses of TV and radio stations would be renewable annually.
The bill has provisions for encouragement and penalizing of TV and radio stations.
Classical music played for club
Members and guests of the Taipei International Women's Club heard a Chinese classical musical program April 28. The orchestra was that of the Jade Bamboo Women's Chinese Music Society.
Some instruments are reminiscent of those in the West but the music is uniquely Oriental. Players include a school principal, several teachers, college and high school students, accountants and housewives. The society was organized last June and meets every Friday to rehearse. Mrs. Wang Cheng-hua is the director. The adviser is Liang Tsai-ping, professor of the National Academy of Arts. Professor Liang is an accomplished player of the cheng, a 16-string zither invented more than 2,000 years ago. He has composed 40 pieces for the instrument.