Jiàoyù xìng - Informative. Shih Chien University is a private university in Taipei, Taiwan. The diverse range of courses on offer attracts students from all over the world. The Shih Chien School for Design is highly regarded and one of the most renowned in Asia.
The campus is located in the north of Taipei. It is a modern concrete building complex with lots of green spaces where you can sit down and relax. Directly behind the university are the mountains that surround Taipei. There you can go for a walk and take a break from "big city life" if you are prepared to encounter spiders as big as your face. The Fashion Design program at Shih Chien University is a three-year Bachelor's degree program. Just like at Pforzheim University, you can choose between projects, theoretical courses, art classes and textile workshops. For example, we opted for "Chinese costume making". While making a typical Chinese garment, you learn about a certain Asian way of working with patterns, fabrics and needlework. Other courses include illustration, knitting, Chinese culture and Chinese language. For the regular students, there is a Fashion Week once a year where the students present their work.
At first, Shih Chien University was just Chinese to us. We were overwhelmed by the huge number of courses that we didn't even understand, the labyrinthine buildings and the supposedly insurmountable language barrier. But with Chinese-English, some "hand and foot language" and, above all, the warm, helpful Taiwanese people, we are now fully-fledged Shih Chien students.
Shǎn liàng - friendliness. The Taiwanese are the friendliest people we have ever met! Whether you're looking for directions or just don't know what to order in a restaurant, there's always a nice Taiwanese person who will offer to help - without you having to ask. They are very polite, friendly and open-minded. The same goes for all the International Service volunteers and our fashion classmates. They are very patient with us non-Chinese speakers, taking time to show us around Taipei and help us choose the right food. As for the language barrier, communication can sometimes be very difficult, so it's a real pleasure to have someone by your side to translate for you. This is also very helpful when we attend our Chinese classes. Without them trying so hard to help us without expecting anything in return, we would never succeed in these courses. We couldn't be more grateful for that!
Duō yuan - Diverse. The Taiwanese mentality is also reflected in a city like Taipei: as the capital and fourth largest city in Taiwan, it is a very modern, clean and well-organized megapolis. Whether by bike or subway, Taipei is easy to explore and visit all the beautiful places in the city. There is always something new to experience: be it in the streets of the city center, at the Shilin night market, at sunset from Taipei's tallest building, Taipei 101, or in a temple. The temples are architecturally impressive and beautifully decorated buildings where all kinds of gods are worshipped. Different parts of Asian culture have merged to create a unique Taiwanese culture. In addition to the ancient traditions of Taiwan's indigenous people and aborigines, there have been influences from China, Japan and Korea. The most important religious communities are Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, which are still practiced by the younger generation in modern everyday life.
Overall, Taipei is a large city full of diversity that warmly welcomes every foreigner and lets them stay as long as they like.
Piàoliang ò - Breathtaking. As a contrast to city life, Taiwan offers a whole range of breathtaking nature. Taiwan is an island roughly the size of Baden-Württemberg, surrounded by the China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Although the country is not particularly large, it offers almost every conceivable landscape. So we decided to drive around the island. We were amazed at what we could see within an hour's drive. You pass mountains 3000 meters high and the Taroko National Park with deep blue rivers and endless forests to arrive at the coast with high cliffs and rough waves. This is immediately followed by a sandy beach with palm trees and calm turquoise waters. In the next landscape, you are back in the mountains in front of the beautiful Sun Moon Lake, where you can also bathe in one of Taiwan's famous hot springs. So you can imagine that we saw and experienced an incredible amount of Taiwanese life on our nine-day trip and fell in love with this beautiful country.
Hào chī - delicious. Falling in love with the food here was not that easy. Smelly tofu, pork blood rice, everything fried and soup for breakfast shocked us. But again, with a lot of help from our Taiwanese friends, we discovered a culinary paradise. The huge night markets throughout Taipei make every meal an evening event. There is everything from the famous dumplings and bubble tea invented in Taiwan to ramen and delicious seafood. The various restaurants from across Asia are also an option if you've had enough of tofu for breakfast, and Western food has also found its way to Taiwan. So the only way to deal with this is trial and error: you might find exactly what your heart desires, or exactly what your stomach rejects.
We wanted something different. Another continent. A different culture. A different way of thinking.
That's what we found at Shih Chien University in Taipei.
