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Citing Tsai Ing-wen’s ‘bookworm’ experience, NTU president urges freshmen to understand the real world

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • National Taiwan University held its opening ceremony for the 115th academic year, welcoming more than 10,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students.
  • President Chen Wen-chang cited former President Tsai Ing-wen’s experiences to urge students to master their specialties, engage with the real world, communicate clearly and show empathy.
  • Chen also encouraged students to make choices, accept responsibility, adjust after failure and use their expertise to serve society.

More than 10,000 new students began the academic year at National Taiwan University with a message that education must extend beyond textbooks and classrooms. University President Chen Wen-chang used former President Tsai Ing-wen’s own reflections about her student years to make the point.

bookworm

· Tsai Ing-wenChen cited Tsai’s description of herself as a serious bookworm even after earning a doctorate.

Tsai has described herself as a serious “bookworm” even after earning a doctorate. She also recalled that she was not particularly good at communicating when she was young and later concluded that “if what you say is not understood by the other person, or you do not understand what the other person says, that is your problem.” Chen presented those experiences as a lesson for students entering university.

He outlined three expectations: learn one’s specialty well and understand how to apply it for the benefit of society, leave the classroom to encounter the real world, and learn both how to choose and how to bear responsibility for those choices. Knowledge explains what something is, he said, while professional expertise shows how to do it. A university education should also lead students to ask why they are acting, whom they are serving and what kind of person they want to become.

If what you say is not understood by the other person, or you do not understand what the other person says, that is your problem.

· Tsai Ing-wenChen used Tsai’s reflection on communication to stress the importance of mutual understanding.

Chen urged students in fields ranging from engineering and medicine to law, management, the humanities and social sciences to build genuine ability and bring it into real-world settings. He encouraged them to join clubs, conduct research, take internships, serve others and explore unfamiliar areas rather than simply accumulate credits.

Choice and judgment

· Young LiuChen cited the Foxconn chairman’s view of key leadership abilities.

He also emphasized that communication means creating mutual understanding, not merely expressing one’s own ideas clearly. Empathy does not require agreement with everyone, he said, but it does require trying to understand people even when disagreement remains. Citing Foxconn Chairman Young Liu’s view that leaders need judgment, choice and the willingness to keep fighting after setbacks, Chen told students they need not find one perfect answer or follow someone else’s timetable. They should commit to their choices, adjust courageously when wrong and learn from failure.

Fight again after repeated defeats

· Young LiuChen referred to Liu’s encouragement to persist after failure while becoming more discerning.
About this summary

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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