Aerial view of Xiamen University Siming Campus. (File photo)
The treasure island of Taiwan was connected to the mainland in ancient times. After the sea surface rises, the geological changes, and the connected land part is submerged, forming the Taiwan Strait and the emergence of Taiwan Island. Although it is separated from the sea but not far away, the narrowest part of the Taiwan Strait is only 130 kilometers, and the deepest point is only 80 meters. In 1921, in Fujian on the west bank of the Taiwan Strait, Chen Jiageng, who embraced "education as the foundation of the country", chose the Xiamen Martial Arts Field, the former Zheng Chenggong Military Training Ground, and built the century-old Xiamen University. "The strait is not a ruthless knife, it will eventually become a bridge of communication." Turning over this century-old school chapter, the stories in thousands of exchanges have deep roots, and the love affairs that are not easy to get along are even more turbulent.
One side of the stone, ten thousand years of time
On the shore of Furong Lake on the campus of Xiamen University, there is a three-story building in the style of Dong Jiageng, which reads "Xiamen University Museum of Humanity". This is the first museum of humanity in our country. The museum Chinese more than 8,000 pieces, including a seemingly ordinary stone, named "Youduan Stone Hammer", the place of collection: "Taiwan".
"There are Stone Age relics in Taiwan, which have been heard for a long time, and I will pay attention to them after arriving in Taiwan." This is the record of lin huixiang, the first student and anthropologist of Xiamen University, who went to Taiwan in 1929 to collect cultural relics. During this trip, Lin Huixiang went deep into the alpine ethnic gathering area in Taiwan, brought back more than 100 cultural relics specimens, and wrote a book called "The Primitive Culture of the Fan Ethnic Group in Taiwan", becoming the first scholar in China to systematically study the Taiwan Alpine ethnic group. Time has lost its voice, but only the stone can speak. In his posthumous work" One of the Characteristics of Neolithic Culture in Southeast China: A Section of Stone Gong, Lin Huixiang deduced that Taiwan's Neolithic culture came from the mainland, and the ancestors of the Alpine tribe mainly migrated from the mainland.
A letter from home, full of enthusiasm
"We have a heart of enthusiasm, a heart of learning, and a heart of service to Taiwan compatriots." Huang Zizheng, an alumnus of Xiamen University who went to Taiwan to work in 1947, wrote to his alma mater.
Taiwan was restored in 1945. Geographically close and culturally rooted, Taiwan and Xiamen University took the lead in opening up exchanges. Xiamen University was one of the first universities to enroll Taiwanese students, enrolling nearly 100 Taiwanese students between 1946 and 1949. Taiwanese students also favor Xiamen University, and among the first batch of "publicly-funded students from Taiwan Province to study in mainland universities", they volunteered to choose Xiamen University the most.
After the restoration of Taiwan, Xiamen University graduates went to Taiwan with enthusiasm to participate in the reconstruction. From 1945 to 1949, more than 300 graduates of Xiamen University went to Taiwan, helping Taiwan to become one of the "Top Ten Constructions" of the Four Asian Tigers, and six of them were hosted or participated in by the children of Changting Xiamen University. As an expert in planning and design, Guo Baosheng participated in the construction of the expressway from Keelung to Kaohsiung; Chen Zhenhua "grew up with Taipower all his life from black hair to white hair"; Jin Shitian and others were known as the "Eight King Kongs of Xiamen University" in the telecommunications industry; the formula for calculating flood volume deduced by Yan Jiaquan is still used today; more than 90 Xiamen University alumni such as Jiang Juqian, Yao Yiwei, and Lu Yanqi have successively gone to Taiwan to engage in education, literary and artistic work...
A pact, ten thousand mountains without hindrance
In 1979, the "Letter to Taiwan Compatriots" was published. In 1980, the first academic institution at home and abroad specializing in Taiwan studies, the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University (later the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University), was established. It has created a number of firsts: recruiting the first batch of master's degree students, creating the first academic journal specializing in the study of the Taiwan issue, and establishing the first non-governmental academic institution on the mainland specializing in Taiwan...
"I was very excited to go to Taiwan for the first time, and this step was also very difficult." In 1991, Xiamen University alumnus Fan Liqing was one of two mainland journalists who went to Taiwan for the first time. Not only Fan Liqing, Zhang Kehui, Lu Jiaxi, Sun Yafu, many leaders of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council... Many people in Xiamen are busy promoting the development of cross-strait relations.
In 1995, the "Agreement on Academic Exchange between Xiamen University and Tamkang University" was signed in Taiwan, creating a precedent for cross-strait inter-university exchanges and cooperation. Xiamen University has cooperated with 33 institutions in Taiwan, and more than 1,000 teachers and students visit each other every year. Xiamen University is also one of the mainland universities with the most active enrollment in Taiwan and the largest number of Taiwanese students.
A reunion, all kinds of affection
"Nostalgia is a shallow strait / I am here / The mainland is at that end ..." A poem "Nostalgia" by Yu Guangzhong, an alumnus of Xiamen University in 1948, spread across the strait. How could I have expected that when I looked back at the stern of the ship and fell to the vast horizontal line, it was not only a fish island and a drum wave, but a divine state that carried everything thickly..." As Yu Guangzhong said, I did not know the return date when I was gone.
The brothers Huang Diancheng and Huang Dianquan, who are also xiamen university students, have been separated for 40 years. Taking advantage of the seminar in Hong Kong, the brothers finally met and cried with headaches. However, Huang Dianquan never returned to the mainland in his lifetime, and before his death, he transferred his treasured ancient map of Taiwan to Xiamen University.
After the two sides of the strait broke the ice, Xiamen University Taiwan alumnus and 1948 graduate Zhou Xuantang returned to his alma mater many times and donated millions of bursaries to the school. "The Father of Taiwan's Silicon Valley" and alumnus He Yici, he frequently went to the mainland to help beijing Zhongguancun, Xiamen Torch Park, Xiamen University interdisciplinary construction and so on.
The first batch of xiamen university graduates who went to Taiwan shine brightly for the reunification of the motherland and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Just as Yu Guang expected, this shallow strait of the bay, how many sorrows and joys, will eventually be smoothed out. What is eternal is the warm current of human feelings that come and go, and continue to extend this deep century-old friendship between the school and the land.