AIT ready to open American center in southern Taiwan

The America Institute in Taiwan (AIT) plans to open Taiwan's first American Center in Kaohsiung at the National Sun Yat-sen University to promote exchanges in culture, history and society between Taiwan and the US.

"This will be an information and resource center for American studies scholars and students in southern Taiwan. We will be providing a core collection of American studies books and information about studying in the US," said Kay Mayfield, the acting spokesperson of AIT in Taipei. The new center will open late this year or in early 2000.

"It will be a partner to the American Cultural Center in Taipei; we'll be sharing a lot of programs and exhibitions with them," Mayfield added.

The university is an unusual choice for AIT because it is so far from Taipei. However, as a source at the school explained, "AIT selected the university for its young and active faculty, many of whom have degrees from US universities."

Furthermore, AIT feels it is important to promote cultural exchanges in southern Tai-wan.

The center's architect, Dr Glenn Shive, director of Hong Kong's American Studies Center, has been working on the project for the past year.

Victor Liu (劉維琪), president of the university, and Raymond Burghardt, director of the AIT Taipei office, signed a preliminary agreement on Sept. 11, but AIT has not made its plans public until now.

"The project has been in discussion for some time and we are very happy our director and President Lui recently signed a memorandum of understanding to initiate the cente. We are looking forward to working with the university to start programming and providing more resources to American studies scholars in southern Taiwan soon," said May-field.

The center will be privately-funded by educational and business donations, and the center's visiting scholars will come from the Fulbright Association. The center will use the Internet to facilitate long-distance learning and hold exhibitions, seminars and lectures with the aim of increasing understanding between Taiwan and the US.

At present the university has only 30 foreign students, but after the center opens, AIT and the university hope this figure will surpass 500.

The establishment of the center in Kaohsiung, which already boasts an AIT branch office, an American Chamber of Commerce and an American school, is a further illustration of AIT's long-term commitment to the southern part of Taiwan.