College mascots, which might be chosen to reflect an institute’s mores, raise morale at sports events, promote solidarity or boost revenue, are an increasingly common sight on Taiwanese campuses.
The mascots of two Hsinchu colleges — National Chiao Tung University’s (NCTU) bamboo lemur, and National Tsing Hua University’s (NTHU) panda — are well known for their long rivalry and common origins.
The mascots trace their origins to the “Plum and Bamboo Championships” NCTU-NTHU intramural games founded in 1968 by alumni of the two schools, which aim to highlight the personal and academic ties of the students at the two institutions.
Photo courtesy of National Chiao Tung University
The Plum and Bamboo Championships were named after sites at the two universities: the NTHU plum blossom garden built to honor former university president Mei Yi-chi (梅貽琦), whose surname means “plum,” and NCTU’s Chu-ming Memorial Room — named after its former president Ling Chu-ming (凌竹銘) — whose name contains a Chinese character meaning “bamboo.”
In 1999, NCTU chose the bamboo lemur — the Chinese characters for which mean “bamboo fox” — as its mascot, on the grounds that it is suggestive of Bamboo Lake, considered the campus’ most scenic location.
The original NCTU lemur was designed by two management science students, Lee I-chen (李弋真) and Lien Chih-min (連啟民), and featured a golden coat, short drooping ears and big eyes.
Photo courtesy of Ming Chuan University
In 2009, the second incarnation of the NCTU lemur was created. Its coat was now orange and its appearance was made more anthropomorphic, so that it could be more easily adapted into mascot costumes.
Taipei’s Ming Chuan University (MCU) chose Jing xi (“happy whale”) as its mascot in 2003, and in 2005 it became the nation’s first college mascot to be patented, then-MCU admissions office director Chueh Shu-ju (闕淑茹) said.
“Jing xi was also given an English name, Surprise, a joke based on the fact that Jing xi is homophonous with a Chinese term for surprise,” she said.
The mascot is meant to represent magnanimity, friendliness, intelligence and sociability, and a whale’s prodigious seafaring ability — along with its adaptability and curiosity — are attributes MCU students aspire to, she said.
The mascot has since become a ubiquitous presence on the MCU campus. In addition to sports events, the mascot graces the university’s T-shirts, crackers, USB drives, stickers, mugs, pens, ziplock bags and post-it notes.
Taichung’s Overseas Chinese University (OCU) adopted a flying fish as its mascot in 2014 to mark its 50th anniversary.
The OCU flying fish symbolizes the ideals of “solidarity, vigor and ambition,” OCU school board director Chen Po-tao (陳伯濤) said.
The flying fish can glide for 45 seconds at 1m above sea level, reaching speeds up to 70kph, and it can do so in cooperative schools, Chen said, adding that the creatures “display the kind of can-do spirit that OCU takes pride in.”
The nation’s higher education industry is in turmoil, and OCU is in the process of transforming and restructuring, and the flying fish embodies the innovation and ingenuity needed to overcome adversity, he said.
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences (KUAS) since 2006 has had a pair of mascots: the male All Bear and female Pass Bear, two Taiwanese black bears with white, V-shaped stripes on their chests.
They took their names after “all pass,” a colloquial expression used in English by college students to signify having survived their finals with their academic records intact.
The mascots were selected by students in a vote, while four other designs were considered: a dinosaur, a macaque, a parrot and a giraffe, KUAS said.
Each proposal was billed as a symbolic representation of KUAS traits: the dinosaur symbolized its fearsome presence, the macaque its lively intelligence, the parrot its boundless energy and the giraffe its flexibility, while the Taiwanese black bear embodies an earthy cuteness and prowess, KUAS said.
KUAS’ Department of Cultural and Creative Industries has since 2009 produced All Pass Bear-themed brooches, key rings, magnets, business cards, student IDs, screen-printed T-shirts and towels.
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