Fei Tian College Northern Forms Ties With Taiwanese Arts High School

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Faculty and students from the Taiwanese Niaosong High School of the Arts visited the Fei Tian College Northern Campus to deepen relations with local schools and the city of Middletown area.

Fei Tian College Northern vice president Joseph Zhao signed memorandums of understanding with Niaosong school Principal Benjamin Wu on April 22, affirming cooperation and opening the door to student and staff exchanges. There were 16 students in the audience from Niaosong who were visiting New York state for a week.

The Taiwanese school also signed an agreement with Northern Academy of the Arts High School Principal Tim Sun to establish a sister school relationship.

Niaosong High School is a classical arts education school in Yunlin County in Taiwan. The school focuses on classical Chinese dance, Renaissance and realist artwork, and classical eastern and western instruments. The school has about 400 students and hosts international exchange students.

Fei Tian College Northern Director of Strategic Development Sean Lin told The Epoch Times that relations are being established with Niaosong because the schools share similar goals and can help each other grow. He said he believes that the two schools connect well because of a shared foundation in traditional arts and values.

“I think we are very much aligned in our core values and our visions and what kind of talents we want to prepare,” Lin said.

“Especially in this kind of [artificial intelligence] age, where you want our students to be a completely developed person, not just knowing technologies. We want people to have a solid foundation in their morality, in their characters, in their mental resiliency.”

The collaboration between the schools focuses on faculty and student exchanges, curriculum design, and joint events. Lin said the partnership would open the college up to a more international crowd.

Lin spoke of Fei Tian College Northern as a place in the United States where Taiwanese students with global aspirations could land.

“We want to have those [Taiwanese] people coming to the United States to learn, and our college will provide a great soft landing for those students, for those industry leaders, because we understand the culture, and we provide a very secure environment where we are totally immune from the communist infiltration,” Lin said.

Lin noted that Fei Tian College Northern has six memorandums of understanding with several universities in Taiwan, and that six college students are scheduled to go to the island this summer for internships.

Making the Orange County region of New York known to people in Taiwan could also increase tourism in the area, Lin suggested. He said that the Hudson Valley has many attractions that Taiwanese people are unaware of.

Wu told The Epoch Times that the memorandum was the starting point of a long-term exchange and interaction between the schools’ teachers and courses. He said he hopes that both sides can benefit from each other in terms of education and culture.

Wu talked about how the 16 Taiwanese students were feeling about their visit to New York.

“The atmosphere of a different country and city, including the scenery, customs, and culture, these broaden the students’ horizons and prevents them from being constrained,” Wu said. “They realize that other countries can be very different.

“Their first reaction when coming here is feeling very comfortable. Because the campus is large and spacious, with tall trees and wide lawns, it looks very pleasant. Another deep impression is the vast sky and the very white clouds. In Taiwan, the sky is usually gray and hazy.”

Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano spoke at the signing ceremony, congratulating the schools and thanking the people at Fei Tian for rehabilitating the abandoned campus.

“We owe it to the whole crew of Fei Tian, for the restoration that is happening on this campus, and that had to spin off into our community, into our residential neighborhoods and into our commercial neighborhoods,” DeStefano said. “So thank you for coming here.”

The mayor later awarded Niaosong High School the Key to the City, enshrining the city’s support for the national partnership.