UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa — On Jan. 13, Penn State Global and the Department of Asian Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts welcomed Frank Yung-Hsiang Ying, executive vice president for National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) to the University Park Campus. NTNU first signed a cooperative agreement with Penn State in 1983 to establish faculty and graduate student/scholar exchange programs. Ying’s visit this month was scheduled in order to celebrate the continuation of this partnership as well as to honor a new initiative with the Department of Asian Studies.
On Jan. 14, the department hosted Ying in a hybrid, in-person and online “unveiling ceremony.” During the ceremony, Ying and the chair of the Asian Studies department, Erica Brindley, unveiled a plaque gifted to the department by NTNU to commemorate the beginning of an institutional exchange and partnership supporting the study of Mandarin Chinese. Representatives of both universities, as well as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, gave speeches.
Brindley noted, “We were honored by Vice President Frank Ying’s visit to Penn State and happy to commemorate the signing of our collaboration agreement with the NTNU. The language training and study abroad experience that this program supports helps further Penn State Asian Studies’ mission to promote cross-cultural understandings and collaborations between the U.S. and Asia.”
Brindley said he hopes that this partnership will contribute much in the form of long-term advantages, not only between Penn State and NTNU but between the U.S. and all Chinese-language speaking parts of the world.
"The long-term benefits of improved relations with Taiwan in particular are many, including cooperative efforts on climate change, semi-conductors and business relations, improved diplomatic and international relations, and more,” said Brindley.