(Provided by Department of Theater Arts) The beach on the west coast of Chaishan Mountain was given the names ‘secret beach’ and ‘Chaishan’s Alangyi Trail’. Besides the beautiful views, what does this place have in store? Assistant Professor of the Department of Theater Arts I-Lien Ho started the Theater And Performance Art Into Urban Life (II) general education course and organized a cross-university workshop for her and National Kaohsiung Normal University (NKNU) students – “Exploring the secret beach: Chaishan Mountain’s west coast” in the midst of the nature of the ocean and the mountains.
The students taking a walk along the Chaishan coast.
Professor Ho said that this semester, the Theater and Performance Art Into Urban Life (II) general education course focused on the performance art and the dialogue with nature in the surroundings of the NSYSU campus – Chaishan Mountain and the adjacent coastline. This workshop for NSYSU students and the students of the Environmental Art course at Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Art, NKNU, was conducted by an invited lecturer – a board member of Citizen of the Earth Chih-Nan Fu.
The workshop was conducted by an invited lecturer – a board member of Citizen of the Earth Chih-Nan Fu, who gave a presentation on the geology and nature of the coastline.
“The beach by Chaishan Mountain is the best classroom to teach geology!” Fu gave a walking tour and gave a presentation of the unique flora and fauna that could be seen along the way, such as Taiwan hwamei, banyan tree, spiny bamboo, dye fig, and paper mulberry, valuable for biodiversity and culture. The students visited the beach to observe the formation and change of the coastal landscape that occurred in recent years. Fu mentioned that in recent years, wave-breaking tetrapods have probably been the reason for the changes in the coastline. One of the students, Yun-Tzu Chang, added that the coastline used to be a beautiful white coral reef and pebble beach, while now it is covered by black sand, probably brought by the ocean waters from Cijin Island, judging by the geographical position.
Lecturer Chih-Nan Fu also shared some environmental education concepts. “If we are not allowed to get close to the mountains and the sea, how can we understand them?” He said that he hopes to let more people get to know the environment and that many young people like to go hiking for health and the joy of making a mountain peak, but “lack the knowledge on the natural environment and its humanistic values”. The students found the workshop inspirational and said that in the future, they will pay more attention to the surrounding natural landscape when hiking.
(Edited by Public Affairs Division)