The College of Humanities and Arts, National Chiayi University, is a combination of the two major domains including “humanities” and “art.” It consists of five departments of Chinese Literature, Foreign Languages, Applied History, Visual Arts and Music, as well as two affiliated units including the Center of Humanities and Arts, and Taiwan Culture Research Center. The college nurtures outstanding talents who pursue excellence and innovation, skills and ethics, whole-person development, social concern, cultural awareness and global vision. To encourage students to learn with a global perspective, the college has signed MOU cooperation agreements with Okayama University and Tokushima University in Japan, University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, Communication University of China in Beijing, Lubeck Academy of Music in Germany, which is one of the sister schools of NCYU, among others. Student exchange programs, visits and exhibitions are organized on an annual basis. All these are expected to pave the path for their future career in international cultural education, artistic creation, drama performance and other fields. Over the years, the NCYU Musical Troupe, NCYU Arts Festival, International Conference on Chiayi Research, for example, have become representative art and cultural events in the Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan region. They are expected to exert a deep influence on the local humanistic literacy and development of history and culture.

Teachers and Students Engaged in Interdisciplinary Learning: Paving Way for Students’ Careers through Synergy
　　The teachers of the college are dedicated to interdisciplinary projects and, for the NCYU Department of Chinese Literature, writing is no longer just talking on paper. Combining literature with agriculture, “Planting the Future of Agriculture in the Story Field” is a topic-oriented, cross-faculty curriculum development plan with a focus on narrative innovation. Innovative courses are offered to promote a interdisciplinary teacher community in response to the pivotal issues of food and agriculture, and food safety. By promoting cooperation between professionals in humanities and food and agriculture, they hope to facilitate innovative development in cultural and creative agriculture and enhancefuture competitiveness through synergy. The faculty of the Department of Foreign Languages excels in English teaching at the elementary school level, English writing teaching and cross-cultural studies, application of AR/VR or board games in English teaching, development of digital assessment test of Hokkien and Chinese vocabulary, metaphor research on people with autism, teaching Chinese as a second language, and studies on sentence meanings, among others. In response to the progress of digital technology trends, they are devoted to facilitating interdisciplinary humanities, cultural and creative development, and CLIC English teaching via digital methods. For instance, digital technology, e.g., the Python and Scratch programs, data science and big data, are used in the classroom to enhance students’ learning effectiveness. The Music Department offers “Performing Arts and Marketing Talent Cultivation and Social Feedback Program,” and the unprecedented interdisciplinary “Musical Theatre Production Program.” It provides a theater learning platform to non-music students through the “musical theater” performance, characterized by a multi-artistic theatrical form with various artistic skills. In conjunction with the policy of the Ministry of Education (MOE), the teachers of the Department of Visual Arts have been promoting the “Interdisciplinary Aesthetic Education Excellence Pilot Program” and “Performing Arts and Marketing Talent Cultivation and Social Feedback Program” to promote life education with a focus on aesthetic education.

Department of Chinese Literature
　　The Department of Chinese Literature is dedicated to passing on the Chinese academic culture, and cultivating students with academic knowledge of Chinese and Taiwanese literature, solid humanistic literacy and critical thinking. It is committed to training new-age professionals in Chinese with a solid background in humanities and necessary skills in technology, as well as the ability to put theory into practice. Each year, the teachers and students work together to organize international academic seminars where students may exchange ideas with international scholars, thus promoting an atmosphere of academic research. The “Journal of Chinese Literature of National Chiayi University” is published to explore Chinese literature and culture. They also hold the NCYU Modern Literature Award, Brave Literature Award, Chinese Night Graduation Play, which provide a stage for students to perform and unleash their creativity. In addition to professional courses, the department offers practical courses to train professionals who meet workplace demands. The practical courses include “News Editing and Interview, “Theatre Practice,” “Reporting Literature,” “Modern Poetry Creative Writing,” “Script Writing,” “Cultural and Creative Practice,” “Digital Editing and Publishing,” etc. These are expected to help reduce the education-job mismatch. After graduation, the students may seek jobs in such fields as supplementary education and publishing. They may also work as editors, screenwriters, or work civilian jobs at government agencies or others.

Department of Foreign Languages
　　The Department of Foreign Languages, which focuses on training students with an interest in “English teaching” or “applied foreign languages,” consists of the English Teaching Group and Applied Foreign Language Group. The English Teaching Group is dedicated to enhancing students’ English theoretical foundations and communication skills, as well as learning and application of pedagogy. It also nurtures the abilities to teach English with the assistance of digital technology and board game design. Students who have passed the qualification as a prospective teacher, completed the professional courses offered by the teacher training programs, and met the relevant regulations stipulated by the MOE may have the chance to become English teachers in national elementary or junior high schools in the future. They may also serve as English teachers in private educational institutes or as copywriters with professional foreign language abilities in the industry, or work at English-language publishers. The Applied Foreign Language Group is devoted to cultivating students’ professional skills in English (or foreign) language communication, business communication and translation. In addition to improving their English skills, the students may also take second foreign language (Japanese/French) and business courses. The comprehensive training is expected to enable the students to work in the transportation services sector, or serve as speech therapists, translators, trade marketing specialists, etc., after graduation. As language is the key to the world, a good command of foreign languages would allow you to explore the subtleties of the world from a more profound perspective. The MOE has been offering grants for students to carry out student exchanges, teaching internships and other programs at universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and other countries on an annual basis. The objective is to strengthen students’ ability to learn in an international environment. The department boasts a faculty with a wealth of expertise, ranging from linguistics, English teaching, and British and American literature. They have been engaged in a wide spectrum of cooperation projects with foreign institutions. In recent years, they have signed agreements to carry out, for example, the MOE’s project to Strengthen Linkages within ASEAN and South Asian Countries, the EU’s ERASMUS International Academic Exchange, and the International Exchange at the University of Warsaw, Poland. The faculty of the department has been sparing no effort to instruct students to apply for college student research projects and participate in competitions, and a list of outstanding achievements have been achieved. The students obtained the College Student Research Creativity Award for the academic year 2019-2020, and exceptional award at “2020 Business Simulation Game,” which bore witnesss to their remarkable outcomes in interdisciplinary cooperation and diverse learning. They also won the second place at the Hackathon Programming Competition in the digital governance and creative thinking category.

Department of Applied History
　　The Department of Applied History is the first application-oriented department (graduate institute) of history in Taiwan. It focuses on history, supplemented by attention to the environment and regional development, and has been proactive to connect with contemporary social needs and major issues of the times. By offering function-oriented courses, it provides students with knowledge both in humanities and regional research, so as to facilitate its linkage with the cultural and creative industry. After graduation, the students may engage in related industries ranging from cultural assets, tour guide services, museum management, historical data compilation to social building. To encourages the students to develop interdisciplinary expertise, the department organizes the “History and Culture Promotion Award” contest that integrates history and culture into images, digital animation, and graphic creation. By incorporating elements of the cultural, tour guiding, social building and multimedia industries, it is expected to nurture and enhance students’ historical knowledge, professional skills, practical and application skills, as well as creativity and profound creative thinking, thus encouraging them to explore the extensive possibilities of applied history. “Journal of Applied History of National Chiayi University” is published to serve as an explorer and successor of culture and history. By breaking away from the stereotypical perceptions of local cultural assets, it aims to probe into insignificant or undiscovered bits of historical culture, thus enhancing academic exchanges and research development.


Music Department
　　The faculty of the Music Department boasts a wide spectrum of expertise, who are professionals in piano, wind music, string music, vocal music, music education, musicology, theoretical composition, conducting, jazz and recording engineering. The student-oriented curriculum is specially planned to close the education-employment gap, and provide a professional training space, hoping to cultivate students’ basic literacy in music profession, as well as professional abilities to perform music, teach music, and apply music in accordance with popular needs. The department is devoted to nurturing performing (or singing) skills by offering professional theoretical courses, and opportunities for students to join performance groups including symphony orchestras, symphonic orchestras, jazz orchestras, choirs, and musical theatre groups. All these are expected to enhance students’ actual performance, curatorial experience and teamwork. A large-scale musical performance, the well-received NCYU Musical Troupe has been organized for twenty years, and is one of the the most representative annual art events in the Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan region. In recent years, tens of millions (NTD) have been invested to create a professional teaching space to meet the needs of teaching and performance. A pop music practice room, a professional recording studio and a piano room with constant temperature and humidity control, among others, were established. They also purchased a performance grand piano, and replaced old percussion instruments and movable stage performance audio equipment. The department outshines its counterparts in Taiwan with the variety of hardware and software equipment. The goal is to cultivate competent professional performers and music educators, complete with professional skills and professionalism in music performance.

Department of Visual Arts
　　The Department of Visual Arts is committed to cultivating professional art creators, art designers and art theory researchers. On the one hand, it introduces students to the professional knowledge and research methods of art and design. On the other hand, it enables students to experience and express visual concepts from discussion of art materials and forms, and enhances their visual acuity and expressiveness. It provides students with opportunities for independent creation and research on an annual basis. By promoting cooperation with the community in art and culture, it helps enhance the local understanding and appreciation of art. In addition, the department encourages students to get closer to the countryside, and love and beautify this land. The curriculum planning focuses on enhancing students’ knowledge and ability in art creation, design, art education and art theory. It also puts emphasis on the complementing traditional art media and digital media, enhancing students’ competitiveness in academic research and job market. After graduation, they may devote themselves to artistic creation and design, or art theory research and writing, or serve as an art administrator. Apart from strengthening students’ professional academic knowledge, the teachers of the department encourage the students to create in full freedom. Chen Hong-Yuan, a graduate student of Visual Arts, won the Judges’ Award at the “Luminous Art Marketing” held by the National Hsinchu Living Arts Center in 2020. Luo Pei-Yun, an outstanding recent graduate in 2020, claimed the second category of Pingtung Award at the “Fineart Exhibition In Pingtung” as a dark horse. The department is dedicated to the educational goal of cultivating remarkable young art professionals with competitiveness at home and abroad.