Kaohsiung Medical College was originally established in 1954 due to the lack of a coherent medical system in the south of Taiwan. The former director of the College of Medicine at National Taiwan University, Dr. Tu Tsung-ming, perceived the lack of doctors in the area and therefore advocated the founding of a medical school in Kaohsiung. The locally eminent personage Chen Chi-chuan generously donated the land for the campus, and the first institute of higher learning in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung area was thus established.

In October of that year the first class of sixty-one medical students attended the opening ceremonies for the school in the auditorium of Ai Kuo Elementary School. There was not one piece of lab equipment or even a textbook to be seen, yet classes began as scheduled. At that time there were only two medical schools in all of Taiwan, that at National Taiwan University and the relatively newly established National Defense Medical Center. The added reinforcement of Kaohsiung Medical College was a most welcome event, especially within southern Taiwan.

It was, however, no small feat to get this privately operated school open and running. As the campus buildings were not yet completed upon the opening of the school, the only thing to do was to borrow the use of the Ai Kuo Elementary School auditorium. The present dean of studies, Chen Ying-lin, himself a student in that first class over thirty years ago, recall, "Half of the auditorium was used for classrooms, one quarter of it was our cafeteria, and the remaining quarter served as the dormitory."

The barren environment of that first year was gradually improved through years of careful management, so that today the circumstances of Kaohsiung Medical College are indeed quite comfortable. The campus facilities have been completed one by one, the university hospital has opened up shop, and the Nuclear Medicine Building, including a audio-visual recording studio and a multimedia learning center, is fully operational.

It is quite difficult for a private school such as this one to obtain the financial assistance of the government, and the contributions of area organizations are also very limited. How is it then possible for the school to provide such advanced facilities? "To tell you the truth, the expansion of our medical and laboratory equipment, the facilities of the medical school, and professor's salaries are all paid for out of the profits from the hospital," was director Hsieh Hsien-chen's frank reply to this question.

As many people know, there are three especially unique research centers sponsored by Kaohsiung Medical College, of which one is the Tropical Medicine Research Center. As the school itself is located in the tropics, and Taiwan is one of the most technically and economically advanced tropical regions, school administrators felt it was their duty to set up just such a center. What exactly does the study of tropical medicine entail? "It's not strictly the study of tropical diseases as such, it is rather the study of any and all diseases that occur in tropical areas," points out Chen Ying-lin, professor of the research center. In addition to cholera, bubonic plague, small pox, and other such acutely contagious diseases which are easily contracted in the tropics, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other more universally common diseases are also objects of study here. For example, due to the relatively high temperatures common in the tropics, people here naturally tend to perspire more than those in colder regions. As a result, the level of salt absorption tolerable in the tropics is much higher than that in colder regions, so that the regulation of a proper diet here must be necessarily different.

Another of the special research centers to be found here is dedicated to the study of natural medicine. "Kaohsiung Medical College initiated the Natural Products Research Center with the hope of further developing these natural medical resources. . . . What we are generally after is a deeper understanding of the medicinal legacy which nature itself has provided us," explains Tsen Cheng-chi, director of the Department of Pharmacology.

This center has provided practicing pharmacists with the opportunity to gain greater insight into the practices of traditional Chinese medicine by offering continuing education courses in this field. Professor of Pharmacology Lin Chun-ching emphasizes that by supplementing pharmacists' backgrounds in the basic concepts of Chinese medicine, herbal science, and the refining of herbal medicines, the center intends to bring modern scientific understanding into the use of these ancient prescriptions.

As per social life on campus, in the past the student body of Kaoshiung Medical College was made up almost entirely of men, so that any time there was to be a larger social gathering, it became necessary to "borrow" a number of students from some of the neighboring universities. Today, however, this inconvenience has been resolved by the induction of female students into the more recently established Department of Nursing. The jest has been made to the effect that, "Dragon and phoenix, doctor and nurse--how could you ask for a more ideal match?"

Some of the men at Kaohsinng Med view their female counterparts in a different light. One medical student feels that his female classmates have sharp minds, perform excellently in their studies, and overall truly deserve to be known as "intellectual" women. On the other hand, he says it's "too bad" that each and every one is just like a doctor or a dentist; they are so cold and imposing as to be unapproachable.

"The men in our class feel we lack the 'character' of the women in the literature departments of other schools. They even got together and donated money to buy us skirts! Now that's going too far!" exclaims a second-year dental student, smiling with tears in her eyes.

Due to a lack of campus housing, the majority of students live somewhere in the vicinity of the school. A neighboring temple entrance has become the unofficial gathering place for "extra-curricular" meetings. "They study very hard, often burning the midnight oil," says the owner of a popular local eatery. "No matter what the time, there are always students coming in for a snack and a chat."

"The longer I study here, the more I grow to dislike the idea of graduating," claims a student in the Department of Medical Technology. One of his fellow students from the Nursing Department agrees, saying earnestly, "You know, our school may not be the biggest or the best, but we really make use of our limited resources in making speedy, determined progress towards our goals." One graduating senior, in assessing his time spent at Kaohsiung Medical College, came right to the point: "Now I've got real possibilities and a real future ahead of me." When students graduate with such a strong sense of confidence in their futures, you know that the future of their school can only be equally as bright.

[Picture Caption]

Students in the Department of Dentistry practice making fillings in artificial mouths.

The view of the Kaohsiung Medical College campus is quite pleasant from this meeting room in the Li-Hsueh building.

Today's lectures become tomorrow's resource materials with the help of Kaohsiung Med's audio-visual center.

Kaohsiung Medical College boasts a first-grade teaching hospital, providing an ideal learning center for medical students.

This recently completed addition to the campus hospital houses the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, but looks more like an art gallery.

Students grab a few minutes with their professor after class to try to clear up some difficult points.

Mid-term exams just finished, these students gathered in a courtyard to compare academic trials and tribulations.

Taking advantage of a momentary calm on the walkway, a student stops to rest his feet and bone up for class.

Kaohsiung Med is sometimes playfully known as "The Kaohsiung Junior College of Physical Education." Tennis, anyone?

The building behind the baseball field is Kaohsiung Medical College's Chungho Memorial Hospital, or "Taiwan University Hospital (South)."

The view of the Kaohsiung Medical College campus is quite pleasant from this meeting room in the Li-Hsueh building.

Today's lectures become tomorrow's resource materials with the help of Kaohsiung Med's audio-visual center.

Kaohsiung Medical College boasts a first-grade teaching hospital, providing an ideal learning center for medical students.

This recently completed addition to the campus hospital houses the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, but looks more like an art gallery.

Mid-term exams just finished, these students gathered in a courtyard to compare academic trials and tribulations.

Students grab a few minutes with their professor after class to try to clear up some difficult points.

Kaohsiung Med is sometimes playfully known as "The Kaohsiung Junior College of Physical Education." Tennis, anyone?

The building behind the baseball field is Kaohsiung Medical College's Chungho Memorial Hospital, or "Taiwan University Hospital （South）.".

Taking advantage of a momentary calm on the walkway, a student stops to rest his feet and bone up for class.