Is it a school athletic meet. or what?
The boys in front of the wooden stand are doing calisthenics while girls in long braids are dancing around an organ that has been moved outdoors. The children in back are playing tug of war. Behind the exercise field is a field of bamboo shoots. which were a major cash crop in Tungyuan during the Japanese occupation.
Long-braided girls in Chinese outfits practice knitting as three teachers in Japanese suits look on. Knitting and weaving was a required course for girls at t he time.
Many practical vocational courses were taught at elementary schools during the Japanese occupation, farming among them. A contest would be held at harvest time. The student whose rutabagas grew best being the winner.
How does it feel to hold this position? The caption in the graduation album say "endurance exercise" and "male beauty." Good for the spirit. no doubt.
Are the boys in briefs sumo wrestlers? The little he-men with folded arms have a stalwart look.
The "watermelon rind" hair style for schoolgirls that anyone who grew up in Taiwan is familiar with has arrived. The words on the blackboard -- "fig ht to the finish" and "special forces spirit"--the teacher's grave expression and the straight-backed posture of the students all show that the picture dates from the latter part of the Second World War.
Graduation picture time. The grownup is Chen Chin-liang. the school's sixth principal and its first principal after the war.
Gymnastics and spring cleaning... these scenes should be familiar with anyone from Taiwan in their thirties. The time is the early 1960s.
[Picture Caption]
Ninety-year-old Cheng Chin-chih returns to his 80-year-old alma mater. ( photo by Vincent Chang)
This is the school entrance some time during the Japanese occupation (exact year unknown).
This school history was written in 1911.
Gym class, 1924.
Farming class, 1938.
Knitting class, July 1928.
Rib-strengthening exercises, around 1938.
Wrestlers, 1941.
In class, 1945
Graduation picture, 1947.
Work chores, 1961.
Gymnastics, around 1961.
This is the school entrance some time during the Japanese occupation （exact year unknown）.
This school history was written in 1911.
Knitting class, July 1928.
Rib-strengthening exercises, around 1938.
Graduation picture, 1947.
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