Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School

File:Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School's historic Red House.jpg

Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School's historic Red House

Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School (Chinese: 臺北市立建國高級中學, JGHS; formerly Chien Kuo in the Wade-Giles transliteration instead of Pinyin) is a high school for boys, which is located in Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan. The school was established in 1898 during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and was the Taipei First High School, the first public high school in Taiwanese history. JGHS is frequently cited as one of the most prestigious high schools in Taiwan, requiring the highest scores on the national senior high school entrance exams. Its female counterpart is the Taipei First Girls' High School.

History

Jianguo High School was the first public high school in Taiwan. Except for a short period following the Chinese Civil War, the school has been an all-boys high school. The red brick building was built in 1909 during Japanese rule and is considered one of Taipei's historical buildings. Originally called Taipei First Boys School, it was renamed in 1946 (along with Taipei Second Boys School) so that the two names would spell out the phrase "successfully establish a country" (建國成功), thus naming them Jianguo High School and Chenggong High School (成功中學). During Japanese rule, because Jianguo was reserved primarily for the Japanese while Taipei Second Boys School allowed entry for the Taiwanese. The two schools developed a competitive nature that persists to this day.

Overview

Students attending the school are widely recognized for their distinctive khaki uniforms and green bookbags. Only the top 1% of scorers on the Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students (國民中學學生基本學力測驗) receive admission. A large portion of graduates go on to attend prestigious universities locally and worldwide. The school has graduated over 100,000 students in its history. For many international science and math competitions (e.g. the International Science Olympiad), students from Jianguo are chosen to represent Taiwan. As of 2007, students from Jianguo High School have won 46 gold, 63 silver and 21 bronze medals in International Mathematical Olympiad, International Physics Olympiad, International Chemistry Olympiad, International Olympiad in Informatics, and International Biology Olympiad.

Notable alumni

• Samuel C. C. Ting (丁肇中): physicist; laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976
• Pai Hsien-yung(白先勇) - novelist
• Kwang-chih Chang (張光直) - historian; former Vice President of Academia Sinica
• Lü Shao-chia(呂紹嘉) - conductor
• Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳): professional tennis player (formerly #1 in Asia)
• Wei Min Hao (郝慰民): climate scientist and contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
• Jeffrey Koo Sr. (辜濂淞) - chairman of Chinatrust Commercial Bank
• Benjamin Hsiao - Chief Research Officer and Vice-President for Research at Stony Brook University, Fellow of the American Physical Society and American Chemical Society
• Chiang Peng-chien (江鵬堅) - the first chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party
• Lu Hsiu-yi (盧修一) - former member of the Legislative Yuan
• Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) - current President of Taiwan, a Harvard trained lawyer.
• Chang-Lin Tien (田長霖) - former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
• Andrew Yao (姚期智): computer scientist; recipient of the Turing Award in 2000
• Eric Liluan Chu (朱立倫): mayor of New Taipei City; Vice chairman of Kuomintang.
• Alec Su (苏有朋): Singer (Xiao Hu Dui, Solo), Actor
• Calvin Chen (辰亦儒): Singer, Actor, Host

External links

• Official website

• refer to Tokyo First Middle School
• [1]