A top Taiwan university has given an overhaul to its 73-year-old school song. Notably, it’s cut out a controversial reference to Taiwan “returning to the motherland.” The lyric has been called outdated in recent years. Let’s hear from National Taiwan Normal University.

Feng Hui-lun
NTNU Students’ Union
The views of the Students’ Union have never changed. The school anthem has always needed to be improved, even right at the beginning. It needs to be responsive to different moments in time and different situations, as well as different contexts.

Ke Hao-ren
Head of anthem review team
The 1948 anthem will still exist, without any alterations to any of the words. The new anthem version that we approved today will exist alongside the 1948 version.

The song was revised by a committee, which held more than two years of discussions and hearings. Even so, views are divided over the new anthem. According to an online survey with 383 respondents, about 40% of people prefer the new version, while another 40% prefer the old.