Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School


Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School is a public high school for boys in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. The school was established in 1898 during Japanese rule and was the first public high school in Taiwanese history.
The school requires the highest scores on the national senior high school entrance exams for admittance. Its alumni include one Nobel Prize laureate, the only ethnic Chinese Turing Award laureate, one Cannes Film Festival Best Director award winner, two heads of state, at least five members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and numerous scholars and public servants. Its female counterpart is the Taipei First Girls' High School.

History

What is now Chien Kuo High School was founded as the Fourth Affiliated School, Secondary School of the Taiwan Governor's Office Japanese Language School, and was the first public secondary 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 historically significant buildings.
Following its foundation, the school went through a number of names before settling on First Taihoku Prefectural Secondary School in 1922, Second Taihoku being what is now Chenggong High School. During Japanese rule, First Taihoku was reserved primarily for Japanese students while Second Taihoku allowed entry for the Taiwanese. The two schools developed a competitive nature that persists to this day. Following World War II and the Chinese seizure of power, both schools were renamed in 1946 so that the two names would spell out the phrase "successfully building a nation", thus naming them Chien Kuo High School and Chenggong High School.

Overview

Students attending the school are widely recognized for their distinctive khaki uniforms and green bookbags. Only the top scorers on the Comprehensive Assessment Program for [Junior High School Students|Comprehensive Assessment Program] receive admission. The school has graduated over 100,000 students in its history. For many international science and math competitions, students from Chien Kuo are chosen to represent Taiwan. As of 2007, students from Chien Kuo 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. Since 2000, students from Chien Kuo have received 11 medals in the IMO/IPhO/IChO/IBO/IOI/IESO per year on average.

Notable alumni