- Home
- Programs
- International CyberFair
- Participants
- Display Project Details
Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School (2007 CyberFair Project ID 4765)
Taiwan,
Taipei City
Official Status:
Final Project: Ready for Judging
Teacher:
Category: 2. Community Groups and Special Populations
We estimate 7 student(s) from 17 to 18 will work on this entry.
Description of Our Community: Buxiban (cram school, transliterated from chinese words) culture, which characterizes the Nanyang Street and its surrounding area in Taipei City, has long been well-known to people from far and wide. Located in the vicinity of the Taipei Railway Station, the Nanyang Street enjoys convenient transportation, which, along with comparatively low rents in that area in the past, prompted buxibans to spring up. Lining the street, these “cram schools” and “buxiban-goers” has created a unique streetscape as well as commercial structure. In 1956, Chien-Kuo Buxiban took the lead as the first cram school specializing in college entrance exams. It was not until cram schools such as Bei-Yi and Hui-Wen Buxiban jumped on the bandwagon that buxiban became a popular for-profit business. Currently, many buxibans have reached beyond the Nanyang Street, claiming their own turf on the Xu-Chang Street, Xsin-Yang Street, Guan-Qian Street, Gong-Yuan Road, and Zhong-Xiao West Road.
Project Description: The “craze” for attending buxibans has swept over Taiwan, and in Taipei City, where the competition of getting into prestigious high schools and colleges is most fierce, that is especially epitomized by the Nanyang Street. With an increasing number of students going there for “cramming,” various businesses in the neighborhood have thrived. Add to that, an extremely distinct streetscape took shape. By virtue of discussing this subject, we could somewhat define the concept and scope of buxiban culture, or “cram” culture so to speak; and the observation of the streetscape of the Nanyang Street will further lead us to the discussion of how it is correlated with the culture, which in turn has an effect on the human-environment relationship. Eventually, after painting a clear picture of the Nanyang Street, we could induce a solid conclusion from a final discussion, so as to gain a better insight into how the society, flooded by this cram culture, is transformed with fast pace.