MEI-CHU GAMES
- Update Date:2023-10-26
The Mei-Chu Games, an intercampus competition held between NYCU and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), are held every March. NTHU is located near NYCU’s Chiaotung campus in Hsinchu, which was previously the main campus of National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), and the games began as a friendly rivalry between these two universities.
The first competition between the two schools took place in 1966. In 1968, NCTU gave its approval to the director of its activity center, Fong Chien, to plan a bigger competition with NTHU. After discussing with the representative from NTHU, the two parties came to an agreement, and the first Mei-Chu Games were held in 1969.
There is an interesting story regarding why the competition is known as the Mei-Chu Games. On December 23, 1968, representatives of the two schools gathered at NTHU. Several names, such as “The Chio-Chin Cup,” “The Hwa-Tung Cup,” and “The Sports Competition of Hsinchu Universities,” were suggested; however, none of these suggestions was satisfactory to everyone. Eventually, the representatives decided to refer to the NTHU side as “Mei” (after the name of NTHU’s well-known garden) and to the NCTU side as “Chu” (after the name of NCTU’s famous Chu-Ming building).
However, there was still an issue to be settled: Should the games be known as the Mei-Chu Games or the Chu-Mei Games? To this day, the two sides still have not reached a perfect agreement.