The Department of History at National Chung Cheng University hosted a special lecture on Friday, December 5, 2025, featuring Sun Chieh-Heng, director of the 60th Golden Bell Award-winning miniseries Three Tears in Borneo, and Tsai Yi-Fen, the series’ screenwriter.

Inspired by historical events during the final stages of World War II, Three Tears in Borneo depicts the experiences of Taiwanese military auxiliaries sent to Borneo to oversee Allied prisoners of war. The director and screenwriter—both graduates of university history programs—grounded their creative process in rigorous archival research and field investigation, presenting a compelling example of the interdisciplinary dialogue between historical truth and cinematic storytelling.

The series received 14 nominations at the 60th Golden Bell Awards and won five major awards, including Best Miniseries, Best Director in a Miniseries, Best Screenplay for a Miniseries, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries—an impressive recognition of its artistic and narrative achievements.

In this lecture, Director Sun Chieh-Heng and Screenwriter Tsai Yi-Fen discussed how historical training was transformed into creative power, and how collaboration between history and visual media enabled new forms of storytelling. Both faculty members and students were warmly invited to explore significant contemporary issues, such as the ethics of historical representation, the boundaries between fact and fiction, and the broader role of history in public culture. This event also aimed to enhance students’ integrative capacities in public history practice, humanistic reasoning, and problem-solving in real-world contexts.