When it comes to bamboo, most people often think of pandas, forests and even those scenes in ancient Chinese chivalry movies, but barely remark on the day specifically designated to celebrate the plant. To be ready for the 2022 World Bamboo Day on 18th September, National Chung Cheng University (CCU), through its University Social Responsibility (USR) Bamboo and Bamboo Charcoal Innovations for Sustainable Consumption and Production project, has launched a series of Living Lab activities for the CCU Bamboo Month from September onward. Those activities range from the keynote speeches, bamboo arts workshops, international photography competition, introduction to bamboo knowledge around the world, to the relevant smart phone APP design and development. In addition to bringing students closer to the bamboo industry, CCU also hopes to bring the world trend of environmental sustainability and circular economy into the campus.

With the growing attention on the issues of environmental protection and sustainability, bamboo, as a brilliant environmental protection material, has not only made its mark in the field of sustainability, but also gradually gained its reputation. Fast-growing and versatile, bamboo can help to reduce plastic pollution as a source of both disposable and durable products. Those products are low-carbon to produce and can be biodegradable. According to the studies in recent years, its carbon sink and carbon storage capabilities are even more impressive. Therefore, since 2009, 18th September in every year has been designated as “World Bamboo Day” to raise people’s awareness of bamboo and its important role in global sustainability. The CCU bamboo project team mentions that in the past, CCU has not only strived for promoting “the Bamboo as a Substitute for Plastics Global Action Plan” but also facilitated and assisted the local bamboo industry to go international on the aspects of technology, education, and marketing associated with the Plan accordingly. And for the World Bamboo Day, CCU has been holding the CCU Bamboo Week on its campus for quite a few years until now. This year, in order to expand the scale of the event, CCU has even turned the 5th CCU Bamboo Week into a whole month event and changed its name to “CCU Bamboo Month”. 

The first activity of CCU Bamboo Month is the “Bamboo Knowledge and Bamboo Application Workshop” that will be launched on 4th September at the USR project venue in Xikou Township of Chiayi County. In addition to revealing the characteristics and advantages of bamboo to people, the activity also exhibits the functions of bamboo in the household, allowing students to produce from the scratch in using bamboo to design and make various bamboo items.

In order to further implement the education on sustainability, the CCU USR team continues to organize the international photography competition. The “International Photography Competition on Bamboo Sustainability Development” which will be held in CCU library on the 13th September, is going to exhibit students’ works in the past three years. The exhibition allows everyone to discover the aesthetics and educational significance of bamboo from the pictures took by students from the elementary school level to high school level. On the 19th September, the CCU USR student team will hold the Bamboo Circle Exhibition to jointly showcase the results of their summer vacation project with their Indian counterparts. The exhibition will tell the story of the inter-collegial and cross-disciplinary collaboration between Taiwanese students and Indian students again on how they take advantage of the characteristics in the history of Taiwan’s bamboo industry to develop the mobile APP, “BAMTECH”, to make it more convenient for users to obtain knowledge of the bamboo history and bamboo applications at different places in Taiwan.

Next, on the 23rd September, the CCU USR team will invite the group of SGS Taiwan Limited to give a speech on the rising problems of greenhouse gases. The CCU USR team points out that through the introduction to the relevant verification standards, teachers and students in the college can learn deeply about the new knowledge of carbon inventory and explore how bamboo and bamboo charcoal can improve our environment.

The CCU Bamboo Month events are not only held inwards on CCU campus, but they will also go outwards internationally. At the end of September, the CCU USR team with some bamboo craft manufacturers from Taiwan will jointly present the group as the Taiwan boutique brand of fine quality bamboo products in the 2022 Taiwan Expo in India held by Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). In addition to establishing a 3D display platform virtually, the CCU USR team has also sent Taiwan fine quality bamboo products, for the first time after the epidemic, to the physical exhibition at Mumbai in India, hoping to further promote the bilateral industrial exchanges between Taiwan and India through our bamboo products.

Other than the advent of Bamboo Month event, the CCU USR team also participated in this year’s USR Online Expo micro-film competition shooting a series of bamboo-themed films to help open people’s mind on bamboo. The CCU USR Bamboo and Bamboo Charcoal Innovations team says that bamboo can not only be used in daily life and bring a positive impact on the natural environment, but also viewed as the best medium for combining traditional thinking and innovative mindset. The team expects that the teachers and students in CCU, through the Bamboo Month activities, can further understand the charisma of bamboo and bamboo charcoals.

For more information, please go to their official Facebook website at https://www.facebook.com/CCUbamboo/