Guoji High School of Commerce and Industry 國際商工 Part 1: The Murals

This high school was originally established in Tainan in 1948. It relocated to Kaohsiung in 1950, and by 1956, it had moved to its permanent campus on Sanduo Road.

In 1965, the school expanded by founding the International Business College, a junior college that operated until 1990. During its peak years, it was regarded as a prominent private institution in Kaohsiung, producing a large number of notable alumni.

However, due to a series of corruption scandals and faculty disputes, the government eventually ordered its shutdown.

Although the school continued to offer vocational programs for several years, it ultimately closed its doors for good in 2022.

Following its closure, part of the land was sold to Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung, which plans to establish a medical university on the site. Demolition of the old campus began in April 2025.

I visited the school during the summer of 2024 and winter of 2025, while the campus was still intact. The buildings were mostly empty. Inside the classrooms, only chairs remained. In the library, there were some physical media, like CDs and VHS movies, left over. My favorite area, though, was the murals on the walls of a stairwell in the old building in the back of the campus.

When I returned in 2025. There was a lot of graffiti around the campus. Luckily, the murals were mostly left alone.

This blog post will focus on the murals. I’ll upload another blog post on the areas of the school later.

The murals are/were located in the stairwell of the building at the back of the campus.

Here are the murals with some translations.

科學民主倫理 = Science Democracy Ethics

世界大同 = World Peace

為萬世開太平 = Bringing Peace to the World is the red. Not sure about the blue.

強身健國 = Strong Body, Healthy Country

立志做大事 = Aim to do great things

Students, staff, and instructors working together.

春風化雨 = Spring Breeze Turns to Rain.

It is a metaphor for good education and a suitable environment.

歲寒三友 = Three Friends of Winter.

The Three Friends of Winter is an art motif that comprises the pine, bamboo, and plum.

春到人間 = Spring Comes to the World. A Lunar New Year message.

實踐境界 Not sure what this means, but that is Chang’e going to the moon. So, I am guessing something related to that.

Here is a video I took of the murals.

Hopefully, you all enjoyed these murals as much as I did.
Part of the reason I liked them so much is that you don’t see many of these communist- or dictatorship-style murals around Taiwan. So it was a fun and interesting experience to come across a few. Especially now, since they’re either already gone or soon will be—depending on when you’re reading this.