thumb|alt=students on the love boat study tour on a bus.|students on the overseas compatriot youth formosa study tour to taiwan, informally known as the love boat, on a bus touring the southern part of taiwan in 1993 the overseas compatriot youth formosa study tour to taiwan, informally known as the love boat, is a four-week summer program for about 400â600 college-aged overseas taiwanese. in chinese, it is also colloquially referred to as mei-jia-ying (ç¾å ç) - america and canada camp, a reference to where most of the participants originate. the program has two main campuses, one stationed at jiantan (åæ½­) campus in taipei (å°å) and one campus in taichung (å°ä¸­). ==history of program== the program was first started in 1967 by the overseas compatriot affairs commission in a joint project with the china youth corps.taiwan national journal article (december 17, 1999) on the study tour (english) the primary goal of the program was to acquaint, or re-acquaint, young people of chinese descent living in other parts of the world with chinese culture and language. thus, participants take brief courses in language and arts, attend lectures, and take scenic tours of taiwan. this however, is the popular perception of the program. the alternate and original purpose for the taiwan government's subsidizing of the program was to shore up overseas support for its cross-strait political policies, particularly those of the kuomintang (kmt) party in regards to its tense relations with china. accordingly, participants were to attend lectures on cross-strait relations which others might perceive as propaganda. beyond this, the study tour is most famous, even infamous, for what goes on at night, after the classes and sightseeing take place. it is rumored that some participants engage in sexually promiscuous activity although several eventually ended up marrying each other (hence the love boat nickname).toronto star august 3, 2004 article on the study tour re-published by click2asia. click2asia indicates date and source of material (toronto star) in this link several unplanned pregnancies were documented on the 1996 study tour which resulted in more stringent rules for subsequent tours; including rules against the opposite sex being present in the same dorm room and more strictly enforced curfews. the tour is overseen by a dozen or so counselors whose responsibilities include rule enforcement, event planning, herding the program participants around on outings and rousing them from their sleep in the mornings. however, repeated violations of the rules sometimes turned some of the counselors apathetic; without choice, they often had to turn a blind eye to inappropriate minor misdeeds as the sheer volume of these viola
Education_in_Taiwan Summer_camps