In 2021, the theme of the children's play produced by National Tsing Hua University’s Department of Early Childhood Education is Love Story of the Bull. Based on the characters of Journey to the West, such as the Bull Demon King, Princess Iron Fan, and Red Boy, the play explores personal emotions, family relationship and friendship. Combining the plot of the play with dance and technology, the imaginative and beautiful black light theater demonstrated the features of the STEAM curriculum in early childhood education. The play was jointly directed by Associate Professor Shu-Ying Liu from the Department of Early Childhood Education and Associate Professor Juie-Wen Chang from the Department of Music. The play was performed by senior students from the Department of Early Childhood Education in the 2022 academic year. Through the process of writing, directing, acting, and producing, their four years of learning are integrated and embodied in the aesthetic quality.

The Love Story of the Bull is divided into three acts. The plot is summarized as follows:

The play opened with two know-it-all birds in the forest, Tan Tan and Qing Qing chatting with adults and children in the audience about theater etiquette and big and small events in the forest...

Act 1: Battle of the Bull and Mosquitoes

　Bull King is the forest manager of Huaguo Mountain. His job is to ensure the safety of Huaguo Mountain and he is often busy helping to put out fires or drive away from the mountain rats who cut down the trees. He has been so busy that he has not gone home for a long time. On this particular day, he could not rest because of being constantly bothered by the mosquitoes in the mountain. The Monkey King and the little monkeys tried to help him by capturing the Mosquito King, but they all failed!

Act 2: Recreating Huaguo Mountain

　Bull King and Monkey King ask the Spider Princess and the little spiders for help. The spiders are excellent at weaving, and easily trapped the mosquitoes with their web. So the Bull King can now sleep without being bitten by the mosquitoes! However, the birds of the forest noticed the garbage men coming into the forest. They have brought in a lot of garbage and turned Huaguo Mountain into a garbage mountain. The water elves stepped forward and washed away all the garbage so that Huaguoshan is once again clean.

Act Three: The Iron Fan Club

Red Boy, the son of Bull King, fights with his classmate Xiao Lan over a hula hoop in school. The teacher called to tell Red Boy's mother, Princess Iron Fan, about the incident. Princess Iron Fan calls the parents of young children in the Iron Fan Club to discuss parenting issues and asks Red Boy to apologize to Xiao Lan.

　In the evening, Xiao Zi, who loves candies, has a toothache because of tooth decay. Father Rabbit and Mother Rabbit quickly bring him to the dentist. So, as a dentist, Father Tiger teaches everyone how to properly brush their teeth during an Iron Fan Club meeting. After brushing her teeth, Father Tiger's daughter, Xiao Ju, has a stomachache because she does not like to eat vegetables. So, Father Rabbit and Mother Rabbit teach the club members to cook delicious vegetable soup so that Xiao Ju, who hates vegetables, can also enjoy eating vegetables.

That day is also a potluck day in the Iron Fan Club. The adults go shopping for ingredients, and Red Boy gathers all the other children together to cook fried rice noodles, which is Bull King’s specialty dish. However, the kitchen catches fire. Bull King quickly puts out the fire, rescues the children from the fire, and reunites with his wife Princess Iron Fan and his son Red Boy.

　In the end, the all-knowing birds in the forest Tan Tan and Qing Qing invite everyone to celebrate the reunion of the Bull Family and take a beautiful family photo!

　Cheng Rou, who was the general convener of the 2022 Tsing Hua University’s children's play Love Story of the Bull, said that in addition to working with the art director Professor Shu-Ying Liu to develop the details of the production and rehearsal, she was also responsible for the division of labor and coordination of the whole class, and learned to use all kinds of details to bring the performance from nothing to fruition. At the same time, the role of the Monkey King requires the ability to make full use of dance moves and she felt Professor Liu's dedication in tailoring the appropriate presentation for each performer. In addition, Chan Shao-En and Sun Tzu-Ching, who served as the program hosts, said that the play not only required the use of musical instrument performances to connect the acts. The wittiness of the birds must also be manifested through the performance. Through repeated practice, the soul of the birds was gradually discovered. Moreover, they must be able to grasp how the hosts have gathered the audience and drawn them into the atmosphere of the plot. Hsu I-Chuan, who was both the assistant director and actor, mentioned that he had to fully project himself into the role in order to truly become the Mosquito King. He had to convey the act of stinging the Bull King to the audience through nimble postures, annoying harassment, and raucous laughter and incorporate their laughter into his act. Chang Ching-Ling, who was also both an assistant director and actor, played a character with a transformed frame of mind. In the beginning, she was timid and anxious but later became confident and calm. Through the performance process, she deeply realized that an actor must simultaneously master the lines, expressions, and movements in order for the audience to feel the dramatic tension. Yeh Wei-Wei, an overseas Chinese student from Malaysia, played the role of a little spider. Her act was mainly presented through black light theater. Although her role had no lines, it presented the scene through graceful dancing. Particularly when waving the ribbons and the spider web ropes, the movements must be distinct and very graceful. Shao Yi-Han, who was in charge of sound engineering, said: "In addition to allowing me to learn the operation of music editing and other machines, I also saw that behind a completed production, there are many people who spent their time and energy to practice and practice tirelessly. To achieve a complete performance, every person is indispensable."

　In addition, the on-site audience also provided a lot of feedback, such as: "I didn’t know that a children’s play can be so vivid and meaningful!", "The plot is centered on themes in a child’s life ", and "There is such a diversity of performance medium and so many interesting ways to convey the concept of self-care in daily living". The audience also discovered that the Love Story of the Bull has integrated the features of STEAM courses into the presentation of aesthetic art. In particular, the "integration of modern technology into a light and shadow stage" and "the astounding beauty of the ribbon dance and the Spider Princess in the black light theater” have given aesthetic warmth to technology. Some members of the audience pointed out that the most impressive thing was that after playing their roles in each act, the actors also doubled up to play in the orchestra. The steady stage performance of the student actors also won praises from the audience: "From the props, sound effects, and even the makeup and expressions, as well as the tone of all the voices, everything is perfect." The three physical performances in Lecture Hall A of the Nanda Branch campus were very warmly received by both adults and children. Senior University Vice President Nyan-Hwa Tai; Dean Chi-Hui Lin, Associate Dean Tzu-Hua Wang, and Associate Dean Chun-Min Wang of the College of Education attended the performances and gave high praises to the students! Due to the pandemic, the performances were not open to more children in kindergartens and communities. Director Liang-Chen Sun of the Department of Early Childhood Education said that through recording and editing, the Love Story of the Bull is available through online theaters to more audiences who are interested in Tsinghua University's children's plays. The Tsing Hua University URL link is:　https://youtu.be/Y_Zu2syxx7Q