Secret | Tamkang High School — Red Brick Corridors of a Shared Melody

The red brick path still holds the quiet of a first meeting. In the movie Secret, Ye Xianglun arrives at this school as a transfer student, walking past the distinctive octagonal tower under the guidance of a classmate. The same tower, completed in 1925 and blending Chinese and Western forms with local Taiwanese tiles and glaze bricks, stands at the heart of Tamkang Senior High School in Tamsui.

Jay Chou filmed much of the campus romance here, his own alma mater. The arched corridors where the protagonists exchange names, the open courtyards, the sense of a place that has kept its own rhythm for more than a century — all remain. You can stand near the entrance on Zhenli Street and feel how ordinary school walls became the stage for a story that crossed time.

Today the campus continues as a working school. Visitors often need to join one of the scheduled Open Day sessions or view the historic buildings from outside the gates. The architecture does not need the film to justify a visit. The light on the red brick, the height of the tower against the Tamsui sky, and the knowledge that a generation of students once walked the same paths already carry their own weight.

Walk the short stretch of Zhenli Street between the high school and neighbouring Aletheia University and the ordinary details of the place begin to speak. The secret was never only on screen.

Cover photo: Wei-Te Wong, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.