Autobiography

　Born and raised in Tienwei, a small country town surrounded by farms and trees, my favorite things were catching fish, flying kites, trapping frogs, and playing marbles with friends. Because of the strong bond with nature I felt deeply in my heart, I was almost compelled to follow the road of painting and art.

　When studying in National Taiwan College of Arts (now known as National Taiwan University of Arts), prof. Fu Juan Fu gave me a good foundation in traditional Chinese painting. After I graduated, I leaned advanced skills for painting mountains, water, and flowers from Prof. Su Fung Nan, fine brush techniques of flowers and birds from Dr. Yu Chung Lin, and water colors from Dr. Chen Yang Chun. Although my time studying with Dr. Chen was just 2 months, his influence remains strong.

　About 30 years ago, I started my teaching career as an art instructor at Taisi junior high school. At that time, this school didn’t have enough history teachers. So, besides art, I also taught history to a group of students not exactly known as “top students”. They didn’t want to learn any history, but just wanted to play, and always tried to skip class. “Let’s go outside to sketch!” I said. At first, they were all shocked; then, their shock turned to excitement.

　A few months later, we started submit our work to art competitions, and had good results. Many of those “top students” have since won lots of art prizes, and are great artists now. They also organized the arts association of Taisi, devoted to spreading arts in Taisi Township. As their teacher, I’m so proud of them.

　They say the best teachers always learn from their students. Since many of my students went on to get their master’s degrees, I was inspired to do the same, holding my graduate exhibition in 1990. From there, I moved on to teach at the National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT), first as Lecturer, and starting in 1994, as Assistant Professor. I retired as Professor in the summer of 2009 after 11 years in that position.

　Having taught art and Chinese painting for over 30 years, I now endeavor to create more Chinese paintings in my retired life. The subjects are from Taiwan, Japan, Europe, Canada, and mainland China. I hope to open up my thinking, learn from the beauty of nature, and keep improving not only myself but also the feeling we all get from Chinese painting.