m o t h e r . w i f e . d a u g h t e r . g r a n d d a u g h t e r .
t e a c h e r . a r t i s t .
I have been old for a long time.
I was born in Taiwan to scholarly parents. My father's writing was considered notable among the young writers and university students of the 70s and 80s. They visited our house to discuss politics, Communism, and the future. I had a crush on one of my father's young pupils, only to be let down by the discovery that he was going abroad. He would eventually become a professor at Stanford University. Once, my father told me that the government had read all the mail ever sent to us. Only later in life did I realize that I had already begun questioning the status quo response to the 2.28 incident, Mao's Red Book, and the CIA at an early age. My father passed away the day before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, missing out on so much happening in world politics since. I miss my father dearly.
I grew up in Peitou (now Beitou), a busy town on the outskirts of Taipei. It was famous for hot springs, hillside hotels, and prostitution. Peitou was also the town with the first gang activity on the island. I have many unfiltered memories, like Toulouse-Lautrec's or Larry Clark's raw images, in my Peitou memory.
I grew up in Peitou (now Beitou), a busy town on the outskirts of Taipei. It was famous for hot springs, hillside hotels, and prostitution. Peitou was also the town with the first gang activity on the island. I have many unfiltered memories, like Toulouse-Lautrec's or Larry Clark's raw images, in my Peitou memory.
After earning my BA from the National Taiwan Normal University and fulfilling my term of service in teaching, I relocated to the United States to attend graduate school. I received an MFA degree from Pratt Institute in 1987 before returning to Taiwan for five years. During those years, I taught art at universities, but I was also a lecturer, art critic, and author of several books (in Chinese). I returned to the United States in 1994 and have been a public high school art teacher in Oklahoma since 2000. I receive the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, the Skidmore College High School Art Teacher Fellowship, and the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition Creative and Professional Projects Grant. In 2011, I obtained a sponsorship from the US Department of State with the Visual Arts Initiative Program to travel to Taiwan to participate in the 2011 Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival. In 2013, I traveled to the Oklahoma panhandle region. I also received a grant from the Fund For Teachers to travel on the Silk Road Xinjiang in China. Traversing these two Wests profoundly influenced my view on water rights and land use. I am an immigrant artist, an advocate for Native American culture, and a firm believer in a great American tradition based on educational empowerment, fairness, and equality.
The beach front memorial I created in 1991 was a eulogy for humanity that were never given chance to live. The work I created took the form of children’s bodies on a beach in Taiwan. I took children' clothing, sewed them and filled them with sand. Auguste Rodin once compared a sculpture to the fullness of a fruit. Rodin would not have missed the analogy, so many bloated bodies floating in the water after the cyclone. Importantly, that was the same year my son was born.
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