Lin was born in Xingang, Chiayi. He came from an intellectual family. His great-grandfather was a poet and a businessman who founded a school during the Japanese colonial period.[1] His grandfather was a doctor and his father, Lin Chin-sheng, obtained a law degree from the Tokyo Imperial University. After Chiang Kai-shek established rule in Taiwan in 1949, Lin's father held several important political positions, including the office of Chiayi County Magistrate from 1951 to 1954. His mother Lin Cheng Pen-pen graduated from the Tokyo Economics College. He is the oldest of five children.[1]
Childhood and education
Lin's family enjoyed the arts. His father loved visual arts while his mother enjoyed classical music.[1] Lin was exposed to different art forms and culture very early on in his childhood. He would go on to say that "My story has all along been a mixture of Taiwanese-Chinese, Western and Japanese influences - my parents were educated in Japan."[2]
Lin attended Chun Wen Elementary School in Chiayi for one year before transferring to Taichung First High School. He next moved to Weido, a private Catholic Brothers’ boy school.[1] His father encouraged him to take on law studies at the National Chengchi University but after a year, he switched majors to journalism. Graduating with a degree in journalism, Lin was drafted into the army with an office job in communications in Taipei.[1]
At an early age, Lin showed great interest in writing and reading. He published his first story in United Daily News at the age of fourteen. At the age of eighteen, he was engaged as one of the contract writers for Crown, one of Taiwan's biggest magazines. In 1969, his story entitled Cicada that narrated the theme of Taiwanese "Lost Generation" gained popularity amongst the younger generation.[1] This love for reading and writing would later help him conceptualise his artistic vision in his works. For example, he was greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace while composing his notable work, Legacy. Later, he would inculcate a love for reading in his dance company by giving the dancers each a book in between practices and performances and engage in book discussions with them.[3]
Encountering dance
Lin was first introduced to dance at the age of five, when he saw the British film The Red Shoes.[1] He was so mesmerized with the movie that he began dancing for his family.[4] His interest piqued further after he saw a performance by American José Limón Dance Company in Taichung. In the 1960s, when modern dance was gaining popularity in Taiwan, Lin enrolled in a dance studio but gave up after three months as he felt he could not learn much from it. Later on, Lin attended workshops by renowned dancers such as Chungliang Al Huang and Yen Lo-Wong.[1]
In 1969, Lin left for the United States on a scholarship to study journalism at the University of Missouri. At Missouri, he received a fellowship to the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program to study under renowned poet Paul Engle. At UI, he participated actively in theatre and fine arts. He also attended a Modern Dance course taught by Marcia Thayer. Lin would later on refer to her strong passion and dedication to the art of dance as an important influence.[1] It is from this increased involvement in dance and fine arts that he sharpened his interest and enrolled in a summer course at Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance in New York, where he would later on spend most of his time upon receiving his master's degree from Iowa to hone his artistic skills and knowledge.[1]
In 1973, he founded the Cloud Gate Dance Theater. Since its inauguration, Lin has served as the company’s founder, resident choreographer as well as its artistic director. He disbanded the group in October 1988, traveled to India, Indonesia, and New York University, before returning to Taiwan in 1990 to restart the troupe.[6] Following the continued success of the company, he founded Cloud Gate 2 in 1999. His intention was to form a Chinese dance group to perform works composed and choreographed by Chinese for the Chinese audience.[7] This formed the vision of the dance group in the early years, as Lin would later call it "a very Chinese period".[1] This was an important period as Lin created a heightened interest in the Chinese community for modern dance. His formation of the dance company came at a moment when his country was in the midst of developing and defining its own identity through culture and the arts and his repertoire gave the Taiwanese people an artistic source to the understanding of their identity.
International success
As the Cloud Gate Dance Theater gained international popularity, the demand for Lin's artistic directions and masterwork increased as well. He collaborated with many international artists and dance groups. He worked with world-renowned stage designerMing Cho Lee to conceptualize the scenography of Nine Songs in 1993. He also worked with the world-famous Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan on Sacred Monsters in 2006. Furthermore, in 1996, he debuted as an opera director in the production of Rashomon.[8] However, despite his international success, Lin remains deeply rooted in Taiwan, refusing a position to direct a major European dance company. He said, "How could I leave Taiwan? It is where all my friends and family are. It is out of this that I create".[2]
Aesthetics and stylistic innovations
Lin often assimilates old forms of dance with contemporary style and interpretation. He has composed many original works as well as modified and adapted classical works from Peking opera. He incorporates different art forms into his pieces and marries Western and Eastern aesthetics and style into a distinct fusion signature of the Cloud Gate Company. He is famous for his ability to seamlessly integrate different styles such as ballet, traditional Chinese opera, Buddhist meditation and martial arts like tai chi as well as Taiwanese aborigines ritual dance into his choreographic works.[1] He immerses himself in the study of Asian culture, such as studying court dance in Seoul in 1975 as well as spending quality time throughout his career in Bali to observe local rituals and ceremonies.[1]
Furthermore, most of his works would include themes that relate closely to Taiwan. At the beginning of his career, he was deeply concerned with political changes in his home country and he was also aware of the rise of Taiwanese consciousness. He felt responsible to compose pieces to reflect Taiwan’s history as this also intimately relate to his own past and upbringing. He draws inspiration from diverse sources of artistic styles to create unique contemporary dance movements that reflected Taiwan society's complexity. The dynamic Chinese and Japanese experiences of his family (and Taiwan's colonial past), his western education in the United States as well as his vast knowledge on Asian and Taiwanese Aboriginal traditional cultures and rituals all contributed significantly in helping him form his artistic vision of Taiwan.
Notable work: Legacy (1978)
The masterpiece, Legacy, is the "first theatrical presentation of the history of Taiwan".[1] The choreography depicts the history of early pioneers who [9] traveled to Taiwan to build a new life on the island.[10] Stylistically, Lin seamlessly combined acrobatics, gymnastics as well as traditional Chinese dance movements to recreate the nation's story on stage. What are ordinary physical laborer's actions of ploughing in the field and harvesting rice are artistically stylised. Legacy was composed at a time when political tensions between the United States, China and Taiwan were high. Coincidentally, it premiered on 16 December 1978 when President Jimmy Carter announced the end of diplomatic ties between the United States and Taipei.[2] It was out of this fragile political environment that Legacy was debuted. Thus, Legacy struck a deep chord and left an indelible mark in Taiwan as people searched intensely for their Taiwanese identity.[11]
"The Boy in the Red Pant." Tr. John Y.H. Hu. The Chinese Pen, (Summer, 1976): 47-78. Republished in Nancy Ing, ed., Winter Plum: Contemporary Chinese Fiction. Taipei: Chinese Materials Center, 1982, 179-203.
"Cicada." Tr. Timothy Ross and Lorraine S.Y. Lieu. In Joseph S.M. Lau, ed., Chinese Stories From Taiwan: 1960-1970. NY: Columbia UP, 1976, 243-319.
"The Dead." Tr. Jane Parish Yang. The Chinese Pen. (Winter, 1984): 44-91.
"Geese." The Chinese Pen. (Summer, 1975): 33-46.
"Homecoming." Tr. Lin Huaimin. In Chi Pang-yuan, et al., eds., An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Literature. Taipei: National Institute for Compilation and Translation, 1975, II, 443-56.
