Great men and women of Asia-Children's series 

Although avant-garde Western painting and drama penetrated China quickly in the early twentieth century, modern dance was slow to find a foothold. Indeed, Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, founded by Lin Hwai-min in 1973, may well be the first such company in any Chinese community anywhere. Yet under Lin's direction, Cloud Gate's brilliantly original dance compositions and stunning performances now rival the best in the world.
Born in Taiwan in 1947, Lin Hwai-min first felt the seductive pull of dance at the age of five while watching a film, The Red Shoes. Later, as a teenager, he thrilled to his first glimpse of modern dance and was hooked. Discouraged by his parents, however, he studied journalism instead and published two novels by age twenty-two. While in the United States to attend the International Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Lin sought out modern-dance pioneer Martha Graham in New York and became a student in her school. Returning home, he established Cloud Gate in 1973.
Slight and bespectacled, fifty-two-year-old Lin moves with the gait and grace of the dancer that he is. His modern dance compositions cannot be understood in the way stories are understood, he says. They must be experienced. It is enough if people simply enjoy them. His true subject is not Taiwan or Asia or myth or history, he says, but "the landscape of the human heart."
In electing Lin Hwai-min to receive the 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the board of trustees recognizes his revitalizing the theatrical arts in Taiwan with modern dance that is at once eloquently universal and authentically Chinese.
Lin Hwai-Min ( Taiwanese )
Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, 1999

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[15] p. : col. ill. ; 25 cm