> Lin Huai-min (born 19 February 1947) is a Taiwanese dancer, writer, choreographer, and founder

of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.

> Lin was born in Xi ngang, 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. 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.
> Lin’s family enjoyed the arts. His father loved visual arts while his mother enjoyed classical music.
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."
> 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. 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.
>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.
>Lin was first introduced to dance at the age of five, when he saw the British film The Red
Shoes. He was so mesmerized with the movie that he began dancing for his family.
> When Lin returned to Taiwan in the 1970s, he started writing and choreographing as well as
teaching at the National Chengchi University and the Chinese Cultural University.In 1983, he created
the Department of Dance at Taipei National University of the Arts and since 2000, he has been
serving as the Artistic Director of the Novel Dance Series for the Novel Hall dance venue in Taipei.
> Lin is openly gay and in a long-term relationship with Taiwanese writer and artist Chiang Xun.
They live together in an apartment complex close to the Tamsui River in the Bali District of New
Taipei City.