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Liou, Ying-Hong, a Taiwanese native stone-carving master, was born in 1943 in Sanshia Township of Taipei County. It was in 1947 when Sanshia Master Temple in Taipei County was undergoing restoration for the last time and many major Taiwanese stone-carving masters at the time were gathering on the scene that Liou, Ying-Hong had the chance to see and hear about stone-carving since young and started to be fascinated by the skill. In 1956 when Liou, Ying-Hong was 13 years old, he entered Sanshia Master Temple in Taipei County to learn stone-carving and thus opened up his future career. His craftsmanship was much influenced by many well-known stone-carving masters in Taiwan, mostly from two masters, Shih Tian-fu and Chian Zhi-chong from whom he inherited the skills. During his professional career, he also followed stone-carving masters such as Chang Mu-cheng and Chang Ching-yu, the grandchild of Mr. Chiang Hsing to participate in many stone-carving projects in temples across the island. Before 1968, Liou, Ying-Hong mainly followed masters Shih Tian-fu and Chang Mu-cheng to participate in stone-carving in temples in Tainan City and Tainan County, and Taipei City and Taipei County. There were also projects of small number of temples located in Changhwa County, Chiayi County and Pingtung County. Starting from 1968, Liou, Ying-Hong(23 years old at the time) engaged himself in temple’s stone-carving construction projects. His territory is mainly in northern Taiwan with a total of 33 temples including Sanshia Master Temple of Taipei County, Baofu Temple in Yonghe City of Taipei County, Hsingtien Temple of Taipei City, Wanli Wannian Temple of Tainan City, Dali Tiangong Temple of Yilan County, Dashi Furen Temple of Taipei County, Jiulong Mountain Yu Ching Temple of Yilan County, Fude Temple in Chonghe City of Taipei County, Zhi Shuan Temple in Bade City of Taoyuan County, and KaiChang ShenWang Temple in Neihu District of Taipei City. Yuan Ze Memorial Hall located in Taipei City is the only one non-temple stone-carving construction project that Liu Ying-hong took part in. In 1988, Liou, Ying-Hong was fully retired. His more than 30-year long stone-carving career allowed him to witness the entire history of the stone-carving industry in Taiwan from post Pacific War till the 1980s. This paper tries to establish the life history of master Liou, Ying-Hong through his personal history, the distribution and style of his artworks, and his manipulation of stones in various subject matters so as to understand his position as a stone-carving master in Taiwan and the historical background of Taiwan’s stone-carving industry after the Pacific War.
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