SHIATZY CHEN

Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia was born in 1951 in Changhua, a city with a rich cultural history. At school she was an eager student who loved to read and earned high marks. But as the eldest daughter of seven children, she had to obtain skills to help the family. She chose to design clothes for a simple reason—to learn a useful craft doing work that she liked. Even though she enjoyed school, she left after primary school to start working. Her early accomplishments, while already beyond her loftiest ambitions, were merely a prelude to those to come.

Growing up, young Tsai-Hsia could only dream of wearing the pretty frocks she saw in shops. She might not have been able to afford such fine things, but with skill and perseverance, she could learn to make them.