Liao Weilin

Liao Weilin (1922–2011) was a painter, cartoonist, and graphic designer from Yueyang, Hunan. He was best known for his designs of postage stamps for the Republic of China postal service and book covers for Taiwanese literature.
==Life==
===Early years===
Liao Weilin was born in 1922 in Yueyang, Hunan, China. After his father died when he was 14, his family fell into poverty, which drove him to earn a living through painting. In the early stage of the Sino-Japanese War, he started submitting comic strips. When the Anti-Japanese Comic Propaganda Squad came to Guilin, Liao joined the team and participated in stage plays. In 1942, he was admitted to the National Art School and worked for the Cultural Life Publishing House in Chongqing, where Ba Jin was in charge, designing window displays and book covers. Since Ba Jin frequently purchased foreign books as a reference for publication design, Liao also gained knowledge in this field from 1942 to 1944 during his stay in Chongqing. After the war, he returned to Hangzhou's West Lake and studied until 1947.
===Work in Taiwan===
In 1949, Liao Weilin came to Taiwan and worked as a photo colorist at a photography studio in Taipei, where he learned color coordination skills. He also worked for a wallpaper company and part-time as a bridal makeup artist. 
After winning the first prize in the local autonomy commemorative stamp design competition organized by Chunghwa Post in 1951, Liao began designing stamps. Until 1971, he had designed more than 20 sets of commemorative stamps, such as the Chinese Folktales of the Twenty-four Filial Exemplars theme stamps issued on July 10, 1970.
In the early 1950s, Liao and his colleagues from the National Art School worked as photo colorists, poster designers, stamp designers, and portrait painters to make a living on Lin Yi Street in Taipei. They also painted classical figure and landscape drawings on ceramic vases for the Taipei Eternal Arts & Crafts Company and the China Ceramics Company, becoming pioneers in promoting post-war Taiwanese ceramic design. Liao also collaborated with Lin Jiancheng to make wax figures for the movie "Xi Shi" directed by Li Hanxiang.
In addition to his comic strip "Little Freckles" serialized in the Children's Weekly of the Central Daily News, Liao drew air-drop comics for the Seventh Fleet Navy Communication Center intelligence agency at the American Embassy in Taipei on Nanhai Road in the 1960s, and used "National Painting" and "Chinese Liberation Army Painting" as design references. He considered himself an innovator who did not belong to any painting society or school, and was not limited by tools or materials.
Liao and the founder of Daye Bookstore in Chongqing, Chen Hui, reunited in Taiwan and began collaborating on book cover illustrations for this publishing company, including novels such as "Heart Lock" and "Seven Holes Flute". Under Chen's guidance, Liao started designing book covers for Taiwanese literature. The 1950s to 1970s were considered the golden age of Liao's book cover designs. According to Li Zhiming (李志銘), who studied old Taiwanese book covers and authored "The Era of Book Design", during that time, book covers became a canvas for artists to experiment with various new art forms. Li listed some of Liao's representative works, such as the cover of the novel "Boiling Point" by Jin Xingzhi, which features orange-red tones with intersecting lines, the cover of the novel "Baijiang" by Zhu Jiefan, which combines ancient customs with modern abstract art, the cover of the novel "Seven-Holed Flute" by Chang Shuhan, which transforms solid objects into geometric shapes, and the cover of the poetry collection "Ten Years of Poetry" which has a primitive and simple texture. Liao considered the best book cover he designed to be that of the 1958 edition of "Blue and Black" published by Hong Lan Publishing, which uses the Japanese kanji character "与" instead of its traditional form "與" (still standard in Taiwan) and creates an asymmetrical balance with a simple blue, white, and black color scheme. There were also instances of bookstores using Liao's works without authorization, such as the cover of "Fallen Immortal (Zhenxian Ji)" by Pai Hsien-yung published by Dalin Bookstore. Liao also created book covers and illustrations for the single volumes of Qiong Yao's novels, including "The Legend of the Annihilated: Pomegranate Flowers", "The Red Sun Sets", and "Purple Shell".
In 1965, Liao was appointed as an interior designer for the China Pavilion at the New York World Expo. In 1971, he received the Annual Decorative Art Golden Chalice Award and held a joint exhibition with He Zhaogu, King Chen-fu, Chen Ting-shi, and Chi Kang in Lingyun Gallery in Taipei. He also held a solo exhibition at the same location the following year. 
===Later years in the USA===
In 1973, Liao moved to New York with his family to provide his children with better education. He worked for a textile printing and dyeing company there. He returned to Taiwan alone in 2006 and resided in the Chang Gung Health and Culture Village, where he continued to paint. In May 2009, he held his last exhibition at Chang Gung University. He died in 2011. In 2020, he was included in the book "100 Years of Taiwan Visual Design and 100 Designers."
Category:1922 births
Category:2011 deaths
Category:Painters
Category:Cartoonists
Category:Graphic designers
Category:People from Yueyang
Category:Chinese people