Professor Li Chien-Lang was born in 1949. For decades, he has shown an undying passion for traditional architecture. He has participated in more than 70 research projects on historic sites and has published more than 100 historic site-related books in the past 40 years or so. With such achievements, he is undoubtedly an important researcher on traditional architecture in Taiwan, a member of the Historic Sites Review Committee, a researcher in historic sites restoration, a university professor, a presenter of historic architecture research projects, and a director of the Cultural and Educational Foundation. He once said, “Everyone’s present is a result of the past. It just isn’t possible for humans to ignore past occurrences. Only through ancient architecture can we have a dialogue between the past and present, including those that once existed in history and did not last till the present day.”

When Professor Li was still a student, he visited the Lin Family Garden in Banqiao, which was neglected at the time. He realized that such a precious historic site was abandoned and not properly preserved; therefore, he began to aspire to preserve Taiwan’s ancient historic sites. After that incident, he conducted field surveys and combined his childhood painting experience to draw the structure of the buildings. In 1972, after meeting folklore scholar Lin Heng-Dao and painter Shiy De-Jinn, he began to devote himself to fieldwork on Taiwan’s ancient buildings, where he painstakingly interviewed and put the major ancient buildings down on paper, and then used his art background to record the details of the interior of these buildings, passing on the historical significance behind them.

For a long time, Professor Li has been actively involved in the study of traditional Taiwanese architecture, the preservation of cultural assets, and the restoration of historic sites, advocating the cultural assets preservation movement, and promoting the art of traditional Taiwanese architecture. All these efforts made a deep contribution to the education of cultural assets in Taiwan. Nowadays, people can see the efforts of Professor Li in most Taiwanese ancient architecture. Thanks to his philosophy and hard work to promote the importance of historic sites, people can now visit a wide variety of well-preserved ancient buildings.