Gordon Tsai today throws all his spare money, time, and energy into the quest to popularize a Taiwan-style arts pageant, and works together with artists from around the world every day. But as a child, art was the last thing on his mind. Back then, all he wanted was to become a very rich man.

One can't help smiling at this zany photo of Gordon Tsai taken at the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade.

Poor boy from Hsichih

The Tsai clan has lived in Hsichih for more than 13 generations, but Gordon Tsai's father inherited little of the family's wealth because he was merely an outsider who had married into a branch of the clan that had no male offspring. He only inherited half a hectare of land. Tsai's father not only farmed but also worked as a miner.

Born in 1965, Tsai had to take off his shoes every day after getting off school and tromp barefoot into the muddy fields to help with chores. Once, with monthly tests approaching at school, he asked to finish studying before heading to the fields, but his father snapped: "Can you put food on the table just by studying?" Teachers at school all praised the young boy's talent for drawing but, recalls Tsai: "For me, escaping poverty was more important than anything else."

Every day before school Tsai had to help his mother lug heavy loads of vegetables onto a bus headed for Sungshan District in Taipei, where she would sell her produce. When scowling, impatient bus drivers snarled at her about how "public buses are for passengers, not freight," young Tsai burned with shame. He made up his mind that someday he would make "lots and lots and LOTS" of money.

Tsai confides: "I actually despised artists when I was a kid." He developed the attitude one day as an elementary school student when an elegant old gentleman clad in a long traditional robe busily photographed Tsai as the boy knelt mud-covered in the fields pulling weeds. "I really wanted to throw mud at him, but luckily I controlled the urge. Later as a student in the Department of Printing and Photography at the World College of Journalism I learned that he was Lang Ching-shan, one of the leading photographers of our time!"

Because of his family's weak finances, Tsai decided after graduating from junior high school to take the entrance exam for a military academy, but he didn't meet the school's minimum height requirement, so he hit the books with a vengeance and tested into the World College of Journalism. After graduating, the hardworking Tsai joined a printing company and worked his way up from printing shop assistant to head of the company, then went on to found advertising design and trading companies. One sure step at a time, he was moving toward his dream of becoming a rich man.

A home for future generations

But while Tsai was working his way to riches, the Hsichih of his youth was becoming a satellite city as part of greater Taipei. Gray high-rises popping up one after another replaced emerald green farm fields, blocked out the sun, and brought crowded neighborhoods and pollution. But the Tsai clan of Shehou district continued holding onto the family land even after everyone had sold out.

Recalls Tsai: "After everyone else in our village stopped farming, the birds would eat up all our rice in the fields before we could harvest it, and the new neighbors complained about the stench of the pig manure we used as fertilizer. The Environmental Protection Bureau even fined us for using organic fertilizer in our vegetable plot!"

With Hsichih's rural scenery and agricultural lifestyle passing into oblivion, Tsai got to wondering why the family should sell its land to big corporate investors who couldn't care less about the local area. He began toying with the idea of building a new community himself by using the family land to put up structures with soul that the people of Hsichih could feel proud of.

But after a year of casting about trying to find a builder he could work with to bring his ideas to fruition, he found himself dissatisfied with what he was hearing from all the construction companies. One evening during a moonlit family conference at the Tsai clan's old threshing ground, after listening to Tsai speak at length about his ideals, his brother-in-law said to him: "Just do it yourself, Gordon. Nobody else is going to achieve your dreams for you." Tsai then stood and proclaimed with emotion: "Our ancestors left us this beautiful land, and I intend to leave some beautiful buildings to our descendants!"

And so, using the best of materials and aided by a famous architect, Gordon Tsai built a marvelous high-rise apartment building and made lots of money. But his true goal--to build a community with heart--remained elusive.

Conquered by art

Tsai began trotting the globe to take part in arts pageants wherever they were taking place. He flew to Brazil for Carnaval in Rio, where an endless range of strange sights rolled by in the writhing parade, including native American braves, African warriors, ancient Egyptian footsoldiers, and intergalactic police officers. Sizzlingly sexy samba dancers were lifted to the tops of three-story-tall parade floats, and crowds carried away in the frenzied excitement danced and sang in the streets, oblivious to the pouring rain.

Then he headed to Nevada's Black Rock desert, scene of the stunning Burning Man Festival, where over 30,000 people congregate in the middle of the desert for three weeks every summer. Using the desert as canopy, participants created an ancient Spanish war galley and populated it with over 30 conch blowers, drummers, and stage girls. As night fell, fighters performed, self-improvement classes met, and fire dancing started up.

After that, it was off to the Woodford Folk Festival in the rural community of Woodford in Queensland, Australia. Once he reached Woodford, he'd reached the festival, for it engulfed the entire town. For seven days and nights everyone danced and ate together, camping out at grounds divided up by musical genre (such as blues, ethnic, jazz, and country), which gave participants a chance to meet up with strangers with similar interests.

Taking part in these totally different arts festivals, casting inhibitions aside and going wild with exuberance, Gordon Tsai found something that money cannot buy. Once he joined in the fun, he felt with a palpable certainty what it truly means to have one's blood race with excitement. Conquered by art, he decided to use art to conquer others. He began working to infect community residents in Hsichih with the fever and bring out their latent creativity.

Art nomad

Before age 40, Tsai's dream was to become rich. Since turning 40, his ideal has been to make Taiwan into the home of a world-famous arts carnival.

But the effort has taken its toll, including a bout of insomnia that lasted over half a year. He managed to struggle through with the aid of sleeping pills, but at one point got to wondering if he might not be manic-depressive. In his efforts to spread the seeds of art, he often heads out with others from Dream Community Foundation to visit Aboriginal mountain villages and train the parade troupes there, leaving his wife at home alone to think angrily about divorce.

Asked to describe himself, Tsai says: "I'm an adventurer, and a bit of a nutcase. You know, an adventurer can't be too tied down. Only a nut can have powers beyond the ordinary!"

A self-described art nomad, this company president worth billions of New Taiwan Dollars doesn't drive an expensive car. He usually gets around on a scooter, and only resorts to driving a delivery truck for long-distance trips.

Tsai motorcycled this past January 1st from Hsichih to Keelung, where he marched bare-chested in a parade despite the eight-degree chill, then during the Chinese New Year holidays in February he was off again on a tour of over 20 Aboriginal villages in Taitung County to promote Aboriginal-style samba schools.

Turning his gaze to a distant spot in the sky, Tsai explains: "I would willingly die for this. Troops will only follow a general who does not fear death. I simply must devote the prime of my life to the effort to change Taiwan."

The trusted lieutenants who work alongside Tsai are also the type to go out on a limb for art. Those who are married are all flirting with divorce. "It's naturally not easy to live with a strong-willed person," laughs Tsai. But why do his hardcore followers stick with it though thick and thin? "It's because they are giving expression to their true selves. Running around with me is quite a swashbuckling way to go through life. It really is a blast!"

Tsai believes that stress makes one stronger.

"You know, my mother carried vegetables on a shoulder pole all her life, but guess which shoulder she carries higher today?" Despite having to support several dozen kilos of produce every day, her right shoulder was not worn down to a slumping posture under the burden. On the contrary, as a result of the daily struggle, she now carries her right shoulder higher than the left.

"You're supposed to be a fighter in life. You're supposed to have pressure. It's the only way you'll ever grow." Tsai avows: "Even if I have to die on the battlefield, I swear I'll fight to the last man. After all, I do more than just sell houses. I also play with art."