Miss Hsiu has faced the hostel south. The approach is through an arch-shaped gate. Prominent on the sheer facade of the main building are relief representations of the sun god and moon goddess.
Beside the main entrance is а spiral staircase giving direct outside access to the second floor, where there is a permanent exhibition of photographs and models of schools.
Near the main building is a mush- room shaped pavilion, and there is a swimming pool at the rear.
An external color scheme of red, white and brown harmonizes with the natural greens of the area and with the profusion of flowers in the hostel gardens.
Another prominent building of Miss Hsiu's is the newly opened Teachers' Hostel in Taichung.
It is largely of Chinese architecture with special emphasis on the palace style of ancient times.
Miss Hsiu is Taiwan's busiest school architect. Of the 150-odd buildings to her credit, most are schools.
She didn't become an architect the easy way or without opposition. By Chinese tradition, architecture is re- spectable enough but for men, not women. This was much more so 20 years ago.
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In 1943, when she was graduated from senior middle school. Miss Hsiu made up her mind. She wanted to build things. But mother favored domestic science in preparation for marriage. Father, a painter, was prepared to accept further education only for the acceptable, prosaic career of teaching.
To conquer both cultural and parental opposition was not easy. With mother in tears and father agreeable only to keep her in school, Miss Hsiu carried the day. The decision meant that she must leave home.
Wartime Ambition
It was wartime. For seven days and nights she rode a bus from her home town of Yuanling in Hunan to the temporary capital of Chungking in Szechuan. Fatigue and home- sickness almost ended a career be- fore it began. Yet the war's de- struction spurred her determination to help reconstruct China once the Japanese had been defeated.
At that time the government en- couraged students to enter architec ture or civic engineering. Construc-
▲ Miss Hsiu (left) instructing a female architectural students.
Traditional Chinese influence is evident in most of Miss Hsiu's work. Massive stone plaques at the main gate of the Kaohsiung Girls' Normal School draw their style from lookout posts once used along Chinese city walls.
Miss Hsiu designed this impressive library for the Taichung Normal School in Taiwan.
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