Huang Shanliao: No one looked at the champion's clothes, so he started selling 'a sentence of comfort'

In June 2026, an old poster went viral on Threads.

The photo shows the London runway in 2014, where a young Taiwanese man walked with six outfits. The theme was "Kinmen 1969"—military-style cuts, bullet holes, tassel camouflage nets, and faux-old fabrics printed with images from the Kinmen Daily News and the Zhengqi Zhonghua News. That year, he won the international first prize at the London Graduate Fashion Week. ¹

The comments section below is calculating the same math problem: Is the designer who won the world champion title in the poster the same person as the bestselling author being mocked by 600,000 people in a video this week for having "no substance" and being "chicken soup"?

Yes. His name is Huang Shanliao. The same person, two different products: a cabinet of "Kinmen 1969" clothes telling the history of the war zone, with no media reports, and healing short sentences of no more than 28 characters, cumulatively selling over 300,000 copies. He once defined those short sentences as giving people "a sentence of comfort, like flipping through an horoscope book." ² No one looked at the cabinet of clothes, so he changed to selling "a sentence of comfort," and thus became Taiwan's most bestselling and most mocked writer.

30-second overview: Huang Shanliao, born in 1992 in Kinmen, his family ran a snack shop. In 2014, he won the international first prize at the London Graduate Fashion Week (Graduate Fashion Week) with "Kinmen 1969," one of the three consecutive years that the Department of Fashion Design at Shih Chien University won awards. However, after returning to Taiwan to look for a job, he sent out over a hundred resumes and got zero interviews. An HR representative at a certain company searched online and couldn't find any reports of his award, suspecting his resume was fake—he thus realized "this world is not about who has ability, but about who has the ability to speak," angrily created his own media A Shirt (2017–2021) to make the nameless "visible," and then switched to becoming a healing writer who continuously topped the Eslite Bestseller List. In June 2026, YouTuber Domidolo's trial video broke 600,000 views in one day, pushing him to the风口 (wind vane/trend) of "Taiwan's most bestselling author's big scam."

The World Champion with No Reports

Let's clarify that forgotten fact first: He really did win a world championship.

Huang Shanliao was born on May 3, 1992, in Kinmen. His father is Huang Siju and his mother is Zhao Huiying. His family ran a snack shop on the island. The name "Shanliao" was given by his father—the Kinmen Daily News interview recorded his father's meaning for the name: uncarved jade raw material, not weathered, pure, clean, fresh, and slightly angular. ³ Raw material, not finished product; angular, not yet smoothed out. A person's later story is sometimes already hidden in his name.

He entered the Department of Fashion Design at Shih Chien University through the offshore island recommendation system, not out of passion. He spoke plainly: "My ambition was never in fashion design. I entered fashion design only because when I was in high school, there was a system called the offshore island recommendation." ⁴ A child from an offshore island with no particular passion for fashion made a graduation work that made the editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue speak in his ear after four years.

"Kinmen 1969" consists of six outfits, telling the war memories of his hometown:巾幗鬚眉 (heroic women), war zone women, soldier spirit, heavily using military totems, bullet holes, military boots, and camouflage nets, printing old newspaper images from the Kinmen Daily News and the Zhengqi Zhonghua News on faux-old leather-textured fabrics, paired with black iron metal details. ⁵ He explained the design concept of these clothes in the Kinmen Daily News: "Memories are gentle, history is resolute. In the版型 (pattern/cut) and silhouette, I演绎 (interpret/deduce) the elements of soldiers: bunkers, military uniforms, steadiness, strength and power." ³ He also said a more complete sentence: "The principle I grasp is that each work is a personality, a character, telling the stories of that era and defending the cultural history gradually destroyed by civilization." ³

Backstage at the 2014 London Graduate Fashion Week, Huang Shanliao (center) with models wearing the 'Kinmen 1969' series. Military uniforms, newspaper prints, camouflage nets—this cabinet of clothes telling the history of Kinmen's war zone won him the international first prize, but it was a cabinet almost no one in Taiwan had seen. Photo: Kinmen Daily News (fair use editorial commentary).

Remember this, because it is the key to the whole article: His highest point of craftsmanship was speaking about his hometown's war memories. A person who was called "no substance," the moment he truly had substance was when he spoke for the history of a small island.

At the moment of winning the award, he did not feel the excitement he had imagined. He wrote in his book: "It turns out that winning the world champion title is not as moving as imagined. There was no emotion of finally achieving the goal, no tears of being moved, no hope and憧憬 (yearning) for the future. What I had in my heart was only confusion and fear about the future." ⁶ According to the description in his book, the award presenter was Vogue Italia editor-in-chief and GFW judge Franca Sozzani, who leaned close to his ear and said: "You are a very talented designer, I look forward to you coming to work in Europe." ⁷

This award stage is not small. The London Graduate Fashion Week was founded in the UK in 1991. The first gold award winner was Christopher Bailey, who later took charge of Burberry. Alumni include Stella McCartney. Chinese media often directly call this first prize the "world champion." ¹ The problem is—almost no one in Taiwan knew about this world champion.

The Words from That HR

After returning to Taiwan, for almost two whole years, Huang Shanliao sent out over a hundred resumes and received zero interview calls. ⁸

What really pinned him down was the reply from an HR at a certain company. Storm Media recorded that conversation, word for word: The HR told him that the supervisor had looked at the resume and thought he was excellent, but "he said his supervisor searched my name online but couldn't find too many mainstream media reports, so he thinks my resume has the suspicion of being faked." ⁸ In other words: A person who won the world champion title was considered fake because there were no media reports about it.

This is an irreplaceable moment in Huang Shanliao's life. Everything that followed grew from here. His realization was also recorded word for word: "It turns out this world is not about who has ability, but about who has the ability to speak!" And "I have actually been compensating for the past lack of being seen!" ⁸ In another interview in the Kinmen Daily News, he said it again in different words: "At that time, I felt very frustrated. My strength竟然 (unexpectedly) had to rely on media endorsement to be recognized," followed by "I fell here, so I stood up from where I fell." ⁹

To understand this wound fairly, we need to pull the lens back a bit: Behind it is the structural problem of an entire industry, not just his personal bad luck. The starting salary for new fashion designers in Taiwan is about 26,000 to 35,000 NTD. It takes about ten years to rise to design director. Overtime is common, and turnover is high. Even the industry affiliation reveals the problem: The UK and France classify the fashion industry under the Ministry of Culture. Only Taiwan classifies the fashion industry under the Ministry of Economic Affairs—a mindset that treats clothes as OEM (original equipment manufacturing) rather than culture. ¹⁰ Huang Shanliao himself described this despair: "Many young brothers and sisters coming out now want to do very creative things, but those things, honestly, have no commercial value in Taiwan." Then came the heavier sentence: "Look at me, someone who has already won awards and returned, I'm already so hard-pressed, what about those who didn't win awards?" ⁴

The common mocking version says: He found out that writing chicken soup makes more money than making clothes, so he defected. This statement is convenient in narrative, but it reverses the cause and effect. He was first taught a cruel lesson by the industry, and only then saw that there was money to be made: Not being seen is equivalent to non-existence. If even a world champion can become fake because there are no reports, then how can a nameless person prove their existence? Everything he did later was answering this question.

Making "Being Seen" a Business

In 2017, 25-year-old Huang Shanliao took out a loan of 2 million NTD, quit his design job that had only lasted 11 months, and founded A Shirt. ¹¹

This is a media platform specifically for making the nameless "visible." The Facebook page positioning says "The daily scenery of the city where you挥洒 (splash/create)," and the subject is the stories of craftsmen of "resigning—starting a business—chasing dreams"—the kind of life he was trapped in, he went to film it for others. He did 161 character interviews in one year, nearly reaching a million views per week, YouTube cumulative views of about 13.38 million, peak team size of about 20 people, reaching about 20 million Chinese-speaking people. ¹² A person who failed in job hunting because he wasn't reported on became someone who specifically reports on others. This turn itself is the most beautiful counterpoint of his whole story.

The character interviews of A Shirt—Huang Shanliao took the kind of life he had been trapped in and filmed it for others. Video: Parenting World YouTube.

But as he did it, he emptied himself. In November 2020, he stepped down; in June 2021, he announced the closure of A Shirt. ¹² He explained the reason for closing it was not commercial failure, but that he disliked the distorted version of himself: "After taking on too heavy a responsibility, I became impatient with people. In fact, I very much hated that Huang Shanliao." ¹³ There was also a more reluctant sentence: "A Shirt is the baby I gave birth to personally. Letting go is very reluctant. It really needs to leave. We can no longer hesitate, and can no longer continue to sacrifice anyone because we are reluctant to leave." ¹⁴

Later, in a 2024 interview in Malaysia, he spoke more sharply about that alienation. He said he "was not serving creation, but was an advertising company." ¹⁵ This sentence is a retrospective reflection, not what he said at the time of closing in 2021—but it accurately points out a contradiction: He did media to make people "visible," but when "being seen" becomes a business, what does this business feed: creation, or traffic itself? He hit the ceiling of the attention economy with his own experience and then chose to step down.

The Bestseller Logic of 28 Characters

After closing the media, Huang Shanliao set a goal for himself: complete ten novels in five years. ¹⁶

He started writing full-time from 2021. His first book Drifting Youth (2019) was actually published earlier, but the first edition royalty was only 140,000 NTD—he himself said, "That's why I continued to work at that company for another 2 years." ¹⁷ The real explosion was after 2021: Live Well, Meet Slowly, Say Goodbye Well, Don't Fail the Encounter, That Girl Said to Me, The Rest of Your Life is You, It Doesn't Matter if It's Late, Lonely in the Human World, Yet Love at First Sight with You, The Heart is Small, Just Hold the Things You Like, Make Days Slowly Better, Having Owned is Enough—almost one to two books a year, all published by Sancai Culture, all gentle short sentences, large blank spaces, healing prose and novels. ¹⁶

The numbers are astonishing. Verified by the Eslite official annual list: In 2021, Live Well took the TOP 1 in the Psychological Motivation category and the 3rd overall in the non-category; in 2022 and 2023, it consecutively took the overall bestseller champion in the non-category (Say Goodbye Well, The Rest of Your Life); in 2024 and 2025, it was the 2nd overall, losing to Cai Kangyong's You Will and The Autobiography of Chang Chung-moon respectively. ¹⁸ In terms of sales, he stated in 2023 that six books cumulatively exceeded 300,000 copies; in 2025, media called it over 400,000 copies; The Heart is Small pre-sales opened and sold 3,000 copies in 6 minutes, breaking 1 million in revenue, with a first print run of 30,000; Lonely in the Human World had a first print run of 30,000 plus 5,000 signed copies, all sold out. ¹⁹²⁰

After switching to writing, Huang Shanliao became a regular on the Eslite list. Stacks of new books on the signing table are the concrete scale of "a sentence of comfort" becoming a national commodity. Photo: Huang Shanliao Instagram (@iam_3636) / Bella Nongnong (fair use editorial commentary).

The most critical thing is how he views what he is doing. In a 2025 Mirror Media interview, he spoke unreservedly about the methodology of bestsellers: "I have always felt that my opponents are not other authors, but Douyin, Facebook, and Threads." "What I write can be finished in one glance as you swipe past it." "One line of 26 to 28 characters, if it exceeds, their eyes might not be able to handle it." ²¹ In a 2023 China Times supplement interview, he stated his goal more plainly: "How to make people who don't like reading willing to finish this book is my goal." He wants people to "be like flipping through an horoscope book, needing a sentence of comfort." ²

📝 Curator's Note
It is easy for everyone to read this methodology as "he admits he is slacking off." But looking at the two products together is more interesting: On the left is the cabinet of "Kinmen 1969," printed with old newspapers, bullet holes, and camouflage nets, telling the war memories of an island, with no media looking at it; on the right are sentences of 26 to 28 characters per line, with blank space taking up half a page, selling over 300,000 copies. A person whose existence was denied ten years ago because "no one reported it" has now turned "how to be caught by a person swiping a phone in three seconds" into a science calculated to the character count. He did not give up craftsmanship. He changed it from fabric to attention. The lesson that HR taught him that day, he learned too well.

He is even honest enough to admit he is not from a literary youth background: "I used to write diaries on MySpace (Wuming Xiaozhan), but I don't read books. I only developed the habit of reading after finishing Drifting Youth in 2019." ²² This sentence has two valid readings: Critics will say "No wonder it's written shallowly," sympathizers will say "A person who doesn't read books climbed to the top by self-study." The same sentence, depending on which side you stand on.

A Shallow Pond, or a Mirror?

On June 5, 2026, YouTuber Domidolo uploaded a video titled "Public Trial of Taiwan's Most Bestselling Author's Big Scam," breaking 600,000 views in one day and about 700,000 in three days. ²³

The criticism was heavy. Domidolo said he "clearly read 6 books, but the feeling was only 2 books," mocking the large blank space—"Has your book been touched by the Soup Witch? The characters are missing by half," called his books "textual version Blue Enchantress," and gave the evaluation of "can only get 0 points," "an unqualified writer, a full-score mass psychology instigator" based on literary professionalism. ²⁴

On June 5, 2026, Domidolo's trial video broke 600,000 views in one day, becoming the ignition point of this national discussion. Video: Domidolo Domidolo YouTube.

But what should be remembered most in this video is not those heavy words, but a metaphor: "Huang Shanliao is not a very deep well, but a very shallow pond. You can see the bottom at a glance, but you can see yourself reflected in the water surface." ²³

This sentence is powerful because it doesn't stop at cursing. It accurately points out Huang Shanliao's resonance mechanism: His books are mirrors, not wells. Readers see themselves in those short sentences and blank spaces.

Here comes the paradox. Domidolo, who scolded Huang Shanliao to the bottom, and the hundreds of thousands of readers who praised Huang Shanliao to the top, are actually describing the same mechanism. Those defending him also agree. On Threads, an author @authorlinyt spoke for him: "Huang Shanliao's shallow writing actually fits the reading market of the past 10 years very well. Just like after the rise of short videos and short dramas, everyone's reception rhythm of content has become thinner and faster." ²⁵ And Huang Shanliao himself had long admitted: "What I write can be finished in one glance as you swipe past it." ²¹

All three agree on the essence of this matter: Easy to read, like a mirror, designed to be caught by people swiping phones in an era fighting for attention. Domidolo calls it a "shallow pond," defenders call it "market structure," and Huang Shanliao himself calls it "finished in one glance." The three people are describing the same mirror, but the evaluation facing it is exactly opposite.

📝 Curator's Note
This is where the Huang Shanliao case is truly interesting. Those who scold him think "seeing yourself in the water surface" is evidence of shallowness; those who love him think "seeing yourself in the water surface" is exactly the moment of being caught. The two sides seem to be arguing about Huang Shanliao, but they are actually arguing about a bigger problem: After an island's reading rhythm is rewritten by short videos, does "reflecting yourself" count as a value? Huang Shanliao is just the person standing exactly in the center of the crack.

Facing this public trial, Huang Shanliao's response was quiet enough to be刺眼 (eye-paining/stinging). On June 6, he indirectly reposted a sentence from his new book in his IG Stories: "Many times, it's not that you are not good enough, but that the environment you are in is originally not healthy enough." ²⁶ On the morning of June 7, he issued a formal statement: "I can understand that each reader likes different works and has different expectations for reading experience. This year is the fifth year of full-time writing. The direction of my effort has always been to make more people who originally didn't read willing to walk into bookstores, or even flip through a book. I still have a lot to improve, and will continue to learn and grow. Thank you all for your suggestions, and again thank all readers for their support all along." ²⁷

A person who won a world champion title, when given 0 points, said he "will continue to learn."

Three Consecutive Champions, Three Destinies

To understand why Huang Shanliao is being scolded, the best method is to put him back into the world he left, and look at him side by side with those who stayed.

The Department of Fashion Design at Shih Chien University had won the international first prize at the London Graduate Fashion Week for three consecutive years: Angus Chiang in 2013, Huang Shanliao in 2014, and Zhou Yunting in 2015. ²⁸ The same school, the same stage, three completely different paths.

Angus Chiang stayed. His 2013 award-winning work "Sailing to the Moon" combined Taiwanese temple fair elements with spacesuits (Western reporters even read it as "Mexican spacesuit," a cross-cultural misreading). ²⁹ Later, he founded his own brand ANGUS CHIANG in 2015, became the first Taiwanese designer to be shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2017 (semi-finalist), and appeared on the Paris Men's Fashion Week. ³⁰ He gained the respect of the international fashion circle—and a niche voice. In the Taiwanese public, the number of people who know Angus Chiang's name is far less than the number of people who know Huang Shanliao's name.

Among the three consecutive champions of Shih Chien's London, Angus Chiang (right) chose to stay in fashion: His同名 (same-name) brand ANGUS CHIANG turned the visuals of Taiwanese temple fairs and betel nut stalls into avant-garde men's wear on the international runway. In 2017, he became the first Taiwanese designer to be shortlisted for the LVMH Prize. The international fashion circle recognizes him, but most Taiwanese the public do not. Photo: Marie Claire (fair use editorial commentary).

Huang Shanliao left. He changed the stage from the runway to the bookstore bestseller list, gaining national-level commercial voice—and national-level mockery.

📊 Three Consecutive Champions, Three Destinies

Winner	Year	Work	Afterward
Angus Chiang	2013	Sailing to the Moon	Stayed in fashion → Shortlisted for LVMH Prize, Paris Men's Fashion Week → International respect + Niche voice
Huang Shanliao	2014	Kinmen 1969	Left fashion → Did media, became a writer → National voice + National mockery
Zhou Yunting	2015	(Single source: Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex)	Relatively low-key

The same school (Shih Chien), the same stage (London GFW), opposite destinies. ²⁸³⁰

This table lays out, rather than just the personality differences of three people, more like a test question for Taiwan: Does this island reward "doing things well" or "being seen by many people"? Angus Chiang did things to an international standard, but the Taiwanese public doesn't really recognize him. Huang Shanliao made himself seen by the most people, and the Taiwanese public scolds him every day. One is neglected, one is trampled. Those who do things well get no applause; those who are seen by many are treated as a joke. The two classmates who reached the extreme of both happen to demonstrate for Taiwan: Two paths, neither may have applause.

Beyond Chicken Soup: The Controversies That Must Be Honestly Recorded

Treating Huang Shanliao as a simple victim is another kind of slacking off. His controversies are not just simple as "low literary evaluation." There are several points that must be honestly laid out.

Monthly Salary 250,000 NTD Plagiarism Incident (October 2020). His article The Worries of People Earning 250,000 and 30,000 NTD Monthly were pointed out to have 6 similarities with a PTT post from August ("ordering 500 NTD worth of Uber Eats at once," "taking a taxi when going out," "eating half of the large fries," etc.). ³¹ His rebuttal was: "I didn't plagiarize!" "That is 'quoting'," and added "Maybe I didn't write clearly enough, that's my problem, I'm stupid," and "I still get hurt, I'm not made of iron." ³² Internet celebrity Chen Yi questioned that the "neighbor" earning 250,000 NTD monthly in the article was fictional. He responded: "The struggle of the past ten years cannot be overturned by data pieced together on the internet." ³³ This controversy has no conclusion to date, but the blurred line between "quoting" and "plagiarism" is one of the starting points of his trust rift.

Domestic Violence Speech Incident (June 2024, Malaysia). This point must be handled with extra care. In the edited clips circulating on the internet, his words were heard as: "If one person always beats you at home, then you can always resist his domestic violence. He is the one suitable for you." ³⁴ After the public outcry, he apologized publicly, word for word: "Regarding domestic violence, I 100% oppose it. I do not support anyone solving problems with violence in a relationship. My expression ability is poor, the meaning is incomplete. Domestic violence is wrong. This is my persistent stance." He also stated that the clip was edited. ³⁵

This matter cannot be balanced just by recording his apology. The stance of experts must be placed here with equal clarity: Lan Yifeng of the Counseling Psychologists Association said "violence absolutely cannot be tolerated, nor should it be rationalized"; Zhang Xiuyun, Director of the Protection Service Department of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said "violence is absolutely not a way to solve problems." ³⁶ Commentators also pointed out a deeper problem—the title of an article on The News Lens was Huang Shanliao's "Support Domestic Violence" Theory Goes Viral: Expression Ability Has Big Problems Yet Becomes a Bestselling Writer, You and I Both Pushed It. ³⁷ Regardless of whether that sentence was edited, putting "whether one can resist domestic violence" into a sentence about "whether one is suitable to be together" is itself dangerous. Violence allows no compromise. This point should not be diluted by anyone's apology or explanation.

Other controversies include a string: In March 2021, he said "People who are truly depressed to the bottom will not say they are depressed. They will directly disappear from the world," and was criticized for fake positive energy; ³⁸ In August 2023, his chicken soup article was posted on the NTU campus board, and was removed in less than 6 hours. Netizens sneered "only 6 hours, no substance left." ³⁹ But some people spoke up for him—In 2022, YouTuber Gua Ji criticized his books as "useless to society," and he responded magnanimously: "Diverse ideas are important." ⁴⁰ Writer Wu Danru also spoke for him: Seeing your book but not liking it is equivalent to even people who don't like your book seeing your book. You should be happy. ⁴⁰

⚠️ A Point That Must Be Clarified
In March 2026, there was a "Daily Scenery Co., Ltd." embezzlement case. Huang Shanliao was the victim, not the defendant. His company's shareholder Qiu Zhixian was prosecuted for forging documents and embezzling 5.74 million NTD. ⁴¹ During the public trial, some people on the internet mixed this up with him. Here it must be made clear: In this case, the person who was embezzled from was him.

I Actually Envy Those Who Are Completely Blacked Out

Back to that old poster that went viral on Threads.

The young man who walked the London runway in "Kinmen 1969" in 2014, and the bestselling author being mocked by 600,000 people in a video this week for having "no substance," are the same person. From the snack shop in Kinmen, to the London runway, to the top of the Eslite list, to the meme under a trial video—this is a line that has always only wanted to do one thing: Be seen. He spoke about his hometown's war with fabric, made the nameless appear with lenses, and caught people swiping phones with short sentences of 28 characters per line. The carrier has always been changing, but that desire growing from the HR's words "no reports found" has never changed.

He is a student personally taught by Taiwan. Taiwan told him that this world is not about ability, but about the skill of speaking—he believed it, he practiced the skill of speaking to the number one in the country—and then Taiwan turned around and mocked him for having no real ability. He is the most complete living proof of this lesson.

In a 2025 Mirror Media interview, he said a sentence that now reads like a prophecy. He said: "I actually envy those public figures who are completely blacked out, because those completely blacked out people, no one can kidnap them. Because look at a completely black person, even if more dirty water is splashed on him, he is still black." ⁴²

A person who won a world champion title, envies those who are completely blacked out and no longer need to care about anyone's opinion. A person who has practiced bestsellers to a line of 28 characters, his deepest desire is actually the freedom of not being seen.

That cabinet of "Kinmen 1969" was not looked at, so it disappeared; that sentence "a sentence of comfort" was bought by everyone, so he became a national meme. So next time you want to mock "that chicken soup writer with no substance," maybe you can first look at the water surface of that pond—ask yourself, whether the line of words you find shallow reflects his shallowness, or an island that only applauds "reading in a glance" and refuses to applaud "making things." Those who scold him, those who forward him, those who defend him, are all reflecting in the same mirror.

Further Reading:

• Wu Bao-chun — Another Taiwanese craftsman who won a world champion title. The difference is that his craftsmanship was seen.
• Chang Chen-cheng — Established coordinates for Taiwanese chefs on the international stage, another kind of destiny on the path of "doing things well."
• Zhang Zhiqi — Another "information curator" who turned complexity into readability and sought resonance in the attention era.
• Jimmy Liao — From an advertising company background, turned into an internationally bestselling healing creator, another kind of being seen.
• Tang Feng — How Taiwan treats a person who is difficult to classify, another mirror.

Image Sources

All images in this article are fair use editorial commentary, cached locally, for reporting and commentary purposes only:

• Hero Portrait: Mirror Media Mirror Big Shot Interview (2025)
• "Kinmen 1969" Backstage Photo: Kinmen Daily News
• Book Signing Photo: Huang Shanliao Instagram (@iam_3636) / Bella Nongnong
• Angus Chiang Works and Portrait: Marie Claire
• Videos: Parenting World, Domidolo Domidolo Official YouTube Embed

References