Huang Shanliao: No One Looked at the Champion's Clothes, So He Started Selling "One-Sentence 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-aged fabrics printed with images from the Kinmen Daily News and 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" telling the history of the war zone, with not a single media report, and healing short sentences of no more than 28 characters, cumulatively selling over 300,000 copies. He defined those short sentences himself as giving people "the need for a sentence of comfort, like flipping through an horoscope book."² No one looked at the cabinet of clothes, so he changed to selling "one sentence of comfort," becoming 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 seek employment, he sent over 100 resumes and received zero interview invitations. An HR representative at a certain company searched online and found no reports of his award, suspecting his resume was fake—he thus realized "the world doesn't compare who has ability, but who has the ability to speak," angrily created his own media One Shirt (2017–2021) to let the nameless be "seen," and then pivoted to become a healing writer who continuously topped the Eslite Bestseller List. In June 2026, a YouTube video by Domidolo about public trial broke 600,000 views in one day, pushing him to the forefront of the "Big Scam of Taiwan's Most Bestselling Writer."

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; the family ran a snack shop on the island. The name "Shanliao" was given by his father—the Kinmen Daily News interview recorded the 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 their name.

He entered the Department of Fashion Design at Shih Chien University through the offshore island recommendation system, not out of passion. He was very blunt: "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 created a graduation work that made the editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue speak in his ear after four years.

"Kinmen 1969" consisted of six outfits telling the war memories of his hometown: Heroic women, war zone women, the spirit of soldiers, heavily using military totems, bullet holes, military boots, and camouflage nets, printing old newspaper images from the Kinmen Daily News and Zhengqi Zhonghua News onto faux leather-textured fabrics, paired with black iron metal details.⁵ He explained the design philosophy of these clothes in the Kinmen Daily News: "Memories are gentle, history is resolute. In the pattern and silhouette, I演绎 (interpret/演绎) 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, yet 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 peak craftsmanship was about speaking for the war memories of his hometown. A person 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 becoming a world champion 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 descriptions in his book, the award presenter was Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia and GFW judge, who leaned close to his ear and said: "You are a very talented designer; we look forward to you coming to work in Europe."⁷

This stage was no small feat. 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, and alumni include Stella McCartney. Chinese media often directly call this first prize a "world championship."¹ The problem is—almost no one in Taiwan knew about this world champion.

The Words from That HR

After returning to Taiwan, for nearly two whole years, Huang Shanliao sent over 100 resumes and received not a single interview invitation.⁸

What really pinned him down was the reply from an HR representative 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 reports from mainstream media, so he suspects my resume is fake."⁸ In other words: A person who won a world championship 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 doesn't compare who has ability, but 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 in this place, so I stood up from where I fell."⁹

To understand this wound fairly, we need to zoom out a bit: Behind it is an entire structural problem of the industry, not just his personal bad luck. The starting salary for new fashion designers in Taiwan is about 26,000 to 35,000 NTD, taking 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 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 a heavier sentence: "Look at me, someone who already won an award and returned, already struggling so much, what about those who didn't win awards?"⁴

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

Turning "Being Seen" into a Business

In 2017, at age 25, Huang Shanliao took out a loan of 2 million NTD, quit his design job which he had only done for 11 months, and founded One Shirt.¹¹

This was a media platform dedicated to letting the nameless be "seen." The Facebook page positioning wrote "The daily scenery of the city you splash," with topics being craftsman stories 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 1 million views per week, YouTube cumulative views of about 13.38 million, team peak of about 20 people, reaching about 20 million Chinese-speaking people.¹² A person who hit a wall in job hunting because he wasn't reported on, turned around to become someone who specifically reports on others. This turn itself is the most beautiful counterpoint of his entire story.

Character interviews of One Shirt—Huang Shanliao took the kind of life he was once trapped in and filmed it for others. Video: Parent-Child World YouTube.

But as he did it, he emptied himself. In November 2020 he stepped down; in June 2021 he announced the closure of One Shirt.¹² He explained the reason for closing it was not commercial failure, but that he disliked his transformed self: "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: "One Shirt is the baby I gave birth to personally; letting go is very reluctant. It really needs to leave; we can no longer hesitate, can no longer continue to sacrifice anyone because of reluctance 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 precisely points out a contradiction: He did media to let people be "seen," 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 personal experience and then chose to step down.

The Bestseller Logic of One Line 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 precisely because of this, "I would continue to stay 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 Late, Lonely in the Human World, Yet Meet You Like Old Friends, The Heart is Small, Just Hold 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 Eslite's official annual list: In 2021, Live Well took the TOP 1 in Psychological Inspirational category and 3rd overall non-category; in 2022 and 2023, he won the Eslite non-category annual bestseller champion for two consecutive years (Say Goodbye Well, The Rest of Your Life); in 2024 and 2025, he was 2nd overall, losing to Kevin Tsai'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 sold 3,000 copies in 6 minutes, breaking 1 million in revenue, first print run 30,000; Lonely in the Human World first print run 30,000 plus 5,000 signed copies all sold out.¹⁹²⁰

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

The most crucial part is how he views what he is doing. In a 2025 Mirror Media interview, he spoke unreservedly about his bestseller methodology: "I have always felt that my opponents are not other authors, but Douyin, Facebook, Threads." "What I write can be finished in one glance as you scroll past." "One line of 26 to 28 characters; if it exceeds that, 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 lazy." But looking at the two products together is more interesting: On the left is the "Kinmen 1969" cabinet, printed with old newspapers, bullet holes, camouflage nets, telling the war memory of an island, with not a single media looking; on the right are sentences of 26 to 28 characters per line, with blank space taking up half the page, selling over 300,000 copies. A person whose existence was denied ten years ago because "no one reported on him" has now turned "how to be caught by a person scrolling a phone in three seconds" into a science calculated down to the character count. He didn't abandon 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, 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 the Big Scam of Taiwan's Most Bestselling Writer," 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," mocking the large blank spaces—"Were your books touched by the Soup Witch? The characters are missing by half," called his books "text version Blue妖姬 (Blue妖姬/Blue Enchantress)," and gave a literary professional evaluation of "only 0 points," "an unqualified writer, a master of mass psychological provocation."²⁴

On June 5, 2026, Domidolo's public 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 precisely 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 are too. 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 short videos and short dramas rose, everyone's reception rhythm for content became thinner and faster."²⁵ And Huang Shanliao himself had long admitted: "What I write can be finished in one glance as you scroll past."²¹

All three agree on the essence of this: Easy to read, like a mirror, designed to be caught by people scrolling phones in an era fighting for attention. Domidolo calls it a "shallow pond," defenders call it "market structure," 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 Huang Shanliao's 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 precisely the moment of being caught. The two sides seem to be arguing about Huang Shanliao, but they are actually arguing about a bigger question: 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 piercing. 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 inherently 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 expects different reading experiences. This year is the fifth year of full-time writing; the direction of my effort has always been to let more people who originally didn't read be willing to walk into bookstores, or even flip through a book. I still have much to improve, will continue to learn, and continue to grow. Thank you all for your suggestions, and once again thank all readers for their support all along."²⁷

A person who won a world championship, 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 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 Same school, same stage, three completely different paths.

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

Among the three consecutive champions from Shih Chien in London, Angus Chiang (right) chose to stay in fashion: His eponymous brand ANGUS CHIANG turned Taiwanese temple fairs and betel nut stand visuals into avant-garde menswear on the international runway, becoming the first Taiwanese designer shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2017. The international fashion circle recognizes him; the Taiwanese public mostly doesn't. Photo: Marie Claire (fair use editorial commentary).

Huang Shanliao left. He switched the stage from the runway to the bookstore bestseller list, gaining national-level commercial volume—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 Fashion Week → International respect + Niche volume
Huang Shanliao	2014	Kinmen 1969	Left fashion → Did media, became writer → National volume + National mockery
Zhou Yunting	2015	(Single source: Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex)	Relatively low-key

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

This table lays out, rather than just the personality differences of three people, more like a Taiwan exam question: 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 know 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 seen by many are treated as a joke. These two classmates who both reached the extreme of these two paths just demonstrated for Taiwan: Two paths, maybe neither has applause.

Beyond Chicken Soup: The Controversies That Must Be Honestly Recorded

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

250,000 NTD Monthly Salary Plagiarism Incident (October 2020). His article The Worries of People Earning 250k and 30k are the Same was pointed out to have 6 similarities with an August PTT post ("ordering 500 NTD worth of Uber Eats at once," "taking a taxi to go out," "fries extra large, eating half," etc.).³¹ His rebuttal was: "I didn't plagiarize!" "That is 'quoting'," and added "Perhaps I didn't write it clearly enough, that's my problem, I'm stupid," and "Still gets hurt, I'm not made of iron."³² Internet celebrity Chen Yi questioned that the "neighbor" earning 250k a month 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 yet, but the blurry 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 online, his words were heard as: "If one person always abuses you at home, then you can always resist his domestic violence; he is the suitable partner for you."³⁴ After the public outcry, he apologized publicly, word for word: "Regarding domestic violence, I 100% oppose it, do not support anyone in a relationship using violence to solve problems; 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 expert's stance must be placed here equally clearly: Lan Yifeng of the Counseling Psychologists Association said "violence absolutely cannot be tolerated, nor should it be rationalized"; Chang Hsiu-yuan, Director of the Protection Services Division 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 News Lens article title was Huang Shanliao's "Support for 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 you can resist domestic violence" into a sentence about "whether you are suitable to be together" is inherently 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 won't say they are depressed; they will disappear directly from the world," criticized as fake positive energy;³⁸ In August 2023, his chicken soup text was posted on a National Taiwan University campus board, removed in less than 6 hours, netizens sneered "only 6 hours, no substance."³⁹ But some also spoke fairly for him—In 2022, YouTuber Gua Ji criticized his books as "useless to society," he responded magnanimously: "Diverse ideas are important."⁴⁰ Writer Wu Danru also smoothed things over for him: Seeing your book but not liking it means even people who don't like your book see your book; they should be happy.⁴⁰

⚠️ A Matter 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 Zhiqian 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 we must make it clear: In this case, the person who was embezzled from was him.

I Actually Envy Those Who Are Already Completely Blackened

Back to that old poster going viral on Threads.

The young man who walked the London runway in 2014 wearing "Kinmen 1969," and the bestselling author being mocked by 600,000 people this week for having "no substance," are the same person. From Kinmen's snack shop, to London's runway, to Eslite's top spot, to a meme under a public trial video—this is a line that always only wanted to do one thing: Be seen. He spoke for the war memories of his hometown with fabric, let the nameless appear with lenses, caught people scrolling phones with short sentences of 28 characters per line. The carrier kept changing, but that desire growing from HR's words "can't find reports" never changed.

He is a student hand-crafted by Taiwan. Taiwan told him that this world compares not ability, but the skill of speaking—he believed it, practiced the skill of speaking to the national first place—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 already completely blackened, because those completely blackened 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 championship, envies those who are already completely blackened, no longer needing to care about anyone's eyes. A person who practiced bestsellers to one line of 28 characters, his deepest desire is actually the freedom of not being seen.

That cabinet of "Kinmen 1969" no one looked at, so it disappeared; that one sentence "one sentence of comfort" everyone bought, so he became a national meme. So next time you want to mock "that substance-less chicken soup writer," maybe you can first look at the water surface of that pond—ask yourself, the line you think is shallow, reflects his shallowness, or an island that only applauds "read in a glance" and won't applaud "made things"? Those who scold him, those who repost him, those who defend him, are all reflecting the same mirror.

Further Reading:

• Wu Bao-chun — Another Taiwanese craftsman who won a world championship, the difference is 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"
• Chang Chih-chi — Another "information curator" who similarly made complexity readable, finding resonance in the attention era
• Jimmy Liao — From an advertising company background, turned into an internationally bestselling healing creator, another kind of being seen
• Fang Feng — How Taiwan treats a person difficult to classify, another mirror

Image Sources

All images in this article are fair use editorial commentary, cached locally, for reporting and commentary 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: Parent-Child World, Domidolo Domidolo Official YouTube Embed

References