Yu Chengyao was born in Fujian in 1898 and served in the military throughout his adulthood. He studied at the Waseda University in Japan in 1920 and taught at the Whampoa Military Academy from 1923. He moved to Taiwan in 1949 after his retirement from the army. Throughout his youth, Yu memorized the magnificent landscapes he saw in China and Taiwan and began to paint them only upon his retirement. His paintings express his appreciation for the motherland, the longing to return, and the reminiscence of a life that passed.

Although Yu did not receive formal education in painting, he saw nature as his teacher. He believed that an artist can only capture the real proportion and dist...