Xiu Zelan

Xiu Zelan, also written as Hsiu Tse-Lan, was a Taiwanese architect. Xue was born in Yuanling, Hunan. During World War II, she attended the Architecture Department of National Central University in Chongqing. In 1947 she entered the Taiwan Rail Bureau. She took charge of the Department of General Logistics and Engineering as an assistant engineer. Her modernist interpretations of traditional motifs gained the attention of Chiang Kai-shek, and in 1965 she took charge of Yangmingshan's Chung-Shan Building project. Designed to house state ceremonies, the Chung-Shan Building brought Xiu acclaim and the project was subsequently considered to be one of her crowning achievements and earned the popular title "Number 1 Female Architect of Taiwan". Subsequently, on April 30, 1967, Xiu was awarded the first Golden Tripod Award for Architecture. In 2015, on the 50th anniversary of the Chung-Shan Building's completion, she was presented with a certificate of gratitude from the Taiwanese government.

Early years

Childhood

Xiu Zelan was born on August 15, 1925, in Yuanling, Hunan. She was raised with four brothers. Her grandfather was a Qing dynasty official, and Xiu's parents, aunts, and uncles received a Western-style education.

Education and early work

Xiu chose to pursue architecture because the Kuomintang were encouraging youth to study architecture and engineering during the Second Sino-Japanese War. When Xiu was admitted to the Architecture Department of the National Central University in Chongqing, her mother hid her acceptance letter. In 1937, Xiu was one of two women to begin her studies at the university. The university was previously situated in Nanjing, but moved to Chongqing due to disruption of the Second World War. Around this time, Xiu first became acquainted with Chiang Kai-shek, who was the university's principal.
Upon graduation, she began practicing as an architect, entering her first job at the Ministry of Communications at Nanking in 1947. She was sent to Shanghai the following year, but design jobs were scarce due to “bad times”.
In 1949, as the Chinese Civil War escalated, Xiu accepted a job invitation at the Taiwan Railways Administration and started the new chapter of her career in Taiwan.

Career in Taiwan

Post at the Taiwan Railways Administration

Xiu was assigned to the Department of General Logistics and Engineering as an assistant engineer/architect. Despite the department needing more funds and resources, Xiu was soon involved in many significant projects. One of the most notable examples was the Banqiao Train Station, now demolished.
Xiu met fellow engineer Fu Chi-kuan while working in the Department of General Logistics and Engineering in the TRA. They were later married in 1953 and had a son together. Xiu finished the Tri-Service General Hospital nursery school, her first building not linked to rail, in 1954.
In 1955, Xiu and her husband left their posts at the TRA and established a private practice together, the Tse Chun Architectural Firm, in the following year.

Private practice and rising fame

The Tse Chun Architectural Firm was highly active between 1956 and 1966, completing several educational building projects. After traveling to Canada and the United States in 1967, where she visited suburban residential communities, Xiu began planning the, a planned community in Taipei. Fu was charged with sedition and jailed for three years starting in 1970. The Garden City project continued, and the couple refocused on the project after Fu's release. Through 1987, Garden City was the couple's main project, with few unrelated buildings completed in the 1980s.