| Xiu Zelan | |
| Birth Date: | August 15, 1925 |
Xiu Zelan (; 15 August 1925 – 27 February 2016), also written as Hsiu Tse-Lan,[1] 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 (Now Southeast University School of Architecture). In 1947 she entered the Taiwan Rail Bureau.[2] 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.[3] 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".[4] Subsequently, on April 30, 1967, Xiu was awarded the first Golden Tripod Award for Architecture (alongside fellow architects including Wang Da-hong, Chen Chi-Kwan, Chen Ren-he, Haigo T. H. Shen, and Yang Cho-cheng).[5] 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.[4]
Xiu Zelan was born on August 15, 1925, in Yuanling, Hunan.[6]
In 1937, Xiu enrolled in the Architecture Department of the National Central University in Chongqing (now Southeast University School of Architecture). 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 (also known as Nanjing) in 1947. She was sent to Shanghai the following year, but design jobs were scarce due to “bad times”.[7]
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.
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 (also written as Panchiao) Train Station, now demolished.[8]
Xiu met fellow engineer C. K. Fu while working in the Department of General Logistics and Engineering in the TRA. They were later married in 1953 and had a son together.
In 1955, Xiu and her husband left their posts at the TRA and established a private practice together in the following year.