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Born in Lukang, a town renowned for generations of master carvers, he began his apprenticeship at 14 under wood-sculptor Wang Jin-yi, laying a solid foundation in traditional woodcarving. Lukang’s craft traces its lineage to the Quanzhou school of mainland China, prized for its meticulous style that brings flowers, birds, insects, fish and narrative figures vividly to life. Huang Ma-qing’s own sculpture turns that gaze toward Taiwan’s natural environment: wetlands, Kinmen’s horseshoe crabs, the black-faced spoonbills at the Cigu river-mouth. He pours feeling into each block of wood, and with every cut strives to awaken the public to the truth that “human selfishness has already shattered the habitats we share with other species.” To preserve these beautiful forms forever, he carves their images, searching through the shavings for memories of what this land once was.