By middle school, he was regularly representing his class in school-wide drawing competitions, but also became enamored with the young thugs on campus. "Taixi's extreme poverty resulted in an extremely polarized society," says Lin. "There were two routes to status: becoming a gangster or throwing yourself into your studies."
國中時經常代表班級參加校內繪畫比賽獲獎，但他卻非常羨慕校園裡混幫派的同學：「台西因為特別窮，造就出非常兩極的文化──要不就混幫派當流氓，要不就勤奮讀書出人頭地。」