As a little boy on the family farm in Yuanli, he liked to chop trees with a machete and once carved away for several months at a twisted old swamp oak behind the house, intending to shape it into a dragon.
小時候，他就喜歡用柴刀在樹上亂砍亂刻，屋後有棵木麻黃，彎曲盤踞活像一條龍，陳炯輝決定要使它更像龍，於是拿起雕刻刀一刻就是好幾個月，沒想到結果刻出來的不像龍，反像蛇，而且沒多久樹也枯萎，成了「死蛇」。