"This was not," he stresses, "mere impulse or personal amusement," but had deeper roots. As a student in the UK in the 1970s, Lin had remarked that British people remained deeply proud of their historical and cultural assets, despite the declining British economy. He was moved to wonder even then what cultural assets Taiwanese could be proud of.
「那絕不是一時的衝動或個人興趣，」林經甫強調，1970 年代，他在英國讀書時，英國因為全球紡織業走下坡而經濟蕭條，但英國人仍以歷史悠久的文化資產感到自傲，這引發他思索，台灣人能引以為傲的「文化資產」究竟是什麼？