Adamantly refusing to sell his wooden carvings, he was heavily in debt. In 1984 when he held his first solo exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and sold a 52,000-square-feet parcel of land (the only one he owned), concerned family members and friends warned him: "All you do is carve ants, and you don't have any other income. Who is going to buy these carved ants?
由於堅持不賣木雕作品，他負債累累，一九八四年在北美館舉辦首次個展時，還把僅有的一千五百坪田地也賣了，親朋好友擔心地告誡他：「你只刻螞蟻，又沒有其他收入，誰會買你這些雕刻螞蟻？