T. C. Lin

TC Lin , previously known as Thomas Christopher Locke or TC Locke, is an American-born Taiwanese photographer, writer, and filmmaker. A former U.S. citizen, he renounced his U.S. citizenship to naturalise in Taiwan as a citizen of the Republic of China in 1994. He is best known for his 2003 book about his service in the Republic of China Army, Counting Mantou.

Early life Locke grew up in Texas, Colorado, and Florida before moving to Virginia to attend Washington and Lee University. He first went to Taiwan in 1988 to attend the Chinese-as-a-second-language program at Tunghai University in Taichung. He quickly decided after his arrival that he wanted to settle on the island, and after a brief trip back to the United States to graduate from Washington and Lee in 1991, he returned to Taiwan, this time to the Hsinchu family home of Lin Yi-ping, a good friend of his from Tunghai University. Some time later, the Taiwanese government finally issued him a travel document to enable him to return to Taiwan and to the home of his adoptive family, with his new name: Lin Dao-ming. He went on to begin producing short films in 2003. In 2003 he directed the short film Clay Soldiers, which was screened at the Urban Nomads Film Festival the following year, winning an award for best film. He also joined The Muddy Basin Ramblers, a jug band, in 2004, playing trumpet, euphonium, washtub bass and the sousaphone.

Lin's feature film debut came with the premiere of the action/spy thriller "The Kiss of Lady X" at the Urban Nomad Film Festival on 10 May 2014.

Lin began writing Counting Mantou, his Chinese-language book about his army service, in the early 2000s. In addition to leading Burn My Eye workshops in various places around the world, he has been teaching a course on Street Photography at Zhongzheng Community College in Taipei since 2015. He is also currently an assistant professor at Shih-Hsin University in Taipei, where he teaches photography.

Works 《台灣饅頭美國兵》. Taipei: Locus Publishing, 2003. . . Barbarian at the Gate: From the American Suburbs to the Taiwanese Army. Camphor Press, 2014.