Born in Ruisui, Hualien in 1952, HUANG Ming-chang graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Chinese Culture University in 1975. He went to France for further studies in 1977 and obtained a certificate in oil painting from the National School of Fine Arts ( Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts) in 1984. During his seven-year residence in France, Huang studied classical oil painting and learned how to depict subjects realistically. He made daily-life observations and expressed his feelings and thoughts through the super realistic portrayals of things. The artist returned to Taiwan in 1985 and continued to depict the daily happenings in Taiwan with his Paris-inspired approach. His studio at the time was located on the fourth floor of an apartment by Xindian River in Taipei County. He could already overlook a vast green rice field from the French window or the balcony in his place. The seasonal scenery of the rice field on the brink of the city became Huang’s main painting subject. Looking into the Distance (1986) was first born, and it served as the prototype of the Rice Field Series created later on.