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Unusual investment bears fruit for mutual loan club

"We didn't count on making money when we made that investment."

Chang Jui-chin, founding member of the Wild Dog mutual loan association

Friends and neighbors, averse to borrowing from Taiwan's bureaucratic banks, often form mutual loan associations to tidy them over when times are hard.

One such group in Taipei, set up in 1993 with 10 members each chipping in NT$5,000 a month, found an unusual way to invest its money.

None of the members needed to borrow money from the fund, so they decided to adopt an unknown artist, who goes by the name Wild Dog.

Yesterday, more than eight years later, Wild Dog opened his debut one-man exhibition at the Hwa Kang Museum, at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

On display are 45 of Wild Dog's works painted over the past two years.

Since October 1993, the 36-year-old Wild Dog, whose real name is Lee Cheng-lang, has received monthly stipends for living expenses of NT$30,000 to NT$50,000 from the mutual loan group, which calls itself the Wild Dog Club.

According to Chang Jui-chin, a founding member of the club, Lee and his sponsors equally share income from the artworks, which are priced at around NT$55,000 apiece.

The investment hasn't made money yet, but that doesn't seem to bother its members. "We didn't count on making money when we made that investment," Chang says.

With his living expenses paid by the club, Wild Dog, a Chinese Culture University graduate with a degree in fine arts, was able to do his studio work full time.

To repay the favor, Wild Dog recently joined a similar mutual loan association, known as the Big Mouth Club. Big Mouth is the professional name of one of Lee's classmates at Chinese Culture University.

Not an established artist himself, Wild Dog is an associate member of the Big Mouth Club, paying only half of the group's normal monthly dues.
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