Meet Huang Yung-fu: The former soldier who began painting at 86 and helped save Taiwan’s Rainbow Village from demolition

Image(s): Left/Rainbow Village/BBC/Right/Eliot Stein/BBC At an age when most people have long retired, Huang Yung-fu picked up a paintbrush and changed the fate of an entire community. Living alone in an aging military settlement in Taichung, Taiwan, the former soldier began covering the drab concrete walls around his home with bright birds, animals and cheerful human figures. What started as a way to pass the time soon transformed the abandoned neighbourhood into the world-famous Rainbow Village, attracting more than a million visitors each year and halting plans to demolish it. Affectionately known as “Rainbow Grandpa,” Huang’s extraordinary story remains one…