The Grade 1-9 integrated curriculum was implemented in Taiwan in 2001. Its life curriculum designed for junior students have integrated three fields: socialstudies, art& humanities, and Science & technology. With such a large scope in background knowledge, the design of the materials and the performance of the coursework couldn’t be an easy job accordingly. So far there is no similar curricular reform in other major countries. Undeniably, it is a great breakthrough in our educational history. However, it doesn’t mean the scheme itself is flawless. Rather, since its implementation in the September of 1998, the life curriculum has attracted many criticisms due to its vague objectives and undistinguished features. Plus not many incumbent elementary teachers had a chance to received a complete course of training about the curriculum in question. What the authorities offered were at best illustrations of its spirits, principles, or some demonstrative cases. All these gave rise to controversies and hot debates. Some even proposed to annual life curriculum altogether. Art is an important heritage of human culture. The art education in life curriculum employs and art-appreciation based approach with an emphasis on cultivation of the humanities as an essential part. Life curriculum aims at the promotion of humanities, a healthy development of students’ personality, and the realization of education. Indeed, art education does have a great impact on education reforms. Unfortunately, since the implementation of life curriculum under the context of the nine-year integrated curriculum, three major problems have occurred: 1.Teachers responsible for carrying out the curriculum were much troubled or felt uneasy abut the difficult task of integrating many different aspects in the “arts and humanities” subject. 2.A lack of cohesion and coherence in teaching was caused by teachers’ different expertise in humanities and a general tendency of overdependence on textbooks. 3.Tehre was a serious inconsistency in content proportions among different versions of textbooks. This has made some fields either a mere decoration or a total omission as shown in the subject of “art and humanities” which had a drawback of a lack of systematic teaching activities. Compared with other subjects, “arts and humanities” relies more heavily on teachers’ special knowledge or expertise and therefore the hardest to achieve the goal of effective teaching. As a result, its importance is often diminished, and teachers end up teaching students singing or drawing. This unfavorable development could lead to indifference or misguidance toward the goal and assessment of art education, putting this curriculum in a danger of losing a clear identity. In this paper, a contrast and comparison is done between the two-year-old life curriculum in Taiwan with its quasi counterpart in Japan: the “life activity” subject. Then it proceeds to analyze the problems with the curriculum design or the subject of “arts and humanities.” Also the obstacles to integrate the above-mentioned three fields in life curriculum are addressed. Aiming at bringing about a substantial help to the integration and implementation of the nine-year integrated curriculum, this paper could serve as a practical reference for our decision makers.