To chart the changing ideas of theatre, whether as ”art” or ”industry,” this paper borrows the method of ”participant observation” from cultural anthropology, investigating Taiwan's cultural policies in the past three decades. I begin by overviewing the changing policies on culture and arts since 1980s. I then conduct thick-description of oral histories of some twenty or more theatre workers-actors, designers, administers, director, with whom I have closely collaborated with for over 15 years. I argue that whereas the discourse of creative and cultural industries in the 2000s coincides with the emergence of Taiwan's theatre professions, the governmental subsidies for performing arts have actually long prepared for the modern theatre to thrive. It has long been overlooked that the ideology generated by art subsidy impedes the recent cultural policy of creative industry. My discussion also integrates information drawn from a recent experiment, which I conducted, on creating a ”performing arts cluster” practiced on the NCU campus. My ultimate goal is to map out the route of Taiwan modern theatre's striving for its first professionalism and hopefully to begin exchange of ideas between the art community and the governmental ”Act for Development of Cultural Creative Industries” issued in 2010.