Lin Hwai-min founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre in 1973, making it Taiwan's first modern dance company. Lin was also an author of short stories, and his narrative instincts shaped the troupe from the start. The company's debut public performance was held at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei, and from the beginning, Cloud Gate's approach was distinctive: rather than importing Western modern dance wholesale, Lin built a movement language rooted in Asian traditions. Dancers trained in qigong and tai chi alongside ballet, learned meditation and martial arts, and studied calligraphy not as decoration but as a source of physical expression. The body, in Cloud Gate's philosophy, was both instrument and canvas.

Cloud Gate's productions mine Taiwanese and Chinese cultural experience with ambition and specificity. White Serpent Tale adapts the classic Chinese folktale of a supernatural snake spirit. Crossing the Ocean evokes the generations of Chinese who crossed the Taiwan Strait to reach the island, layering migration, loss, and arrival into movement. Liao Tianding tells the story of a legendary Taiwanese figure who outwitted oppressive Japanese colonial officials -- a Robin Hood of occupied Formosa. On 21 August 2003, Taiwan's government proclaimed "Cloud Gate Day" and renamed the street outside the company's office "Cloud Gate Lane," the first time in Taiwan's history that a day and a street were named for a living artist or active artistic organization.

On 11 February 2008, fire destroyed Cloud Gate's studio in Bali, along with costumes, props, and production archives dating back to 1975. Three decades of creative work burned in a single night. The response was extraordinary: 175 business groups and 3,973 individuals donated a total of NT$370 million -- roughly US$12 million -- to rebuild. The government provided a former art and education site in Danshui for a new home. The rebuilt Cloud Gate Theater includes a 450-seat indoor theater, a 1,500-person outdoor performance space, and two studios. "Whisper of Flowers," the first production staged after the fire, premiered in Chiayi on 12 September 2008, created specifically to celebrate the troupe's 35th anniversary and its refusal to be extinguished.

In November 2017, Lin Hwai-min announced his retirement. He was 70 years old and had led Cloud Gate for over four decades. Cheng Tsung-lung, a guest choreographer with the troupe since 2006, was named his successor. In February 2019, the company received the Stef Stefanou Award for Outstanding Company at the United Kingdom's National Dance Awards, a validation of Cloud Gate's international standing. Cloud Gate 2, a subsidiary troupe founded in 1999 to tour communities and develop young choreographers, merged with the main company on 31 July 2018. Lin's final performance, staged at the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei, featured a collaboration with Chinese choreographer Tao Ye. He ended his career in October 2019 at the National Taichung Theater, closing a chapter that had fundamentally shaped Taiwan's cultural identity.