As a child, Tai-Shan spent the first years of his life with his grandparents in Malaysia but was eventually returned to his London-based parents for primary school.
Being taken on frequent visits to the London Museums or art galleries made Tai-Shan familiar with painting of all realms and ages, while drawing soon became his favourite activity.
After travels to Greece and Asia Minor, the family settled in the Black Forest and, in pursuit of a more ecologically centred life, did some subsistence farming.
At the age of seventeen and with his secondary education completed, he left home, travelled to Frankfurt and Amsterdam, and spent time in Paris, drawing from life at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
Schierenberg sought "to understand what it was about the game that makes it so compelling", and whilst he began the project as a football cynic, he emerged as a fan of the club.