Rebuilding bamboo crafts
On a summer’s day, with the sun shining intensely overhead, we take the High-Speed Rail to Tainan, where we plan to head off to a major bamboo production area.
After a 20-minute drive, we arrive in Longqi District. The bamboo industry here can be traced back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The hilly topography and sandy loam make this place especially suitable for the growth of bamboo. In the early days Longqi and neighboring Guanmiao thrived as a result of the bamboo industry, which mainly produced household goods for the people of Tainan City.
Chang Yung-wang, owner of Baizhuyuan (“Hundred Bamboos Garden”) and president of the Tainan Bamboo Association, is a member of the fifth generation of a family of outstanding bamboo craftspeople. Chang, who laughingly says, “Bamboo has been our nightmare since we were little,” has calluses and countless scars on his palms, and his finger joints are especially prominent.
Chang has witnessed the rise and fall of the bamboo industry. He was there when it flourished from the 1960s to the 1980s, when many families made a living from bamboo weaving and the industry earned a great deal of foreign exchange for Taiwan, helping the economy to take off. This lasted until petrochemical products invaded the market.
Although the industry was moribund for many years, in the last decade, with the rise of environmental consciousness, bamboo has again attracted attention as an organic product, and the industry has gradually rebounded from its low point. A few years ago representatives of Louis Vuitton showed up to talk with Chang about finding a material suitable for bamboo handles for their boutique handbags. Although their discussions came to naught, this event sparked a sense of mission in Chang to revitalize bamboo crafts.
Although today’s bamboo crafts industry must ultimately face the problem of Taiwan’s high labor costs, Taiwanese workmanship is of premium quality, far superior to that seen in mass-produced goods from China and Southeast Asia. There was even a European designer who, after completing his design on paper, specially came to Chang to ask him to make a prototype of his product.
Chang says that bamboo weaving is a craft that requires endless practice and skill accumulated over time. Only if one has a strong foundation in the basics of this craft can one continually adapt and innovate and deal with novel challenges.
Chang and his group of apprentices are determined to revive bamboo crafts, and are moving in the direction of high-end customized services. In the skilled hands of a craftsman, light and flexible bamboo strips, with their pliable yet tough nature, are interlaced, rising from flat to three-dimensional. In new forms, bamboo is once again enriching people’s daily lives, and the knowledge and skills accumulated in the past are again being passed down to future generations.
Bamboo can grow into useful material in as little as three years. The entire plant can be used, so there is no waste. Europeans have called it “a plant sent down from heaven.”