When it comes to saxophones, most people think of the sound of jazz drifting through the streets of New Orleans, or the popular Grammy-winning artist Kenny G. But they would be surprised to know that many of the best-selling saxophone records, ranging from classics to modern, were performed using instruments made in Taiwan, home of one-third of the world's saxophones.
In Houli (
"It's a family tradition, and I'll be proud to pass it on to my children," said Chang Chun-jei (
PHOTO: JESSIE HO
Relationship
The relationship between Houli and saxophones can be traced back to 1947, when a group of young music lovers, including Chang Lien-chang (
As musical instruments were luxuries at the time, Chang decided to make his own replacement saxophone.
After years of research and tests, he developed the first saxophone to be made in Taiwan. Though he lost his right eye during the process, Chang started the production of Western musical instruments in Taiwan, and now he shares his skills with people who have a passion for saxophones.
Out of the 25 musical instrument manufacturers in Taiwan, 15 are based in Houli, with annual production of about 30,000 saxophones, Chang Chun-jei said. These companies are also authorized to produce musical instruments by many global famous musical instrument companies as their original equipment manufactures (OEMs), he said.
The OEM business faced its first challenge in 1998, as at the time many of their main customers decided to switch orders to China, where the price was around half that of Taiwan, Chang said. The orders were back the next year, however, as the companies found that the quality of the Chinese instruments, like their prices, was much lower.
"Nevertheless, we still need to be alert, as our Chinese competitors will probably catch up with us within five years," Chang noted.
Challenges
Like the high-tech sector in Taiwan, the charismatic local industry is eager to transform in order to meet upcoming challenges. Making their own brand names and adding more value is one solution.
Thanks to help from the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Industrial Development Bureau and the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI,
ITRI started a "Houli Saxhome Family" project to revive the industry in July last year.
Besides creating a brand for made-in-Taiwan saxophones, the institute plans to inject NT$25 million (US$750,000) into the project over three years, said Thomas Chang (
Quality control
The project aims to introduce industrialized production technology to achieve standardization and improve the key production processes. By introducing standard inspection procedures, intelligent tuning technology and timbre (pitch and volume) matching, saxophone makers can greatly improve their quality control, which can help them to decrease costs and enhance competitiveness, Chang said.
"We expect the project to create an economic value equal to over ten times the original investment amount," he said.
Promoting the project is not easy, given that the different manufacturers have different manufacturing procedures and skills, which makes it difficult to integrate technology, especially as many of the older masters are headstrong and refuse to change old traditions in the family business, Chang said.
Fortunately, the second generation of manufacturers is willing to change, especially after seeing the threat posed by China, which is now the largest saxophone exporter in the world with a market share of 50 percent, he said.
Another significant result of the project is an experimental home-made saxophone, which applied ITRI technology to improve the sound quality, and was redesigned to cater to Asian physical features -- particularly the size of hands, length of fingers and proportions.
Yen Ching-shyan (顏慶賢), a Taiwanese saxophonist who has started a saxophone course at National Taiwan University of Arts and is a leader of the project, said the quality of the preliminary finished product is approaching that of Selmer, a French brand that produces the world's top-graded professional musical instruments.
The new model of saxophone is forecast to enter mass production within the next two years, Yen said.
"Now all we need is a great marketing strategy to enable the world to listen to the sound of Taiwan," Yen said.
To demonstrate the results of this fruitful project, the saxophone manufacturers are planning to showcase their products sometime later this month.
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