"Regardless of my feelings towards Kuangsheng, the festival is the one time of the year when Sanyi can be in the spotlight and its woodcarving heritage is celebrated in a manner I feel it warrants," said the artist. "We do have something unique here and it deserves recognition both at home and abroad."
Despite wariness that native Taiwanese out-of-towners might take over, recent years have seen an invasion of Chinese woodcarvings upping the ante. The number of stores now packing their shelves with cheaper carvings from China, whilst keeping locally made and more expensive items to a minimum, has increased dramatically.
"I have to admit that I sell a lot more of the Chinese-made carvings than local ones. There's quite a big price difference you see," Hsu said. "While collectors for whom money is no object continue to purchase the genuine article, tourists are more drawn to the cheaper pieces from China these days."
Ironically enough it was the Sanyi woodcarvers themselves who triggered this invasion. According to Chen, local artists began traveling to China in large numbers in 1977 in order to teach their cross-strait counterparts the art of woodcarving.
"It's a shame, but then business is business and artists in China were willing to pay good prices for lessons in woodcarving from Sanyi woodcarvers," Chen said. "Although cheaper than works by local artists, the quality and detail is not there and, of course, they don't use camphor, they use plain non-aromatic woods. There's a big difference and I'm certainly not worried about Chinese artists poaching my trade."
RSS