Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan was also influential. The Taiwanese picked up the European and Japanese styles and stopped wearing indigo-dyed outfits. Only Hakka people, known for their respect for the "virtue of thrift," preserved the traditional pattern. Likewise, the planting of indigoes was only conserved in less accessible Hakka towns in the mountains by a handful of Hakka farmers, because poor transportation prevented them from acquiring imported dyes.
World War
As soon as World War I erupted, however, most men were conscripted by the Japanese armed forces while women were restricted to service in agriculture that met Japanese war needs only.
The industry of natural indigo-dyeing was killed off.
Lee said that the industry somewhat revived for a brief period, while the export of synthetic dyes from Germany was blocked during the war. After the war, however, with the revitalization of trade, the industry completely evaporated from the island.
According to field research by Lee and his wife Chen Ling-siang (
"Mill buildings that haven't changed much in terms of their exterior barely preserved traces of the previous intensive labor work," Lee said.
Faded glory
Similarly, those once glorious mills, filled with the unique smell of indigo dyes, have become nothing more than housing units or grocery stores for tourists.
"It is so sad that we couldn't even find anybody who was involved in the process to produce indigo-dyed clothes," Lee said.
He said that because the industry had fallen apart over many decades, all the old indigo hands had passed away.
Even Chen, who assisted her husband with the research and started a workshop in natural indigo-dyeing, says that identifying the meaning to her of indigo-dyeing was something of a personal struggle.
"I harbored a lot of doubt about the meaning of `locality' while the education and environment in which I was brought up stressed Western culture," Chen said.
"To search into our history is to seek genuine self-identification," said Tsai Bai-lu (
For this reason, the National Park has devised a program consisting of an exhibition, demonstrations and a workshop to introduce natural indigo-dyeing to the public from July through August. President Chen Shui-bian (
Lee, who agreed with Tsai's view about the relationship between local history and self-identification, further stated that Japan could serve as an excellent model for Taiwan in terms of making up what it has lost of this part of its history.
Japan's own natural indigo-dyeing industry had also encountered crisis but is now sustained by tourism, he said. The fineness of hand-made art and crafts as well as the extraordinary delicacy in color of natural dyes make the products especially popular among visitors.
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