Feeling duty-bound to preserve their community’s traditional craft, four bamboo craftsmen from a village in the hills of Chiayi County have started to teach their skills to students in the city.
Residents of Anchin Village (安靖) in the county’s Meishan Township (梅山) used to make a living by crafting bamboo furniture and various other bamboo products.
As it was the village’s main trade, everyone in the community, young and old, male and female, was well-trained in the techniques of working with bamboo.
Photo: Ting Wei-chie, Taipei Times
The skilled elderly villagers were known as “barefoot master craftsmen,” as it was customary to work barefoot.
Not wanting to see the craft of bamboo furniture-making perish, four “barefoot master craftsmen” — Wu Wen-chieh (吳文杰), Wu Wen-yao (吳文堯), Liu Ming-chih (劉明智) and Yang Ming-chung (楊明鐘) — accepted an invitation from Tzu Chi University’s Continuing Education Center to teach craft classes.
According to school official Chang Hsiung-ho (張熊和), the elderly craftsmen were modest and said: “We never thought that we old farmers could become teachers.”
The four will teach two courses, one titled “Bamboo Weaving Art” and another called “Making Bamboo Chairs,” starting in September, the school official said.
“When cutting bamboo stalks into thin strips, you have to ensure they are all the same length and thickness. The process for weaving and making laminated bamboo can be quite complicated,” Yang said.
“Although I do not have an advanced school degree, I am willing to pass on my 40 years of bamboo handicraft experience to the next generation,” he said.
Wu said that one-and-a-half working days are needed to make a bamboo chair by hand, adding that it takes 17 days to finish a bamboo table with three chairs.
A free workshop was held at the center yesterday for members of the public to have a hands-on experience of working with bamboo and making bamboo products.
The four “barefoot master craftsmen” said they learned their skills by watching their parents since their childhood.
The bamboo products they made as youngsters helped supplement their family income, they said.
However, in recent years, the demand for bamboo handicrafts and furniture has declined, so they turned to cultivating bananas, betel nuts, camellia flowers and other crops to make a living, they added.
Their bamboo handicraft became just a hobby, they said, adding that to maintain their skills and learn new ways of crafting bamboo products, they had attended courses offered by the Job Training Center at the Council of Labor Affairs.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all