The vocation and handicraft of hand-painting movie billboards is on the wane as neon signs and digital billboards of the modern age decorate the facades of high-rises and rooftops.
Seventy-three-year-old Hsieh Sen-shan (謝森山) is one of a handful in Taiwan who still practices the trade.
He insists on hand-painting billboards and has accepted a request to make a short video for the General Association of Chinese Culture.
Photo courtesy of the General Association of Chinese Culture
Born in Taichung, Hsieh later moved with his family to Taoyuan.
“I always wanted to learn a craft or trade,” Hsieh said, adding that he was heavily influenced by the environment he grew up in in his formative years.
Hsieh said that he often passed by Jingfu Temple, which was near the local hub of cinemas often referred to as “Little Ximending” after Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) entertainment and shopping area.
“The sky was filled with one billboard after another,” Hsieh said, adding that when he passed by, he would often think to himself what he wouldn’t give to be the one who had painted those billboards.
Hsieh said he started learning the trade at Eastern Advertising — now called Eastern International Advertising — when he was 15, hoping to ease the financial burden on his family.
Within two years, he had mastered the basics of the trade, allowing him to set up shop by the age of 20, after his mandatory military service.
The company did not provide room or board, nor did it offer a salary, Hsieh said, adding that painters would not actually “teach” the apprentices.
“It was more watch-and-learn, rather than a hands-on teaching process,” Hsieh said, adding that it usually took apprentices three to four years to master the basic techniques and gain enough know-how.
“It was hard work and many hours of practice day and night that allowed me to master the techniques within two years,” Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that once, he and another apprentice rode bicycles from Taoyuan to Ximending just to look at theater billboards there.
“We sat there with flashlights and just looked at the billboards in the dead of night,” Hsieh said.
Hsieh said he spent a brief period in an apprenticeship in Ximending learning different styles and techniques, which helped him better portray a livelier sense of characters and movie settings.
During the golden age of movie theaters from the 1960s to the 1980s, Hsieh said he had simultaneous contracts with seven cinemas and was working day and night.
“Sometimes a contract would call for drawings and paintings for premieres,” he said. “The faces of the characters alone would require 10 pieces of canvas.”
“It was quite a taxing and difficult job,” he said. “Not only did the color tone on every canvas have to be the same, gradations of light and shadow, and the liveliness in characters’ features were aspects to consider.”
However, the vocation of hand-painted movie billboards went into rapid decline after the introduction of digital printing in 1986 and a decline in the Taiwanese cinema industry, which saw many cinemas shut down, Hsieh said.
The few remaining ones transitioned into multiplex theaters.
“The older generation of billboard painters retired and others sought other careers,” Hsieh said, adding that he was one of the few who still did the work.
Lin’s hand-painted billboards are only displayed by Jhongyuan Cinema on Rixin Road in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢).
“Little did I know that I would be in the trade for more than six decades,” Hsieh said, adding that he would keep painting and drawing as long as he can.
“It is my hobby. I want to continue as long as I can and maybe see it passed on to the next generation,” he said.
Taiwan yesterday expelled four China Coast Guard vessels that entered Taiwan-controlled restricted waters off Lienchiang County (Matsu) shortly after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army announced the start of its “Joint Sword-2024B” drills around Taiwan. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a statement that it had detected two China Coast Guard ships west of Nangan Island (南竿) and another two north of Dongyin Island (東引) at 8am yesterday. After Chinese ships sailed into restricted waters off Matsu shortly afterward, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch deployed four patrol vessels to shadow and approach the vessels, it said. The incidents pushed up to 44 the number
Renovations on the B3 concourse of Taipei Main Station are to begin on Nov. 1, with travelers advised to use entrances near the Taiwan Railway or high-speed rail platforms or information counter to access the MRT’s Red Line. Construction is to be completed before the end of next year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said last week. To reduce the impact on travelers, the NT$95 million (US$2.95 million) project is to be completed in four stages, it said. In the first stage, the hall leading to the Blue Line near the art exhibition area is to be closed from Nov. 1 to the end
Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping area welcomed the most international visitors, followed by Taipei 101, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), a list of the city’s most popular tourist attractions published by the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism showed. As of August, 69.22 million people had visited Taipei’s main tourism spots, a 76 percent increase from 39.33 million in the same period last year, department data showed. Ximending had 20.21 million visitors, followed by Taipei 101 at 8.09 million, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park at 6.28 million, Yangmingshan at 4.51 million and the Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in
The government has issued a deportation order for a Spanish fugitive, ordering him to leave the country within 10 days, as he is wanted by European authorities for allegedly operating a car rental scam. National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials yesterday said Salvador Alejandro Llinas Onate, 48, had been notified that he must leave Taiwan, as he was wanted for committing serious crimes. The Spaniard has been indicted by Italian prosecutors for allegedly leading a 30 million euros (US$32.74 million) car rental scam and setting up a fraudulent company in Trento, Italy. The deportation order is based on Article 18 of
RSS