Designer works to save Taiwan's disappearing traditional skills

“Traditional skills are the basis of our culture, as well as the inspiration for our creativity,” said Chen Jun-liang, chief executive officer of FREEiMAGE Design Co. Ltd. and the winner of many important awards. He was the first Taiwanese to win the Grand Prix Savignac, the most important poster award in the world.

Chen has been assigned as the curator of one pavilion of November's Taiwan International Cultural Creative Industry Expo, which aims to show off the beauty of the many traditional skills that can be found around Taiwan.

The event will be held by the Council for Cultural Affairs and the General Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of China at the Taipei World Trade Center's Nangang Exhibition Hall from Nov. 11-13.

The designer has chosen an innovative method to showcase these traditional skills — using video with interactive art to express his concepts.

“I will set up eight screens to play videos about more than 100 disappearing skills in Taiwan, and I will encourage viewers to send letters of support to these traditional craftsmen by displaying their letters in clear boxes,” Chen told CNA.

“Tradition can be renewed through creative design,” Chen said, adding that this can be a powerful drive in developing and strengthening the cultural creative industry.

Among the highlighted skills, of which many are rarely to be seen in urban settings now, is the weeper, which is a special role for women who are hired by families of the deceased to weep at their funerals.

“Most Taiwanese people are conservative and do not easily express their love for their families. When a loved one passes away, they hire a weeper to cry and scream, as a means of expressing their love,” Chen said.

One such weeper, identified only by her family name of Yeh, has done this for over 20 years. “I have participated in all kinds of funerals. I am serious about my job, so I share the mood of the families that hire me,” she says in one of the videos.

Another of the featured artisans is Huang Shi-zhi, who makes glove puppets and TV puppets from traditional materials such as camphor wood.

The work is not easy. He begins by carving the head, arms and legs, then polishing and painting, adding hair, and dressing the puppets in underwear, costumes and hats. “Sometimes the puppets play a variety of different roles, so we need to design several costumes for certain puppets,” Huang says in the video.

Asked if he is concerned that the skill will disappear someday, since the younger generation is not interested in it, he said the most important thing is to attract the interest of young people so that they become willing to devote themselves to these disappearing art forms.

Another skill that Chen's team recorded is the making of Chinese writing brushes. Although not so many people practice Chinese calligraphy these days, it is still a special art. Making its principal tool — the Chinese writing brush — is also an artistic skill that requires a great deal of patience and knowledge.

“These people are working on the same things for almost their lives, and I hope people will understand the value of these old skills and will work together to protect them,” Chen said.

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