Traditional Crafts Alive in Taiwan
Ceramics, Stone Carving and Wood Carving Festivals Draw Visitors in October
The Asian island nation of Taiwan keeps traditional Chinese culture alive in its adherence to the age-old artisanal ways of making crafts. Every October three towns showcase a trio of different crafts: ceramics, stone carving and wood carving.
Located near Taipei, Yingge has been the country’s pottery center for over 200 years. The town boasts more than a thousand pottery workshops and stores many concentrated along Old Pottery Street. Running through October 23, the Pottery and Ceramics Festival combines educational displays at the Taipei County Yingee Ceramics Museum with the chance to try hands-on pottery making at any of the local shops. Ceramicists from all over the world are invited – last year Yingee hosted the First Taipei Ceramics Biennale -providing for a rich exchange of pottery arts experience.
Eastern Taiwan is known as “marble country,” and wherever visitors look they will see this beautiful stone. Since 1997, during the entire month of October, the annual Hualien International Stone Sculpture Festival has been drawing artists from all over the world to show their works against the region’s dramatic scenery of deep mountainous gorges and cliffs plunging to the sea. The festival encompasses exhibitions of stone art at the Hualien Stone Sculpture Museum as well as carving demonstrations by master artists. Visitors will be able to satisfy their curiosity about stone carving and shop for valuable artwork or handicrafts at the same time.
More than 100 years of tradition are reflected in the exquisite workmanship of Taiwan’s wood carving artistry. The island’s biggest concentration of wood carvers is in the town of Sanyi in Miaoli County, which is known internationally as “wood-carving country.” Tea trees and camphor wood forests blanket the area and half the residents are involved in carving. A virtual open-air museum of wood carving, Shuimei Street is lined with shops offering works depicting Chinese religious figures or native themes. Since 1993, the annual Sanyi Wood Carving Festival during the month of October has been presenting the finest works of art – as well as collectible examples of the wood carver’s skill – along with on-site demonstrations of the entire wood-carving process. This year the Wood Carving Museum (opened in 1995) celebrates the wood carvings of Oceania and the 100th anniversary of the great wood carver Lee Sung-lin.
For more information about Taiwan and its crafts, contact the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, One East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, call 212-867-1632, e-mail tbrocnyc.@gmail.com or log onto www.taiwan.net.tw or www.go2taiwan.net
October 18, 2005
Posted in: Taiwan