WU, Pei-Shan
Assistant Professor
Graduate Institute of Applied Arts
Tainan National University of the Arts
Cultural creation is not a new concept. From the early 1950s when Yan Shuilong advocated the use of local craftsmanship to revitalize the rural economy, "products" have been largely integrated into local characteristics. After the plan for the development of cultural and creative industries was issued in 2002, relevant institutions, colleges, and local industries have actively invested in finding local characteristics and developing product designs. For a while, Taiwanese tastes have become fashionable and become a trend.
Tainan is rich in products and has a strong historical and cultural atmosphere. While entering the field research, we are also thinking about the supply chain of creative products: materials and processing, long-neglected use and management of materials, have become a gap in contemporary handicrafts and design. Therefore, we invest in forest-rich mountain areas and agricultural production. Research on the prosperous Greater Tainan area has become an urgent task.
Guantian, the hometown of water chestnut, we entered the Dongxi Zhuang community. Residents either plant water chestnut or engage in industries related to water chestnut. Everyone has a story about water chestnut, which can be said to be a long poem. We are thinking about cutting into community research with natural dyeing, so that agricultural waste: water chestnut shells can be reused. However, in recent years, the company has promoted water chestnut charcoal, collecting a large amount of water chestnut shells to burn water chestnut charcoal. Some farmers who actively promote organic planting can sell water chestnut tea to organic shops at a higher price. It is said that it can detoxify. We actually collected it for a while If there is no "agricultural waste", one will be happy and the other will be worried. If you are happy, agricultural waste is paid more attention to. Worry is how we should conduct research if there is no material.
Fortunately, the enthusiastic Director Lin of the Community Development Association collected a lot of water chestnut shells for us. The fresh water chestnut shells also exude a light fragrance, which makes the population flow. Another important material is the local soil. The iron-containing soil can change the color and form a rich natural dyeing. Therefore, we collected bricks, soil and other materials to try to make local colors. I boiled water chestnut shells and found that the color was thin. Professor Liao Lunguang, who instructed us, asked the local residents in particular. He found that the current planting method is to spread plastic cloth on the field and then cultivate it in running water, which is very different from the stagnant water of traditional ponds or mud puddles. Therefore, the color of fresh water chestnut shell is very light, which is very different from the traditional dark and blackish state, so the next task is to find Hishakada who still uses ancient methods and try to see the differences.
Although we have not succeeded in photographing suitable materials, the good time discussing with residents did give us a lot of inspiration. We look forward to finding fantastic products before the end of this year's water chestnut season.