I live in the town of Tu Cheng, which is a part of “New Taipei City”. When people ask me where I am from, especially non-Taiwanese, I just say Taipei for convenience sake. Actually, “New Taipei City” is not really Taipei, because Taipei is the capitol and New Taipei City is the outskirt city that surrounds Taipei. Regional wise, I am from Taipei, but not from the real Taipei.
New Taipei City is huge, too big I think. It’s like calling all of Tokyo’s suburb as one city. That’s lazy. Taipei itself is surrounded by mountains forming a basin and Taipei sits right in the basin. That’s why the pollution in the air gets trapped and never disperses despite its proximity to the ocean. Tu Cheng sits against the south eastern side of the basin, but it’s not the furthest town in New Taipei City. The town of Ying Ge is the most southern town of New Taipei City, and it’s famous for its ceramic industry.
(Note: All of the stores do not allow photography so I did not take photo of any ceramic piece)
Ying Ge WAS a ceramic town. It used to have hundreds of chimneys towering the city scape, each representing a kiln, which represents a ceramic factory. I don’t even know if there is any chimney left now. However, Ying Ge’s ceramic industry tried hard to survive, finding ways to stay innovative, stay relevant. Years ago, they decided to turn the town into a memory lane. Tourism that is. They revamped the old main street, close it off for pedestrian only and set up a ceramic shopping district. They also built a very nice ceramic museum to show case the industry’s history as well as many contemporary works. The modernization of the mentality of the industry, from a traditional industry to one that is diverse and lively has creates space for young contemporary ceramic artists and designers to have a stage to stretch their arms. The industry no longer go for the mass production model just to serve the lowest common denominator. It now caters for limited edition, highly intricate elegant pieces for all kinds of price points, as well as innovative but practical contemporary design pieces. For many years, I came here to be pleasantly surprised. People who know me know that I am not easily impressed and I won’t spend money unless I am absolutely convinced too. Well, I did find a few very nice tea sets for incredible prices. They were the perfect gifts, one I would offer to friends as worthy pieces of art work.
So this week was the Ying Ge Ceramic Festival and there is no reason why I am not there.
I can’t really remember when was the last time I was here, perhaps two years ago. One thing hasn’t changed. The parking! It’s terrible, almost impossible. Well, let’s try…. Illegal parking on the street and walk back to the site. Nothing is really illegal in Taiwan. Laws are just references.
Immediately there was a big crowd. I am not sure if they get this many people on regular weekends, but it definitely has become a destination. Since it’s a “festival”, there’s one thing that Taiwanese will not leave out. FOOD!!!! And EATING!!!! Yeap, more food stalls and yummy treats.
It didn’t take long before I realize that this isn’t the best time to come here for good ceramic pieces, because the festival means crowd, which means it’s the best time for the galleries to bring out left over pieces that they can put on sale. The galleries were over crowded with stuffs. The shelves are definitely over populated and even the floor was stacked with show pieces. What a shame!
In general, I was a little disappointed from the stand point of seeing good work, but hey, there’s food!
Then there’s something else, something that I should already have gotten used to. Being in the states, there are no shortages of two things/people. Street performers and beggars. Here, I saw a combination of both. I don’t know, I felt kinda of depressed. There was a young girl, probably 15~16, playing violin. She was playing a popular piece which is the sound track of the animation Valley in the Wind by Miyasaki. It has a graceful but sad tune. The outstanding technique and saturated quality of the violin stood out in the chaotic scene, but the tune was an absolute mismatch with the supposedly festive atmosphere. Suddenly, it was not a festival anymore, it was a girl playing for her own school fees. She had a coin box with a sign in front of her asking for kind donations. She has a sad face. She doesn’t belong here. Actually, she doesn’t belong to the situation she is in at all. She should not have to perform on the street on a national holiday ( let along the 100th anniversary of the nation’s birthday!) and she should not have to worry about her right to be educated.
Then down the street, there was a clown on stilts. This is no ordinary clown. He has a walking stick, a make shift one, just like the ones used by visually impaired folks except his is much longer. He also has a loud speaker, a box hung from his neck and two boards tied to his chest. So what is this all about? Well, he speaks to the crowd explaining to them that he is scared to be on the stilts because he cannot see well, but he has to do this because he is disabled and can’t find a proper job, so he’s here to beg, asking people to put kind donations into the box hung on his neck, and the two boards are crudely made bill boards of the official ID of his two kids, still in school, still need him to support. Again, a awakard presence, an intersection of circumstances out of despiration. Who ever wants to put himself in a crowd of celebration when you are there to ask for help in a desperate situation? Not me.
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