Fengtian Village in Eastern Taiwan Celebrates Its Local Jade Culture

TaiwanPlus News

A village in eastern Taiwan has exported its local jade since prehistoric times. Today, thanks to DIY workshops for tourists, it continues to spread admiration for this special gemstone.

Transcript

00:00For more than 50 years,

00:04Jiang Jinyuan has been cutting, carving, sanding, and polishing

00:08the special jade from the mountains near his home in eastern Taiwan.

00:15He's part of a tradition that goes back to the area's prehistory,

00:18and despite the collapse of his hometown's trade in the precious gemstone,

00:22his workshop has managed to hold on.

00:24When he was born, he was born, and he was born.

00:30He was born.

00:32Now, an exhibit showing off the story of Jiang and his neighbors

00:35in a place that's still proud to be Taiwan's jade capital.

00:39It's the black dots against a deep green

00:42that are the telltale sign of Fongtian Jade,

00:44named for Fongtian Village in Hualien County.

00:47Zinc, chromium, and iron mixed into the rock

00:50give it its special spotted look.

00:52And while only rediscovered and named after a 1956 survey,

00:56it's been prized for a very long time.

00:59Fongtian Jade artifacts have shown up

01:01at more than a hundred prehistoric sites across Taiwan,

01:04and it's even been dug up abroad, hinting at the flow of ancient trade.

01:09But it was in the 1960s, shortly after the geologists found it,

01:23that the area saw a true jade boom.

01:26Those who remember it say everyone wanted a piece of Fongtian Jade,

01:30even in places where it had once been unknown.

01:32The people who have been in Japan,

01:34and the people who have been in the past,

01:35and the people who have been in Japan,

01:37and the people who have been in Japan,

01:39are the people who have been in Japan.

01:41And by coincidence, a ready labor force was already on the ground,

01:47ready to feed the jade market.

01:50The government had just given farmland in the area to retired military men

01:55who'd fled to Taiwan from China after the civil war there.

01:58But the area wasn't fertile, and farming was a bust.

02:01The whine of polishing machines grinding on stone

02:04soon filled local streets as jade-finishing workshops multiplied.

02:08Industry veteran, Jiang Jin-yuan, remembers.

02:11Jiang Jin-yuan,

02:24By 1975, up to 90% of the world's jade was coming from these few workshops

02:29in rural eastern Taiwan.

02:31Though some miners would steal jade and sell it on the black market,

02:35the industry kept going from strength to strength,

02:38until, very suddenly, the whole thing vanished.

02:42Taiwan's economy stumbled amid global oil shocks,

02:45and jade from other places, Siberia and Canada,

02:48proved to be what the market wanted,

02:50leaving Fengtian's jade products unsold.

02:53But there are survivors, those who've learned to adapt, like Jiang Jin-yuan.

02:58After one hundred dollars and a thousand dollars,

03:01we have been married for a year.

03:05We've been working to us for a long,

03:07to be able to turn there, to be a DIY.

03:11Even if you don't turn there,

03:13we must be able to melt off.

03:15Today, like the rest of Hualien City, Fengtian is a tourism powerhouse,

03:19Fengtian is a tourism powerhouse, a place where city dwellers come to recharge amid

03:23the clean mountain air and green landscape.

03:26Here hunting for the perfect piece of jade in the area's fast-flowing streams makes

03:30for a pleasant afternoon.

03:32And plenty of visitors discover the joys of making their own jade ornaments, too, as once

03:37professional workshops open their doors to those looking for a unique DIY experience.

03:42The days of mass export may be past, but Fengtian is still in love with its jade, and the many

03:49who pass through each year come away loving it, too.

03:52From prehistoric trade good to modern tourist attraction, Fengtian Jade has played many

03:56roles over time, but it's always tightly linked to this special corner of Taiwan, and

04:01the people who call it home.

04:04Alex Chen and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

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