00:02There's a corner of Taiwan that's become tightly linked with the sound of the saxophone.
00:07For decades, family-run workshops in Holi, Taichung, have been creating handmade instruments.
00:13And while the heyday of the industry may be in the past, there is still a future,
00:18as even younger family members carry on the old business.
00:22The saxophone was, of course, a foreign import to Holi,
00:25made popular in the 1940s when a group of locals formed a band.
00:30Among them was Dr. Zhang Tinghui, who played saxophone when not practicing medicine.
00:36And that may have been where things ended, had it not been for a fire that destroyed Zhang's instrument,
00:41a disaster that would become the birth of a business the Zhang family is still in today.
01:01The success of that project started a whole local industry,
01:05as imitators joined in and exports, chiefly of beginner instruments, flowed out.
01:11At the industry's peak in the 1980s, there were around 30 saxophone factories in Holi.
01:17But times changed.
01:19Big producers shifted manufacturing to Southeast Asia,
01:23and Chinese-made instruments took over market share.
01:26Orders dried up, and today, only four saxophone factories remain.
01:31The Survivor's Secret, a shift away from cheap instruments for beginners,
01:35and a continued commitment to crafting by hand.
02:04Today, that handcrafted high-end ethos continues to provide factory work,
02:08with a sense of pride, accomplishment, and responsibility.
02:28And importantly, that same spirit has won high praise for holy saxophones from around the world.
02:58The insistence on craftsmanship doesn't mean resistance to modern technology,
03:04The original Zhang family factory has embraced AI,
03:08adding a multilingual chatbot function to its website,
03:12making it easier for customers from around the world to find an instrument that meets their budget and needs.
03:18These factories may not have the same name recognition as the big global brands,
03:23but saxophone players in the know associate this part of Taiwan with quality.
03:28Luffy Lee and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
03:31Let's see.
03:33Here it is.
03:35Let's see.
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