(Credit of all photos: HPCF)
The craftspeople are Wu Chin-yun (吳進運) and Hsu Pao-mei (徐寶妹), a couple who live in Luoshan village of Hualien County’s Fuli Township where used to be an important bamboo hat-producing area in Taiwan. At that time, weaving bamboo hats was a skill that almost every household could master and a source of economic livelihood for many local residents.
However, with changing times and industrial transformation, the demand for bamboo hats has gradually decreased, and the bamboo hat weaving industry has been replaced by cheaper products from Southeast Asian countries.
Wu, an octogenarian, and his wife Hsu in her seventies, are still engaged in weaving bamboo hats by hand. Knowing what the best material is for the handicraft, Wu told the series filming team that not all types of bamboo are suitable for making hats.
The weaving process of the hat is technically complicated. In order to meet the different size requirements of the wearer, there are also handmade wooden hat molds of various sizes. Each hat mold has a history of more than 50 years.
For the couple who have been weaving the bamboo hats for decades, the craft is not only about making money, but also a responsibility to assure the customers of product quality.
Produced by HPCF, the docuseries explores Hakka traditional industries and craftsmanship, presenting Taiwan’s Hakka culture and promoting cultural transmission and sustainability. The first season of the series was well received as it came out last year. Season two is still on the air on HPCF’s YouTube channel.