Minister Gu said that master builder Fu received the top recognition, the Hakka Affairs Professional Medal, from HAC in 2022. His touching efforts to pass down precious traditional knowledge and techniques, always at the frontline teaching future generations, deserve great praise. In the future, HAC will continue to value the restoration of Hakka village landscapes and preservation of traditional crafts, so that unique Hakka building techniques can live on for ages to come.
Mr. Fu also enthusiastically showed Minister Gu his 1:20 scale model of a sanheyuan, a traditional U-shaped courtyard home, which took him half a year to complete. In addition, he unreservedly shared his treasured unruled notebook of Lu Ban—patron deity of builders—and his hand-drawn architecture drawings and notes.
Born in Zhudong, Hsinchu in 1940, Mr. Fu has been engaged in construction since he was a little over 10 years old, devoting over six decades to the craft. He learned from Lin A-kun, under the Peng A-hai school of architecture. Mr. Fu has profoundly studied Lu Ban's Classic, a Chinese treatise on traditional building, and possesses mastery over traditional concepts like the five elements, fengshui, and the bagua—or “eight areas”—energy map, as well as Japanese construction techniques, applying his vast array of skills with careful thought. He excels at repairing roofs of many sorts of traditional buildings and is one of the very few master builders with full command of the gamut of traditional building techniques, including jiannian—mosaics made from broken ceramic tiles, clay sculpture, and gable painting.
His oeuvre spans a range of traditional structures like sanheyuan, siheyuan—a courtyard home enclosed by buildings on all four sides, and temples. He participated in construction of the Jingang Temple in Beipu, Jin Guang Fu Mansion, and the Chiang Family Temple, perfectly showcasing the spirit of “elegance, practicality, and energy alignment” embodied by Hakka architecture. A luminary of Taiwanese traditional roofwork, the roofs laid by master builder Fu can achieve neatness and prevent leakage of rain without waterproof sheets, an incredible engineering feat! In 2016, he was named a “National Treasure” and designated as a Cultural Heritage Preserver of Building Maintenance Techniques (Roofwork) by the Ministry of Culture. HAC stated that in addition to holding superb skills, Mr. Fu remains dedicated to educating and passing down his knowledge, continuously imparting traditional building techniques to aspiring young apprentices. With the philosophy of “doing to learn, passing down to build the future”, he hopes to keep traditional architecture alive for future generations through practical actions and oral transmission.