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Bamboo-weaving national treasure master Huang Tu-shan began learning bamboo weaving at the age of fourteen; in his early twenties he opened a bamboo-ware factory producing woven handbags and baskets for domestic and overseas markets. Over fifty-plus years he has taught more than a thousand students, training countless talents for Taiwan’s bamboo-weaving industry and becoming a living history of Taiwanese bamboo craft. Bamboo-weaving national treasure master Huang Tu-shan started learning bamboo weaving at fourteen; by twenty-something he had set up a bamboo-ware plant turning out woven handbags and baskets sold at home and abroad. For more than five decades he has passed the craft to over a thousand students, nurturing innumerable specialists for the island’s bamboo-weaving trade—truly a walking chronicle of Taiwan’s bamboo art. ■Learning under Japanese rule—a master craftsman of national-treasure rank Diligence and plainness are the first impressions Huang Tu-shan gives. His home-cum-studio in Zhushan Township is filled with bamboo works and award certificates. Now eighty, he retired from the Provincial Handicraft Research Institute more than ten years ago, a veritable national-treasure artisan. Recalling how he bonded with bamboo, Huang, raised in Zhushan, remembers that during the Japanese era the town had 13,000 hectares of bamboo whose skin was elastic and of fine quality, already widely used for daily utensils. After graduating elementary school in 1938 (Showa 13), he trained for three years at the local bamboo-craft institute, laying a solid foundation, then spent another year and a half learning coarser weaving techniques. Soon after enlisting, World War II ended. With Japanese troops returning home and needing large numbers of bamboo suitcases, Huang entered the bamboo-goods trade. In 1953 he took a two-month craft-instructor course in Nantou and was assigned to teach at the Chiayi Craft Special Training Class, launching his life-long mission of passing on the art. ■Cultivating talents—pupils everywhere A year later the Nantou county government set up a craft class in Caotun, and Huang returned home. At the peak of handicrafts, he taught all he knew; within three years he trained many outstanding students, including fifty indigenous participants from Taitung and Hualien, learning from one another while developing new bamboo flower vessels and lamps. From 1953 on Huang successively worked at craft centers in Chiayi, Nantou, Taichung, and Guanmiao, as well as the Provincial Handicraft Research Institute and the Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center’s Central Experiment Station, developing new products and, in cooperation with schools, teaching bamboo processing. He also joined farming missions abroad many times to advise on local bamboo techniques. His works range from traditional utensils, flower vessels, fruit trays to lacquered bamboo ware. After retirement Huang never stopped creating or teaching, exhibiting frequently and lecturing at Zhushan High School and the Handicraft Institute’s “Bamboo-weaving Heritage” and “Bamboo-weaving Talent Training” classes, his pupils found everywhere. ■No real retirement—planning a museum After decades of passing on the craft, Huang has received the National Heritage Award and the title of Important Traditional Arts Master. Still active, he says, “Bamboo weaving demands creative thinking and nimble fingers; continuing to make pieces keeps me healthy. Anyway, I’m bound to bamboo for life, and I hope this tradition will live on forever.” Huang believes Taiwan is steeped in bamboo culture: from baby strollers, baskets, chopsticks, rafts, bridges, brush handles, houses to beds, with bamboo shoots a household favorite. In a society so intimate with bamboo, affection runs deep, providing endless inspiration. His greatest wish is for more people to appreciate bamboo art, perpetuate and expand this subtle craft, and he even plans to buy land for a museum to showcase the beauty of the master’s work. (Text and photos from the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute)