When explaining his most recent business venture, Liao Jin-feng (廖錦逢) talks about how bamboo was used as a weapon by Hakka militias during their resistance to Japanese troops after Qing Dynasty China ceded Taiwan to Tokyo in 1895. Liao also speaks of Far-Hearing (順風耳), a deity renowned for his unique sense of hearing and according to legend a musician who lived during the Spring and Autumn Period.
But Liao is not a folk historian. He’s a 33-year-old designer who established street-wear brand Nong Li (農麗) with Peggy Chen (陳亞珮), his girlfriend, in July of last year.
The name Nong Li is a homophone of the Chinese word for “lunar calendar” and reflects the duo’s design philosophy, an approach inspired by Taiwan and its history, peoples and culture.
The brand — which won third place at this year’s International Young Creative Entrepreneurs Awards held by the British Council — appeals to young shoppers with its blend of the traditional and the universal language of music. One popular T-shirt design introduces a rock ’n’ roll band featuring Kuankung (關公), the god of war and chivalry, his adopted son Kuanping (關平) and attendant Chou Chang (周昌). Guanyin (觀音), the goddess of mercy, is featured in the I Love Rock ’n’ Roll series, which, according to Liao, is favored by Western shoppers for its Chinese slogan Ai le fu la ken ruo (愛樂府拉肯若).
Life in Taiwan’s farming villages provides Nong Li with another source of inspiration. A shirt adorned with the slogan Taiwan Calling and a picture of a farmer hoeing a field operates as a clever parody of the album cover for London Calling by The Clash. Another image Nong Li transforms into a surprisingly chic design is that of a motor farming cart, rendered in Harley-Davidson style.
“Young fashion designers rarely pay close attention to the land we live in. That’s thought to be a cultural worker’s job. We want to bridge the gap, using street-wear apparel as a medium to transform Taiwanese culture into fashionable elements, so that people may look at the old and tradition in a different light,” Liao said.
A city dweller for most of his life, Liao embarked on a cross-island cycling trip in 2006, with the goal of exploring the country on his own. After years of working in advertising, Liao was overwhelmed by fatigue and was questioning who he really was and what he truly believed in.
“You worked and worked and left the office at 2am every day for six years. But in the end, you found yourself disagreeing with the values you had served,” he said.
This existential quest resulted in the inception of Nong Li, as well as an interest in volunteer work. Liao and Chen now coordinate projects with people such as farmers’ movement activist Yang Ju-men (楊儒門) and the Hohak Band’s (好客樂隊) Chen Guan-yu (陳冠宇), who has devoted much of his time to organic farming in Taitung.
Another important aspect of the duo’s enterprise is an emphasis on hard work, which means months of research and meticulous investigation into particular design concepts. The design for Far-Hearing, for example, was created only after Liao and Chen read various historical documents about the deity and visited several Matsu temples [Far-Hearing is one of Matsu’s “dharma protectors”] in different parts of the country. Similarly, a deceptively simple image of broccoli required several treks to local traditional markets, where the duo photographed cardboard-box prints of both vegetables and the names of places where they are produced.
“Young people surf the Internet for graphics. They are convenient and pretty but lack history. If you do your research on-site, you will find a lot more detail and learn about the depth of things,” Liao said.
Finicky fashionistas may be especially excited to learn that Liao, who has more than 10 years of training in fine art, makes the extra effort to apply different techniques to every design. His religious images are reminiscent of traditional woodblock printing. A piece featuring the Formosan salmon appears to be the work of a skillful tattoo artist. The aforementioned 1895 battle is rendered in the Ukiyo-e painting style employed in Japanese historical documents that recount the event.
Prices at Nong Li range from NT$780 to NT$880 for T-shirts and below NT$500 for caps and headscarves designed for cyclists and bikers. The boyfriend-and-girlfriend team has been a regular presence at art fairs and musical festivals, including Spring Scream, the now defunct Formoz (野台開唱) and Freak Out Beast (吵年獸). Interested customers can also find Nong Li’s products at venues ranging from chain bookstore Page One to music venue The Wall (這牆) to trend-setting boutiques such as Che Yeh (這也) in Taipei’s East District (東區).
Nong Li’s customer base is equally diverse, spanning the spectrum from teenagers and grandmothers to academics and rockers. What surprises the designer, however, is the enthusiastic reception he receives from Western customers.
“I transformed Far-Hearing into a DJ because of his exceptional hearing ability. Foreigners may not know of the deity, but they are familiar with DJ culture. By making the connection between the two, they may find Taiwanese religion less distant and mysterious,” said Liao, whose future plans include working with local artisans and expanding Nong Li abroad.
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