Changhua County’s Sanmin Community (三民社區) has joined an ever-growing number of farming villages that are turning to amateur or professional artists to attract more visitors to the countryside.
Under the guidance of master potter Yeh Chih-cheng (葉志誠), Sanmin Community residents are creating pottery representations of cats and placing them on fences, billboards or roof eaves in the community.
Yeh said he has been teaching members of the community pottery for two years.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
The theme chosen for the initial course — cats — was a surprise success, and the community has a special love for making feline figurines, Yeh said, adding that the community has become a “cat village” like no other.
The community’s affinity for cats is perhaps due to the farmers’ belief that cats protect the urn where the villagers keep their rice from rodents, Yeh said.
As the villagers’ cat-themed creations received praise, the positive affirmation might have motivated them to continue with the theme, Yeh said.
That confidence has led to more refined and exquisite artworks, Yeh said.
As long as someone is a resident of the community, all materials for the pottery class are provided for for free, Yeh said.
While his overheads have risen exponentially, Yeh said he was glad his workshop was a part of the effort to bring new life to rural villages.
However, some academics have warned that such projects could lead to the destruction of historically important architecture.
The subject matter of the projects often clashes with an area’s environment, Chiayi Community College pottery professor Wang Yi-yi (王蟻益) was cited as saying in media reports in January last year.
It does not benefit the farming villages, and the crowds drawn by the artworks — ostensibly the reason they were created — are a source of complaint among local villagers, Wang said.
Older buildings — some of which are more than 100 years old — might become irreparably damaged should paint clog the pores of bricks, Wang said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS