The brooches Taiwan’s athletes wore on their blazer jackets at the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Paris have gained significant attention, with the artisans who crafted them saying they are proud to have helped the nation shine on the world stage.
The brooches were made to look like a sprig of plum flowers and a sprig of canola flowers.
Both have symbolic meanings to cheer on Taiwan’s athletes, Lin Pei-ying (林佩瑩), a master of the craft, said in a recent interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
Photo: Lee Wen-te, Taipei Times
Lin has been involved in the Taiwanese craft of making brooches for more than two decades. It requires patience and dexterity, as it involves threading, weaving, and wrapping and applying paper, wire or fabric to create ornamental flowers.
Lin cofounded the Yunlin County Chanhua Art Culture Creation Association (雲林縣纏花藝術文創發展協會) in Yunlin County and holds classes there to revive the skill.
The craft is known as “Chanhua” (纏花 “threading flower”) in Hakka and “Tshun-a-hue” (春仔花, “spring flower”) in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Lin said.
“We welcome people to join the classes, and host workshops to hone and improve people’s skills,” she said.
The National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute in 2020 honored Lin as an outstanding artisan in the field.
Early this year, Lin was invited to create the brooches by fashion designer Justice Chou (周裕穎), who the government had commissioned to dress Taiwan’s Olympic athletes. She worked with 20 association members for six months to complete 400 brooches for the Games.
The plum flower is known to bloom in winter, and was chosen to symbolize perseverance and resilience, Lin said.
The canola flower is also known as the oilseed rape flower, and the phrase “add oil” or “jia you” (加油) is an expression of encouragement, while it is pressed to produce vegetable oil, symbolizing selfless sacrifice, she said.
“Both flowers are commonly encountered around Taiwan, so they also represent people from across Taiwan supporting and cheering on our Olympic athletes,” she said.
“When Chou spoke to us, he wanted not just to decorate the blazer jacket, but for the brooches to represent the fusion and harmony of Taiwan’s diverse cultures, so we held numerous discussions ... [and it took] two weeks of refining and tinkering to arrive at the final design,” she said.
It took much time and effort for her and the 20 association members who made the brooches to overcome the problems such as weaving the flowers on a small scale, Lin said.
“But when people saw the final product, they always expressed amazement and delight, so we felt all that hard work ... was well worth it,” she said, adding that it was a proud achievement for all involved.
One of the association members surnamed Lee (李), who helped make the brooches, said it would take two to three days to complete a single flower, and afterward it had to be closely inspected and approved.
“Every time I handed over a finished flower to [Lin], or another teacher for quality control, I would get very nervous. If they saw one tiny defect, then we had to do it over again. We really hated that, but still we persisted because we love this work,” Lee said.
A teacher surnamed Wei (魏), who was also in charge of quality control said: “No matter if I made a flower myself or was supervising to ensure quality control, I felt a lot of pressure, like a mountain was pressing down on me.”
“I did not want our colleagues to squander their precious hard work, but then remembered it would be displayed on the world stage, so I had to make the harsh decision to return the flower if ... I spotted a minor flaw,” Wei said.
“We had the belief that we were undertaking an important mission to shine on the world stage... But I am just one member of this team, and everyone made a vital contribution,” Lin said. “We hope people can recognize our efforts ... by giving praise to these artisans who are helping to preserve this traditional handicraft.”
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