Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Difficulties and Challenges in Starting a Business

Master A-fa established his own studio in the alley in front of Changhua Nanyao Temple. At the very beginning, the company was small and there was only one employee (himself). He specializes in helping with the OEM of some statues of gods. Through active management and expansion, he opened the current store.

 

Master A-fa never stops learning and improving after starting his own business. He even works harder to improve his statue sprucing skills. In addition to the already proficient statue sprucing skills, Master A-fa also began to try to add his own ideas and creativity to make the statue more lifelike. Taking the coloring the statues for example, in the past, only the inner layer was usually painted, and the color matching was quite simple. Starting from the 1990s, Master A-fa attempted to incorporate richer colors and more detailed painting skills into the sculpture of statues, making the tones of the statues more delicate, vivid, and complicated. Such flexible and colorful coloring of statues has become the mainstream now.

 

Moreover, Master A-fa has also developed many innovative skills for the drawing of eyes. He uses superb painting skills to make the eyes of the statue as lifelike as possible. In the past, the eyes of statues were usually simply black and white. However, in order to make the eyes of the statues look more vivid and lively, Master A-fa also uses brown, blue, light gray, white and black, etc., and mixed at least seven colors to draw the eyes of the statues, making the eyes of the statues brighter and more lifelike, as if they come alive.

 

 Influences of Matzu Fellowship in Taichung, Changhua, and Nantou. It is religious center of Matzu in central Taiwan (source: Nanyao Temple).The Buddhist paraphernalia shop run by Master A-fa.

 

Master A-fa working seriously in the shop. Master A-fa working seriously in the shop.

Figure 3-2c: The exquisite painting makes the statue seem to come alive.

Figure 3-2d: The intricate painting is truly breathtaking.


Figure 3-2e: Master A-fa’s team is well-known for its technique of painting lifelike eyes.

Home

Narrative

My school

The Miraculous Master A-fa 

Statue Sprucing Craftsmanship

Craftsman Master A-fa

An Interview with Master A-fa

Statue Sprucing mandala

 

 

Years as an Apprentice 

A Childhood Immersed in Craftsmanship

Apprenticeship to Learn the Craft

The Early Stages of Learning

Sticking to Studies

Life of Apprenticeship

Becoming a Master After Seven Years of Apprenticeship

Creating His Own Way

Chronology of Master A-fa 



Entrepreneurship and Innovation 

Settled in Changhua

Difficulties and Challenges in Starting a Business

Growth against the Trend

Becoming Famous Far and Wide

The Crisis of Inheritance

Devotion to Inheritance

Commitment to Inheritance and Promotion

Taking Root

Statue Sprucing Craftsmanship 

Origin

Techniques

Materials

Restoration of Statues

The posture and facial expression of the statue

Cleaning up

Taboos of statue sprucing 

Master A-fa statue sprucing Video

 

Public Television 

Preparations before the Interview

Go to Nanyao Temple for on-site video shooting

A Visit to Master A-fa’s Buddhist paraphernalia shop

First encounter with gold

Lacquer thread carving experience

Public Television

 

Interviews and tours 

The interview with Mr. Tsai

Sweetness and bitterness experienced in statue sprucing

Class tour for promotion

Questionnaire statistical analysis

Lacquer thread game

Carving game

Comic Little Theater


Thematic Production and Reference Bibliography

Production process experience

Interesting details behind the project

Contribution and gain

Curriculum Integration

References and news links

Quiz