Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Growth against the Trend

At that time, the statue sprucing industry was booming, and the number of masters engaging in statue sprucing was several times that of today. Some shops focused on the mass production of statues of gods and Buddhas but did not pay attention to the details of the carvings of the statues. Due to Master A-fa's solid basic skills and the fact that he learned very well when he was an apprentice. He is able to independently select wood and complete the production of the statues. He is also willing to spend time and energy on figuring out the eyes and charm of the statues. He combines delicate knife skills with flowing lacquer thread carvings. In addition to the original practical features, he allowed the statues to have more artistic and aesthetic value. Therefore, although he was unable to mass-produce statues quickly, his works are well received by his customers.

Therefore, when the statue sprucing craft, like many traditional crafts, faced the market reality of a large number of low-priced products from China being sold back to Taiwan and was impacted by cheap labor and machine manufacturing in Mainland China, statue sprucing stores that were originally focused on mass-producing rough products lost to the price-cutting competition from Mainland China, where the import price was only one-tenth of their price, and were eliminated from the market. Nevertheless, a few statue sprucing masters with outstanding skills and an emphasis on exquisite hand-carving have stood firm in this wave of trends and even established a great reputation. Master A-fa has gradually gained a reputation in this way, and the scale of his studio has expanded year by year.