Heir to a Centuries-Old Tradition:

Lin Yung-sheng, a native of Nantou County, began working part-time in a pottery factory 30 years ago after graduating from school, while awaiting the start of his compulsory military service. This marked the start of his ceramics career. After being discharged, he went back to work in the factory and began to learn from Tseng Shu-chih, an artist working in this medium who had returned to Nantou from the ceramics bastion of Yingge.

“One day during a typhoon, I was in my teacher’s home making pottery, with none of the other students there, and my teacher began telling me the story of Nantou ceramics. Though I was a Nantou native, I had never heard this story before,” says Lin. When he perused field research data about Nantou pottery collected by the Nantou Cultural Affairs Bureau, he gained a better understanding of the industry’s former glory. “Since that day I have taken on the mission of restoring the reputation of Nantou ceramics.”

Preserving Nantou ceramics with change

In contrast to Yingge, where five major categories of ceramic products are made—household ware, aerospace ceramics, construction ceramics, sanitary ware, and art works—Nantou always stuck to its original specialism: ceramics for everyday household use. Besides its distinctive traditional large-scale clay coiling craftsmanship, it was also famous for large objects such as terracotta calligraphy practice panels, ceramic coffins, and earthenware foxhole liners for air-raid protection.

The main reason the Nantou pottery industry fell into decline was that it was unable to keep up with changing times. As one of the few ceramic artists working in Nantou today, Lin Yung-sheng has kept this history in mind. Since founding Qianqiu Ceramics Studio in 1997, he has never bucked evolving trends.

For the highly skilled Lin, “the main point is not what image to present to showcase [Nantou ceramics], but what things I want to leave behind me. Therefore I always have to be changing, and making things that contemporary people will use, as this is the only way I can survive.”

Vases were the earliest products made by Qianqiu. The reason was simple: This is what Lin had learned to make in the factory where he worked back in the day. In addition, given Nantou’s status as a tea producing area and the prevalence of tea culture, he also began making teaware.

Later, Lin was discovered by Michelin-starred chef Hsiao Tsunyuan, likewise a Nantou County native, and he worked with many highly-ranked chefs to make ceramics for the large-scale “Dining Out Taiwan” events. His reputation spread, and many high-end Western and Japanese restaurants, and even small eateries, began to line up at his door to place orders for customized tableware.

In recent years, he has also begun making lamp fixtures, as well as large installation art pieces for construction projects, giving him a wider range of products.

“Why does everyone come to me? Because the things I make ‘have no me’ in them,” Lin argues. Keeping up with the times, this ceramics maker has been able to keep the kilns of this 200-year-old Nantou traditional industry burning. 

As technology and techniques have been refined, the shapes of objects made by Qianqiu Ceramics Studio have evolved. The photo shows a lotus-leaf plate embellished with Oribe green that was custom-made for the Michelin-starred restaurant Mountain and Sea House.

The Nantou ceramics artist Lin Yung-sheng has continually transformed and altered his creations to keep the county’s 200-year-old pottery-making tradition alive.

To master the production of teaware, Lin studied tea and tea culture for seven years.

Lin has taken on the mission of keeping “Nantou ceramics” alive. Today he is one of the few remaining artisans and artists working in this medium in the county.