Pouring passion into design
Hsieh, born in 1967, says that he suffers from the “seriousness of mind” of people born in Taiwan in that decade. From childhood his dream was to “change the way mankind lives in the future.” As the son of a minister in the southern Taiwan wing of the Presbyterian Church, which was very active in fighting for human rights in the 1970s and 1980s, Hsieh grew up especially sensitive to political and social change, as well as being prone to indignation, dissatisfaction, and insecurity.
But when he matured into a young man, he discovered a whole new world in aesthetics and design. He transferred his powerful emotions into this “handmade world.” From that point on, he says, “I started expressing my love for this land of Taiwan by pouring out my passion in a different direction, that is to say creativity.”
When Hsieh was 26, he made the farsighted decision to set up his firm in Taichung, reasoning that “it would be very helpful for anyone trying to start a venture in design to be right in the midst of the hinterland of the manufacturing supply chain.” The Taichung/Changhua belt is the bastion of traditional industry in Taiwan; there are a lot of manufacturing resources there, and the area provides the materials and production capacity that designers need. Moreover, production costs such as rent and salaries are lower in central Taiwan, and people are more motivated by interpersonal relationships, so it is easier to form mutually supportive networks.
Nonetheless, though central Taiwan offers many advantages, Hsieh still went through hard times when he first started up his business. “There was one time I was so poor that I had to rely on NT$400 I had won in the national store-receipt lottery just to get through the day,” he recalls, “And there were other times when I didn’t have a dime in my pocket, and just a few hundred NT dollars in the bank, and I had to ride my bicycle all over Taichung looking for ATMs that dispensed hundreds.” (Many ATMs in Taiwan dispense only NT$1000 bills.) At least now he can look back on those days and laugh. “Hey, I must be the city’s leading expert on which ATMs dispense hundreds and which don’t!”
As an industrial designer, Hsieh Jung-ya places great emphasis on dialogue with industry. He argues that the only way to bring design ideas to concrete fruition is to have a deep understanding of industrial processes and methods. The photo shows Hsieh (second from right) asking questions at a factory. (courtesy of Hsieh Jung-ya)