Strolling through Taipei’s streets nowadays, you’ll notice that in the display windows of musical instrument stores, alongside the proudly exhibited saxophones and guitars, pastel-colored ukuleles having begun to appear, drawing looks from passersby.

In mid-2012, in the popular Taiwanese “idol drama” In Time with You, the figure of the male lead Li Daren, unable to express his feelings, sits on a balcony playing the ukulele all alone, winning the audience’s hearts. The images conveyed by the drama helped make this simple-timbred instrument, not even a meter long, so popular that it became a hot commodity in 2012.

Its gentle feel and ease of learning have drawn people of all ages to the joy of playing the ukulele.

In fact, ukuleles were already popular before last year. At the 2010 Simple Life Music Festival, as fans were mesmerized by the dainty voice of songstress Cheer Chen, it was the simple tone of the ukulele that accompanied the songs.

Elsewhere, hipster singer-songwriter Crowd Lu, who usually performs to his fans sporting a bowl cut, black-rimmed glasses, T-shirt and shorts, appeared in a TV commercial playing the ukulele while selling spaghetti.

A search for “ukulele” on YouTube yields more than 440,000 hits. Virtuosos in Taiwan and abroad play the role of music teachers, recording all manner of instructional videos, starting with basic fingering and music theory, to spread the joy of playing. Now community colleges around Taiwan are offering classes, so senior citizens can learn alongside young people, strumming and singing together on their ukes.

The ukulele craze has unexpectedly revived Taiwan’s traditional musical instruments industry. Taiwan Guitar, which insists on stringent quality, has helped fuel tourism in Yunlin’s Shuilin Township, where Chen Jingfang (middle photo) is continuing in the business set up by his father.

This sudden ukulele fad gives many folks the misconception that it’s an instrument that has only recently appeared on the scene, but its history actually goes back over a century.

The ukulele has its origins in Portugal. In the 19th century, three Portuguese craftsmen settled in Hawaii and fashioned instruments modified from the four-stringed cavaquinho. When playing, the fingers glide quickly up and down the fretboard, so the Hawaiians dubbed it ukulele (“jumping flea”).

This imported instrument won the affection of the Hawaiian royal family as well as the hoi polloi. Following the Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915, the ukulele’s allure spread through the US, and instrument manufacturers such as Gibson and Martin joined the ukulele making business.

The ukulele saw a downturn in the 1960s, and it wasn’t until 2008 that the craze was rekindled in North America and Europe. The Japanese movie Hula Girls and the Hollywood animated film Hotel Transylvania both feature ukulele playing scenes.

In the 1960s, when the US military was stationed in Taiwan, Western pop culture was introduced to Taiwan, leading to a guitar craze. At that time, a ukulele or two could be seen in Taiwan’s musical instrument shops. “But in those days the shops usually used ukuleles for decoration. Nobody took them down to play. And the craftsmanship wasn’t as fine as it is now; if you played them, the tuning pegs would loosen up,” says Shen Muheng, a teacher at KHS Musical Center in Taipei who has studied the guitar for over 20 years.

Its gentle feel and ease of learning have drawn people of all ages to the joy of playing the ukulele.

Fueled by pop culture, the ukulele has jumped to the fore, no longer playing a supporting role. Besides teaching, Shen often plays in a band at the bar Oldie & Goodie near National Taiwan Normal University. He says that with just four strings, it is hard to perform complex pieces on the ukulele, but despite this, the instrument is no longer on the sidelines; now it’s often the heart of the show.

The ukulele’s appearance, sound structure and manufacturing process are similar to those of the guitar; hence it’s been called the “little guitar.” But a detailed comparison reveals numerous differences between the two. First, the guitar has six strings, while the ukulele has just four. Next, the tones flowing from the uke’s nylon strings are mild and relaxed, without the sharp tonalities of the steel-stringed guitar. And nylon strings are soft to the touch, so playing the ukulele is easier on the hands, unlike the guitar, which can cause discomfort.

The standard ukulele is about 21–26 inches (53–66 centimeters) in length, smaller than the bulkier guitar at 38–41 inches (97–105 cm). The difference in size means the fretboard is less than half as long as a guitar fretboard, and with fewer frets, it’s naturally suited for playing simpler tunes. And because of its smaller bulk and gentler feel, it’s easier to learn. Many adults and children with no experience playing stringed instruments choose it to start off their musical lives.

Shen says that many people believe the ukulele is popular because it’s so easy to learn, but he thinks the main reasons are its low price and easy availability.

Christina Chou, who heads musical education development at KHS, says that the two chief demographics for learning the ukulele are six-to-13-year-old children, and nine-to-fivers in their 20s and 30s. At the start of 2009, ukulele students at KHS numbered 300, but this figure grew to 1,000 in 2012. In 2011, KHS sold nearly 4,000 ukes, and in 2012 sales nearly doubled to between 7,000 and 8,000.

Its gentle feel and ease of learning have drawn people of all ages to the joy of playing the ukulele.

The surge in the ukulele’s popularity has also revived Taiwan’s traditional instrument industry.

The main guitar-producing nation has changed over time from the US early on, to Japan and South Korea, and later to Taiwan. In the 1970s and 1980s, companies such as Yamaha and the Taiwanese brand Koyama set up factories in Kaohsiung to manufacture guitars for export to the international market. During the peak period, the annual output in the Kaohsiung area was about 4 million guitars. This didn’t wane until the mid-1990s, when the instrument industry saw an exodus.

Chen Guoming has over 30 years’ experience with guitars and ukuleles. The company he founded, Taiwan Guitar, started out as a guitar wholesaler. Through his business, he became well acquainted with the master luthier at Koyama, from whom he learned guitar making techniques. He then set up his own shop to make and sell guitars. Later, because of the difficulty of selling and manufacturing at the same time, he gave up sales and concentrated on guitar making. In the 1980s, Chen settled in Renwu, Kaohsiung County, and opened a small factory hiring over a dozen employees, doing chiefly OEM work.

Round about the 1990s, Taiwan’s economy faced structural changes and rising labor and production costs, with labor-intensive industries such as textiles and shoemaking moving to mainland China and Vietnam. Taiwan Guitar was faced with the same predicament, and orders fell. Choosing to remain in Taiwan, Chen searched through Kaohsiung, Chiayi and Yunlin counties for low-rent factory space. He then moved with his family back to Yunlin, settling in his hometown of Shuilin. “Some people move about three times before settling down; we moved seven times for the sake of our family business,” says Chen’s son, 35-year-old Taiwan Guitar successor Chen Jingfang.

The ukulele, which is fun to play and produces emotive tones, has become a very accessible instrument in the lives of ordinary people.

Since the ukulele is such a hot seller, Taiwan Guitar, which started out making guitars, began shifting their focus toward ukuleles last year. But despite the ukulele’s smaller size and two fewer strings, the manufacturing process is every bit as complex. It comprises 24 steps, including purchasing and selecting materials, cutting, polishing, varnishing, drying and tuning. “But this is just the standard procedure. To reach the shipment quality we require takes over 100 steps, or even as many as 200,” says Chen Jingfang.

The ukes made by Taiwan Guitar are priced from NT$600 to several thousand, affordable to most consumers. Before placing a ukulele in the hands of a customer, Chen Guoming and Chen Jingfang check over it carefully, plucking each string by hand, ears pressed close to the ukulele’s body, fine tuning while listening for imperfections. Only after it is precisely tuned is it considered a finished product.

Some years ago, Chen Guoming was diagnosed with cancer, compromising his strength. Exports were no longer Taiwan Guitar’s chief business; instead he started wholesaling to domestic instrument retailers. Last year, as the ukulele craze spread, the struggling, Taiwan-rooted Taiwan Guitar finally succeeded when expected to fail, once again drawing attention.

Thanks to media publicity, numerous customers called in to place orders or visit in person, and Taiwan Guitar soon became a new tourist spot in Shuilin. Once just known for its sweet potatoes, Shuilin now has another local attraction. This past November, Shuilin held Taiwan’s first Ukulele Festival music competition, with 300 to 400 enthusiasts attending, and people ranging in age from five to over 70 competing and performing popular songs. The township office hopes to take advantage of this phenomenon to build Shuilin into Taiwan’s ukulele capital.

The ukulele craze has unexpectedly revived Taiwan’s traditional musical instruments industry. Taiwan Guitar, which insists on stringent quality, has helped fuel tourism in Yunlin’s Shuilin Township, where Chen Jingfang (middle photo) is continuing in the business set up by his father.

But after last year’s roaring trade, numerous competitors have jumped into the market, some of them manufacturing instruments outside of Taiwan yet still marking them as “Made in Taiwan.” This has led to uneven product quality.

Because of this, Chen Jingfang is concerned about how many people will still be willing to buy ukuleles after the craze recedes. Rather than have crowds of folks jump onto the ukulele bandwagon, he would prefer that consumers would buy only if they genuinely wanted to learn to play, so that the craze will lead to solid industry growth.

Joseph Yang, chief supervisor of pop instrument sales at KHS Musical Center’s subsidiary Musix Co., is optimistic: following the ukulele boom, there are now plenty of people who know this instrument, so even if the future market cools off, this crowd of ukulele loyalists will become a steady source of customers.

Some people say that if you want to buy an instrument, the ukulele is the ideal choice because with just four strings and two octaves it’s easy to learn, gives you a great sense of achievement, and is capable of expressing both sorrowful and joyful feelings. No wonder it can capture the hearts of adults and children alike—an accessible instrument that fits into the lives of ordinary people.

Its gentle feel and ease of learning have drawn people of all ages to the joy of playing the ukulele.