In 1999, a young and eager Hsieh Chi-lung flew to Kalimantan, Indonesia to take a wife. “We actually met then, through a matchmaker.” First thing in the morning, Tjung Seha is busily shuttling in and out of the pottery workshop, while her husband Hsieh Chi-lung is in charge of kneading the clay. As the machinery inside moves at high speed, mixing and stirring the clay that is about to be thrown, husband and wife work together like a well-oiled machine themselves.
Twenty years ago, Tjung, a Chinese-Indonesian who couldn’t speak a word of Mandarin, married Hsieh Chi-lung, who is from Gongguan in Taiwan’s Miaoli County. Talking about how they met, Tjung can’t help but laugh as she recalls how Hsieh had already had matchmaking meetings with more than 20 women before her. Hearing her self-deprecating comment, Hsieh laughs too, adding, “It was her dimples that drew me in.”
Since marrying, the two have enjoyed a loving relationship, raising three children together. Tjung has thoroughly integrated into Taiwanese society, even mastering Mandarin in her first year here. After the birth of their first child, Tjung began to study pottery-making, ultimately becoming the capable boss of the workshop Lo Ba Living Pottery. When she first arrived in Taiwan, Tjung hung around in the workshop every day and watched her father-in-law, Hsieh Fa-chang, at work. The elder Hsieh is a well-established master potter and whenever he threw a pot, Tjung would help with keeping it wet. “It used to be that my father-in-law did it all by himself, everything from the glazing to stacking the kiln and firing it.” As she helped her father-in-law out, Tjung gradually gained an understanding of every step of his process.
“They say it’s the same as kneading dough. My mom made choi pan to sell, so we’d be kneading dough every day.” Tjung Seha was born into an underprivileged family and grew up helping her mother make choi pan (steamed vegetable dumplings) alongside her siblings. Kneading clay every day is much like those days for her, and now making pottery is how she helps support her family, just as her mother did by making choi pan. “When I first came over, I was there every day but I didn’t really know how to do anything. I wasn’t trying to learn, I just wanted to help.” As a child, Tjung was taught that “if you want to eat, you have to help,” and this was a big part of what drove her to do her part to help out her hardworking father-in-law.
After Tjung Seha married into the Hsieh family, her natural talent and fertile imagination led her into a career in ceramic art. (photo by Jimmy Lin)