Preserving a Taiwanese craft
Though grass weaving techniques are found around the world, Taiwan’s rushwork is quite unique. It makes use of Schoenoplectus triqueter grown in the area north of the Da’an and south of the Yuanli rivers. It is called “mat grass” in Taiwanese and “triangular club-rush” in English (though botanically it is neither a rush nor a grass, but a sedge). The area’s unique soil and its location in the zone where the island’s northern and southern climates meet have led to special characteristics of the plant here. Research by the Japanese-era botanist Yaichi Shimada showed that the rush was tough yet supple and had excellent hygroscopicity and a fragrant aroma. Some tried to cultivate the plant in China’s Fujian and Guangdong. Although it would grow there, it lacked the excellent attributes of the triangular club-rush grown in Yuanli.
Taiwanese club-rush’s toughness, resistance to sun damage, breathability, unique scent, and beautiful coloration (with varying shades of green, yellow and brown after exposure to the sun), as well as the exquisite techniques of weavers here, made the island’s rushwork products widely treasured. The colonial government even established an industrial association to manage the export of rush hats.
Yet as Taiwan actively promoted industrial development in the 1970s, the rush weaving industry went into decline, and most of this small town’s hat and mat makers closed one after another.
Though the boom times were over, surviving firms like Zhen Fa Hat and Mat, Jiancheng, and Meitian continued to pass down Yuanli’s weaving culture. Meitian’s owner Luo Lifen, a Yuanli native, recalls those days when the market seemingly shrank overnight and many weavers left the industry. Even if you were approached with a large foreign order, you wouldn’t dare accept it.
In 2002 the Yuanli Farmers’ Association made plans to establish an exhibition hall to display the area’s historical rushwork products, and they asked Luo to work with them. She helped them to find rush material and went throughout the township to recruit seniors to start weaving again. Smiling, she says that the old weavers still held a deep affection for the craft and were very willing to come back to it when given the opportunity. Once the tools were in their hands, memories of the weaving techniques returned.
With exposure to the sun, the woven rush will turn from shades of green to shades of yellow or brown.
Strong hands with calluses that obscure fingerprints bear witness to days spent weaving rush.