Tailor 
Scout
Before the movie The Assassin (2015) was released, Master Chen was an unfamiliar figure. Now that The Assassin garnered spotlights on the international stage, people began to flock, one after another, toward the tailor behind the scenes—Master Chen Zhong-Xin. It all started when Master Chen met The Assassin’s Costume Designer—Ms. Huang Wen-Ying.
Master Chen and Huang Wen-Ying
We originally intended to interview Ms. Huang, but the upcoming Golden Horse Awards Ceremony, combined with her busy schedule, prevented the interview. As it happens, Ms. Huang was jointly hosting a special exhibition with the Taipei Xia-Hai City God Temple, on stage wear used in The Assassins, entitled Tang Dynasty Style—the Dadao-Cheng spanning Assassin’s Map. The exhibition displayed a host of stage wear at 5 clothing related locations in the Dadao-Cheng area, and included two symposiums and a guided tour, in addition to its static display.
As one of the symposiums, The Assassin’s Costume Feast, was headed by both Ms. Huang and Master Chen, we attended the seminar to witness Mr. Huang and Master Chen creating sparks off each other’s ideas.
Ms. Huang mentioned that she and Master Chen made their first connection back in 1996. She arrived at Dadao-Cheng and wondered into Alley 72 (a.k.a. Temple Front Street) across the street from City Temple. Though at the time it wasn’t full of regional food and grain stores like it is today, it was still quite prosperous, akin to a thruway fronting the temple. And there lived Master Chen, hidden like a hermit. Concealed, as it were, within the city.
At that time, Ms. Huang was designing costumes for Director Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s movie, Flowers of Shanghai. She started by working with Chinese factories, but found them unable to produce costumes that gave her the desired feel. So one day she decided to pass by Dadao-Cheng’s Yong-le fabric Market. She said: “I look around from Minle Street through the 3rd floor of Yong-le fabric Market (at the variety of tailoring). Because I worked at these myself back in New York, I have an idea what good workmanship looks like. In the end I walked into Master Chen’s shop—I feel that I found him with my innate sense and my eye for quality. But over the 20 years that followed, it was only because I had Master Chen’s help that I was able to take on many projects. Take movies and stage plays, for instance—if I didn’t have Master Chen, I would not have considered working on those. So on the flip side, it was because he helped me a lot.”
Master Chen also said that in the beginning, Ms. Huang only gave him some alteration work for a few pieces of clothing, and he accepted those just for the money. But looking back, Ms. Huang must have been using those to see what he’s got. At that time, he didn’t even know that Ms. Huang was making movies, and he simply got to know her gradually. But after a while, Ms. Huang found that he took great care in his work, paying attention to all the details, so she gradually got him involved in making movie costumes and stage wear. Thus began an era of cooperation that lasted 20 years and going.
Master Chen said that Ms. Huang is very even-tempered and always communicated courteously. Whenever they discussed something, she would always bring her own designs, which she’d draw on graph paper so that everything is to scale, enabling the tailor to more easily connect the different pieces of drawings. “Every time Ms. Huang came to the shop”, Master Chen jokes, “my wife would quickly get out of the way.” Master Chen’s wife is also a professional tailor, but Ms. Huang demanded a lot in terms of details for her clothes, and working on her projects was simply too tiring. One can tell by this that Ms. Huang Wen-Ying demanded tremendous quality and precision in her costume production, that that Master Chen had the patience to match. He can accept any of her demands and make them come true—truly astounding.
Master Chen showed us the original manuscripts of Huang Wen-Ying
We asked Ms. Huang why she likes to work with Master Chen. She said, “Working with Master Chen gives me the feeling of quality that I had back in New York: you send in the design, and a specialist will come to discuss it over with you, from choosing the material, through making greige samples, to fitting the garments and adjusting the details. All this makes the designer feel really safe.
The pictures Master Chen and Huang Wen-Ying in “YU-FENG Cheongsam”
Master Chen and I, having worked together for 20 years, enjoy a level connection where he will precisely produce what you have in mind and present the costume’s looks and details just right. When you hand a project to him, you can discuss it fully with him and discover details together, just like a team. It makes you feel that you can makes things even better.”
Ms. Huang believes that somehow, as fate would have it, people meet one another because they have a deep, pre-existing connection. Master Chen, having made cheongsams all his life, can persevere through dilemmas, forge new paths, and accept different challenges. In tailoring and design, they have each met their match, worked hand in hand, and pushed each other to greater heights. Masterly craftsmanship fulfils masterly design.
