By passing down traditions, skills, knowledge, even craftsmanship can one guarantee the values cherished by our ancestors won’t sink in time’s powerful and ruthless tides. Such applies to lacquer thread sculpting, a skill with almost a hundred years of history. The next generation must inherit this traditional artwork, master it, and apply it to mediums never explored before so this beauty can be immune to the deadly illness of time.

image source: shoot by ourself

pass down the essence of this skill to the next generation. He believes that potential apprentices should exhibit an eager attitude and are willing to devote immense time for practicing fundamental skills. However, Mr Lin also mentions that there are extremely limited occasions for possible apprentices to practice the basic skills since customers only demand complex and meticulous artworks nowadays.

　　Mr Lin and Mr Yen both believe that lacquer thread sculpture will not be replaced by technology, because machines are not as handy as human hands. Even though new advances in technology can produce a large number of lacquer thread sculptures in a short amount of time, the masters still insist on making the sculptures by hand. To make a sculpture, the masters have to spend months selecting materials, making threads, and applying gold foils on the sculpture. However, there are reasons behind the masters’ persistence in the traditional way of making lacquer thread sculptures.

　　Lacquer thread sculptures are known for their uniqueness. The tradition would be meaningless to be passed down if the sculptures are all made by machines. Through countless hardships and setbacks, the masters have devoted themselves to sculpting for decades, enhancing their skills and techniques. If this cultural practice can be easily replaced by technology, then the sculptures would be uncreative and monotonous. Although machines save time, they would lose the sculpture’s unique style and creativity, like how the garments and textile industry’s manufacturers wholesale their products. Compared to the rigid machines, sculpting by hand not only expresses the sculptor’s own style, but also gives the sculpture its own story, a special story that the masters wish the audience can imagine. Thus, the tradition of lacquer thread sculptures would not be valuable and precious if they are manufactured by machines.

Mr Yen, and other sculptor’s  determination to the tradition, but also a motivation for them to persist in this cultural tradition for decades.

　　Initially used to decorate Buddhist statues and temples, the art of lacquer thread sculptures has been heavily influenced by Buddhism. However, as the number of Buddhists dwindled in recent years, together with Western culture brought upon by globalization and modernization, numerous Asian traditions and handcrafts, including lacquer thread sculptures, began to disappear. In our interview with master Jia-Yi Lin, he mentioned the current trend of lacquer thread sculptures is moving towards refinement as the number of working opportunities in the field decreases, which raises the difficulty to pass on the tradition to the younger generation. Initially, quantity was preferred over quality, so the artwork wasn’t as delicate compared to modern standards. Consequently, the masters grant their apprentices relatively more opportunities to practice and meet the market demand. But nowadays, as the traditional art’s popularity declines, customers request each Buddhist sculpture to be extremely delicate and detailed, establishing a high entry barrier for inexperienced apprentices to practice and profit out of the business. Now that only the masters can produce high-quality lacquer thread sculptures, the apprentices receive less learning opportunities and indirectly, rendering passing down the tradition challenging. Despite these obstacles ahead, master Jia-Yi Lin believes persistence will protect the tradition from fading away and believes when the time is right, fate will allow him to pass down the tradition.

　　In order to pass the lacquer thread skills to the next generation, the future lacquer thread sculptures need to be more than just for the Buddhist statue — it has to be a "transformation." For master Chin-Yi Yen, the lacquer thread sculpture is bound to develop beyond the decoration of Buddhist statues in the future. After experiencing the prosperity and decline of lacquer thread sculptures, master Chin-Yi Yen now hopes that more people can see the charm of lacquer thread sculptures. To bring it into people's lives, the lacquer thread sculpting has been applied to mobile phone cases, porcelain and other items.  Instead of limiting the lacquer carvings to the ornamentation on the Buddist statues,  Mr Yen cooperates with the modern