A village in eastern Taiwan has exported its local jade since prehistoric times. Today, thanks to DIY workshops for tourists, it continues to spread admiration for this special gemstone.
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00:00For more than 50 years,
00:04Jiang Jinyuan has been cutting, carving, sanding, and polishing
00:08the special jade from the mountains near his home in eastern Taiwan.
00:15He's part of a tradition that goes back to the area's prehistory,
00:18and despite the collapse of his hometown's trade in the precious gemstone,
00:22his workshop has managed to hold on.
00:24When he was born, he was born, and he was born.
00:30He was born.
00:32Now, an exhibit showing off the story of Jiang and his neighbors
00:35in a place that's still proud to be Taiwan's jade capital.
00:39It's the black dots against a deep green
00:42that are the telltale sign of Fongtian Jade,
00:44named for Fongtian Village in Hualien County.
00:47Zinc, chromium, and iron mixed into the rock
00:50give it its special spotted look.
00:52And while only rediscovered and named after a 1956 survey,
00:56it's been prized for a very long time.
00:59Fongtian Jade artifacts have shown up
01:01at more than a hundred prehistoric sites across Taiwan,
01:04and it's even been dug up abroad, hinting at the flow of ancient trade.
01:09But it was in the 1960s, shortly after the geologists found it,
01:23that the area saw a true jade boom.
01:26Those who remember it say everyone wanted a piece of Fongtian Jade,
01:30even in places where it had once been unknown.
01:32The people who have been in Japan,
01:34and the people who have been in the past,
01:35and the people who have been in Japan,
01:37and the people who have been in Japan,
01:39are the people who have been in Japan.
01:41And by coincidence, a ready labor force was already on the ground,
01:47ready to feed the jade market.
01:50The government had just given farmland in the area to retired military men
01:55who'd fled to Taiwan from China after the civil war there.
01:58But the area wasn't fertile, and farming was a bust.
02:01The whine of polishing machines grinding on stone
02:04soon filled local streets as jade-finishing workshops multiplied.
02:08Industry veteran, Jiang Jin-yuan, remembers.
02:11Jiang Jin-yuan,
02:24By 1975, up to 90% of the world's jade was coming from these few workshops
02:29in rural eastern Taiwan.
02:31Though some miners would steal jade and sell it on the black market,
02:35the industry kept going from strength to strength,
02:38until, very suddenly, the whole thing vanished.
02:42Taiwan's economy stumbled amid global oil shocks,
02:45and jade from other places, Siberia and Canada,
02:48proved to be what the market wanted,
02:50leaving Fengtian's jade products unsold.
02:53But there are survivors, those who've learned to adapt, like Jiang Jin-yuan.
02:58After one hundred dollars and a thousand dollars,
03:01we have been married for a year.
03:05We've been working to us for a long,
03:07to be able to turn there, to be a DIY.
03:11Even if you don't turn there,
03:13we must be able to melt off.
03:15Today, like the rest of Hualien City, Fengtian is a tourism powerhouse,
03:19Fengtian is a tourism powerhouse, a place where city dwellers come to recharge amid
03:23the clean mountain air and green landscape.
03:26Here hunting for the perfect piece of jade in the area's fast-flowing streams makes
03:30for a pleasant afternoon.
03:32And plenty of visitors discover the joys of making their own jade ornaments, too, as once
03:37professional workshops open their doors to those looking for a unique DIY experience.
03:42The days of mass export may be past, but Fengtian is still in love with its jade, and the many
03:49who pass through each year come away loving it, too.
03:52From prehistoric trade good to modern tourist attraction, Fengtian Jade has played many
03:56roles over time, but it's always tightly linked to this special corner of Taiwan, and
04:01the people who call it home.
04:04Alex Chen and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.