Meinong Oil-Paper Umbrella Craft
Di sản phi vật thể cấp tỉnhThe Meinong oil-paper umbrella was introduced to the Meinong Hakka villages of Kaohsiung from southern Guangdong during the Japanese era, with a lineage of nearly a century. As Hakka settlers opened up Meinong they brought their home umbrella-making craft with them, which grew into Meinong's most representative traditional handiwork and earned the town the name "home of the oil-paper umbrella."
Meinong oil-paper umbrellas are made entirely by hand, with bamboo shaved into ribs, cotton paper mounted as the canopy and tung oil brushed on for waterproofing, an elaborate sequence. The canopy is often painted with landscapes, flowers and birds, or Hakka floral-cloth motifs, most often in tea-brown tones for a quietly classical beauty.
The oil-paper umbrella carries deep meaning in Hakka culture: "oil-paper" sounds like "having children," so umbrellas are given as wedding gifts wishing fertility; the character for umbrella holds four "people," symbolising many descendants and completeness. The Meinong umbrella embodies the Hakka reading of nature and human bonds, and is an important emblem of Taiwan's Hakka heritage.
The Meinong oil-paper umbrella craft can be experienced at the Yuan-Hsiang-Yuan Paper Umbrella Culture Village in Meinong, Kaohsiung.