Taiwan's last dragon boat maker hangs on to fading craft

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

TAIPEI (AFP) — A stone's throw from his modest open-air workshop, Liu Ching-cheng keenly follows a team of oarsmen practising for the annual Dragon Boat Festival in a colourful wooden boat he built.

A fourth-generation maker of the finely crafted wooden boats, Liu can count hundreds of dragon boats he has built with his own hands, in a career spanning nearly five decades despite waning business and a lack of help.

Now 66, he is considered the last master making traditional wooden dragon boats in Taiwan.

"Raised in a family of boat makers I never thought of doing something else for a living. It became my calling naturally," said the slim, soft-spoken Liu.

He began learning his craft at 18 from his father, who in his heyday had employed six artisans...