Siū of Furniture Industry in Lukang：The Production of the Relationship between the Bosses of Family Businesses and the Carpentry Craftsmen

• Main Authors: Chi-Kai Wang, 王麒愷
• Other Authors: Min-Jay Kang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/5d82c5

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 建築與城鄉研究所 === 107 === Siū signifies a niche of blessed Feng-shui in Taiwanese dialect, and a carpentry Siū, commonly referred by Lukang’s handicraft artisans and practitioners, vividly manifests how local furniture industry has evolved and carved out its trademark. Yet the long history of Lukang’s furniture manufacture confronted serious competition from its rivals in the global market, particularly in the wake of the sprawling neoliberal economy of the 1990s. Many local family businesses of furniture manufacture have closed down, and some of the factories chose to relocate themselves in the rural side or the suburban areas to resume their modes of production. The state intervened to moderate the market through the mechanism of cultural governance, but its special recognition of the masterful hands created and privileged an artisan class among the traditional division of labor. This thesis intends to interpret how Lukang’s social network of furniture manufacture has supported the maneuver of the industry by an ethnographic investigation of the production of the relationship between the bosses of the family businesses and the craftsmen working under the guidance of the masters. It illustrates the ways of survival of the business bosses in times of challenges, and thence the concomitant skill transformation and self-identification of the furniture craftsmen.