My friend Clyde pointed out this wonderful article from NPR on the saxophone industry in Houli, right where the toll booth is on Highway 1 just north of Taichung. Taiwan is one of the world's most important producers of the instrument....There are a dozen assembly lines — small, family operations like this one — throughout Houli. The town has a population of 50,000, but it produces about 40,000 saxophones a year.
Just how Houli became the world's unsung center of saxophone making is largely an accident of history. The story dates back to just after World War II. It stars a larger-than-life character named Chang Lien-cheng. He was a farmer's son who abandoned the family land to become a painter and jazz musician, says a spokeswoman for his company: "No one during that time was actually playing any kinds of Western instruments. But he was fascinated by this instrument called saxophone."
According to company legend, when Chang's saxophone was damaged in a fire, the inveterate tinkerer managed to build another. That was the first sax made in Taiwan.
Until his death several years ago, Chang trained a number of apprentices, and in the process, launched a lucrative export industry. By the 1980s, Taiwan was churning out so many saxes under contract to labels in the U.S. and Europe, the government estimates that 1 out of every 3 saxes in the world was made in Taiwan.
But then mainland China began ramping up its cheap saxophone assembly lines....
[Taiwan]
I've seen those factories from the freeway several times... always thought it would be fun to exit and check them out more closely... always seem to be in a hurry though!
ReplyDeleteAnyone know about flutes in Taiwan? Not the Chinese flutes, but western(?) ones. Anyone know where I can find a cheap flute to learn with?