Wang Ruilin, a bamboo chair maker in Shuilin Township, combines traditional bamboo weaving with innovation to create mother-and-child chairs

Shuilin Township is located in the southwest of Yunlin County, bordered to the south by the Beigang River across from Chiayi County. It is a traditional farming settlement with a population of 27,000, famous for producing Taiwan's high-quality sweet potatoes. Shuilin Township is also known for producing Taiwan-made "ukulele" instruments, making it the hometown of the Taiwanese ukulele.

Driving past Wang Ruilin's workshop in Shuinan Village, one is often drawn to the sight of him working with such concentration, and sometimes Master Wang can be seen sitting on a bamboo chair enjoying the cool. Master Wang says: "The bamboo chair business is no longer as prosperous as it was in the 1960s. There were five bamboo weaving masters making bamboo chairs in Shuilin Township. Back then, every household would always have five or six bamboo chairs. Now most orders come from collectors, tea houses, cultural and creative exhibition venues, and customers who love the old-time flavor. When there is no business, it is also a good time to think about how to make the chairs even better."

Many traditional crafts in Taiwan are gradually declining, replaced by plastic and iron products as materials. The scenes from earlier years, of rural housewives tending to farm work while their young children sat on mother-and-child chairs nearby, and of family members gathering on low bamboo chairs at night to enjoy the cool together, have been tucked away in old photographs and sunk into memory. Master Wang holds fast to the traditional craft. Regardless of whether there will be anyone to carry it on in the future, he makes each chair well in the present, so that every customer gives his craftsmanship a thumbs-up.