Beijing cultural products popular in Taipei

On April 19, the fourth Cross-Strait Cultural and Creative Industries Fair kicked off in Taipei. More than 50 Beijing-based companies in the culture and creative industries including Lao She Teahouse joined the event.

The fair was divided into four exhibition sections – "Arts and Crafts," "Animation and Games," "Travel Souvenirs," and "Quality Cultural Products", where various techniques were used in courtly art and traditional crafts such as filigree inlaying, carved lacquerware, cloisonné, and paper cutting.

The most eye-catching exhibit at the fair was a replica of a silk dragon robe of Emperor Qianlong, valuing at 3 million New Taiwan dollars. In addition, Lao She Teahouse also displayed its creative tea cultural products as well as the "Beijing-style peddlers' cries".

The teahouse's Deputy General Manager Yang Qiwei introduced the five Olympic rings-themed teacakes. Colored in blue, yellow, black, green, and red, each teacake was printed with the name of one of the five traditional Beijing folk art forms. The combination of traditional art and modern techniques has brought both commercial and critical success, making the teahouse's exhibits very popular among Taipei citizens, as Yang explained.

"Shaped Tea" was also very special. Long tea leaves were tied up and centered on a small chrysanthemum. Put in hot water, the leaves spread out, leaving the chrysanthemum floating in the tea. "We sold dozens of the "Shaped Tea" right after the exhibition started and sales volume is particularly well these days", Yang said.

Delicate cloisonné handicraft products were also adored very much by many. On the first day of the exhibition, the nine cloisonné handicraft products made by the Chinese handicraft master Zhang Tonglu were all booked, and a big order of 1.5 million yuan was signed. The vice chairman of the Beijing Arts and Crafts Association Zhu Hong told People's Daily that the Taiwan Peter Pan Arts Company is the buyer of these handicraft products, and it has reached a purchase agreement worth 5 million yuan with arts and crafts enterprises of Beijing and will fly to Beijing to further negotiate.

It is surely good to sign big orders, but participators from Beijing do not only focus on the order.

Zhu Hong said, "We do not expect to earn a lot of money here. It is more important to learn innovative ideas from the artists of Taiwan Province." The Beijing Arts and Crafts Association has more than 100 member enterprises, which participate in the cultural innovation exhibition in turn to accumulate their knowledge and experience.

During the break of the exhibition, Zhu also visited those handicraft products made by Taiwan artists and was amazed by their delicate designs and innovative ideas. "Regarding the handicraft, Taiwan's skills may not be better than those from the Chinese mainland, but their creative ideas are much more advanced," Zhu said. For many years, handicraft artists of the mainland have focused on inheriting and improving the skills but ignored creativity. "It needs more efforts from the young people, but this takes time."

During this exhibition, the most important thing learned by Yang is the operation and management model of his Taiwan counterparts. He also visited two local tea shops during his free time. He showed a card of tea-making tips he got from one of the shops, and said, "Every customer can get this card in the shop. On the card, the amount of tea, water temperature and tea-making time are all well written. According to these tips, customers could make tea at home as good as the tea they taste in the shop. This may increase customers' trusts and in the long run, foster customers' loyalties."

He also shared with the reporter about his experience of buying a book in a bookstore of the Eslite Corporation, which enlightened him in the logistics aspect. "I was looking for a book in an Eslite bookstore, but it was not available in the store. The shop assistant called the publishing house which then replied very soon and clearly told us in which stores I could buy it and even how many I could buy." Yang said, "It shows that their POS system is connected with their logistics system. Currently, we are still lagging behind in this aspect."

The four-day exhibition period is short but could be long. As long as observing and communicating with others carefully, even a short gathering could generate sparks of inspirations. In 2009 and 2011, the mainland and Taiwan Province both put forward the policy of reviving the cultural innovation industry. With the support of this policy, it is expected that the exchange between cultural innovators across the strait will go further and deeper.