Taoist sculpture maker Say Tian Hng has been round for 130 years, nevertheless it’s now dealing with steeper competitors
“It’s all disappearing.”
The phrases come out matter-of-factly from Ng Tze Yong, the sixth-generation artisan at Say Tian Hng.
He’s referring to the heritage companies in Singapore quietly closing their doorways—a harsh actuality that he, too, may confront at Say Tian Hng, the final remaining family-run Taoist effigy-crafting store in Singapore.
However for Tze Yong, that ending is unacceptable. “I don’t need Say Tian Hng to move,” he says. “I would like it to outlive. In reality, I would like it to thrive.”
Confronted with an business remodeled by machines that may carve statues in hours and flood the market at a fraction of the associated fee, the enterprise, which has been round for 130 years, has been exploring varied methods to outlive and keep related.
One path, it appears, lies past Singapore’s shores: bringing its handcrafted picket deities to abroad audiences who worth craftsmanship, tales, and tradition.
Exploring abroad partnerships
Final Jul, Tze Yong travelled to London on a scouting journey to check whether or not Say Tian Hng’s handcrafted statues may discover an viewers abroad. He approached unbiased outlets to discover consignment partnerships and located there was curiosity within the cultural and philosophical elements of the craft.
That curiosity has since led to Say Tian Hng’s first abroad partnership—the enterprise is now working with a retailer in London’s Leicester Sq.. Tze Yong declined to share additional particulars, because the collaboration continues to be in improvement and he hopes to keep away from tipping off rivals.
If it goes nicely, Say Tian Hng goals to discover related preparations throughout different European cities within the coming years, bringing its craft to a world viewers.
The enterprise takes immense delight in its meticulous craftsmanship, making use of conventional methods relationship again to the early Qing Dynasty. Every deity is carved from entire blocks of wooden, strengthened to forestall cracking, and layered with protecting coatings.
Utilizing a way known as thread sculpture (qī xiàn/ 漆线), artisans adorn robes with dragons, phoenixes, and auspicious symbols created from positive threads of holy incense ash.
The ash is collected, washed, kneaded right into a dough, and laboriously crushed into positive threads with a spatula. These threads are then rigorously twirled and coiled onto the statue utilizing bamboo sticks to kind the intricate aid motifs.
Then, statues are then gilded with gold leaf, painted in meticulous element—from fingernails to eyes—and fitted with equipment akin to beards, weapons, and prayer beads. The ultimate step is consecration: invoking the presence of the deity and reworking the piece into an object of worship.
Demand is “recession-proof”
However that’s to not say the enterprise is neglecting the Singapore market.
“We’re not leaving the native market in any respect, that’s our core and our largest market for the time being, however we expect that there’s a must diversify and widen our [customer] base,” shared Tze Yong.
Regionally, Say Tian Hng continues to serve temples and households throughout Singapore. Whereas Tze Yong declined to share precise figures, he famous that demand has remained steady through the years.
“The demand is, in a method, recession-proof,” he stated. “It’s not a pattern, it’s painted the identical method for generations, and that’s a giant a part of the enchantment.”
“Tastes haven’t modified a lot, so there’s no must overhaul the availability chain. And when you’re one of many previous couple of standing, folks will naturally come to you.”
Nevertheless, Tze Yong acknowledged that the market now has extra choices than ever—anybody can now purchase a ready-made statue off the shelf or on-line at a lot decrease costs.
He shared that Say Tian Hng’s handcrafted items are sometimes about 5 to 10 instances dearer than these mass-produced alternate options, which are sometimes carved by pc numerical management (CNC) machines.
These automated manufacturing instruments are directed by pre-programmed pc software program, permitting them to carve wooden with excessive precision, producing similar statues shortly and effectively.
However for Say Tian Hng, the worth lies in what mass manufacturing can’t replicate. “If you would like a customized statue, or must restore an outdated, beloved piece, there aren’t many choices,” Tze Yong stated. “You’ll be able to’t ship your outdated statue again to Taobao, no one there’s repairing it for you.”
Over the previous 20 years, restoration has turn into a key a part of the enterprise, now accounting for half of its work, whereas clients proceed to hunt out new commissions as nicely.
Our clients are those that discover magnificence in imperfection. A divine statue, hand-crafted laboriously via the eye and dedication of human arms, feels totally different.
Respiration life right into a 130-year-old enterprise
Exploring consignment partnerships abroad is barely the most recent in a sequence of experiments Say Tian Hng has undertaken to breathe new life into the 130-year-old enterprise. Through the years, it has examined alternative ways to have interaction new audiences, with blended outcomes.
One such effort has been workshops and guided excursions, which the enterprise has been operating for a couple of decade.
There are two codecs: one gives guests a tour of the store itself, whereas the opposite leads contributors via the again alleys of Singapore’s central enterprise district. There, they encounter Taoist avenue shrines tucked beside dumpsters and beneath air-conditioning compressors—weathered statues nonetheless tended to with recent fruit choices.
Every session sometimes hosts round 10 folks, and Tze Yong notes that contributors are sometimes locals somewhat than vacationers, drawn by a want to find neglected layers of Singapore’s cultural panorama.
Nonetheless, the workshops should not one thing the enterprise “pushes exhausting on,” nor are they held commonly. “It’s extra like a CCA,” he stated. “We don’t actually promote it, it’s on our web site, however we don’t run Google advertisements or something like that. There’s simply no bandwidth.”
That very same constraint led Say Tian Hng to discontinue one other experiment: a foray into NFTs. The concept was by no means launched publicly, however Tze Yong stated it started as a method to consider how the enterprise may doc provenance and protect long-term worth of statues in a digital age.
The idea was to make use of NFTs as certificates of authenticity for handcrafted statues, much like how digital tokens are typically used to confirm artworks.
In principle, this might provide clients stronger assurance {that a} piece was made by Say Tian Hng—a sixth-generation household enterprise—and doubtlessly place the statues as heirlooms with lasting worth. Nevertheless, the thought in the end didn’t progress past the exploratory stage.
The query of succession
However the problem for Say Tian Hng runs deeper than bandwidth. The shortage of “heat our bodies” constrains it excess of advertising or digital experiments—discovering expert artisans keen to commit years to mastering the craft is crucial to succession.
“That’s the hardest factor. As soon as you could find one particular person, you purchase your self 30 years. However when you don’t have that one physique, even when you have the best social media account alive, you would possibly nonetheless disappear.”
Presently, many of the work is dealt with by Tze Yong’s father, Ng Yeow Hua. Tze Yong solely is available in as soon as every week, balancing his apprenticeship with a full-time job in philanthropic grant administration. He steadily constructed up his abilities through the years and solely started engaged on precise buyer statues about three years in the past.
Whereas he’s dedicated to the craft, Tze Yong is unsure whether or not his two teenage daughters shall be all in favour of persevering with the enterprise—and he’s cautious to not base future plans on that risk.
“I can’t construct the enterprise on the possibility that perhaps at some point, once they’re middle-aged, they’ll determine to affix the household enterprise,” stated Tze Yong. “What in the event that they don’t? Then that turns into a single level of failure, and then you definately go extinct. I’ll be in my 70s by then and gained’t have the time to pivot. I’ve to pivot now.”
So, Tze Yong is planning for a future that doesn’t depend upon members of the family operating the studio. “They’ll nonetheless personal the enterprise, and I would love that to be the case. They’ll rent a workforce to run it, and in the event that they select to step in, they will accomplish that at their very own time and in their very own method.”
With a talented workforce in place, and efforts to develop the enterprise past its core native market, he hopes Say Tian Hng’s craft can proceed, data may be handed on, and the enterprise can survive, and even thrive, for generations to return.
Discover out extra about Say Tian Hng right here.
Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Nicky Loh/ Say Tian Hng through Instagram
