What happens when a typhoon delivers hundreds of tons of driftwood to your doorstep? In the village of Dapu near Zengwen Reservoir in southern Taiwan, residents have found an extraordinary answer: make violins.
In part four of our five-part series “Where’s the Chiayi County Chief Taking Us?” Andrew Ryan explores how a tight-knit community turned disaster into art. Guided by a skilled violin maker, locals are crafting exquisite instruments that blend Italian tradition with Taiwanese innovation. But they’re not stopping there—they’re also learning to play their violins, creating music of their own.
In part four of our five-part series “Where’s the Chiayi County Chief Taking Us?” Andrew Ryan explores how a tight-knit community turned disaster into art. Guided by a skilled violin maker, locals are crafting exquisite instruments that blend Italian tradition with Taiwanese innovation. But they’re not stopping there—they’re also learning to play their violins, creating music of their own.
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00:00Life in Jiayi County relies on water.
00:08It nurtures the verdant forests and thriving tea fields.
00:12But too much water can also bring destruction,
00:15like the typhoon rains that washed out the rail tracks on Alishan.
00:20Fortunately, Jiayi County has a solution,
00:23the Zhengwen Reservoir.
00:25At 17 square kilometers,
00:27this is Taiwan's largest body of water.
00:30It not only helps tame the floods,
00:32it also irrigates fields and powers homes.
00:36Today, it's an ecotourism hotspot.
00:39Visitors can catch fish and feed them to black kites.
00:43And on a tiny island, you can witness a curious spectacle.
00:57What's so special about it?
00:58You only need to play a song by Princess Ye Wei Mian
01:02for it to come out.
01:10You play a little Pavarotti, the pigs come running,
01:13you feed the pigs, they're happy.
01:16We're happy, we take pictures.
01:19Unique.
01:20Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
01:25When the government built the reservoir in the 1970s,
01:28they put restrictions in place to protect the water.
01:31Nearby residents had to stop farming
01:34and were forced off their land.
01:36But former village chief Wu Yihao
01:38came up with a unique idea to revitalize his community
01:42and put to use some of the hundreds of thousands
01:45of tons of driftwood brought by Typhoon Moorkot.
01:49When I hear that sound, I feel like I've found my soul.
01:53I feel like if there's music here,
01:56if there's a melody,
01:58I think it's beautiful.
02:00But how do you continue the beauty?
02:02I thought about it and I wanted to make a zither.
02:12What do you think of our zither?
02:14We made a zither with driftwood.
02:16I can't tell it's driftwood.
02:18It feels like it's from a shop.
02:23The art of making violins originated in Italy in the 1500s.
02:27But a group of about 20 people, led by a skilled artisan,
02:31is lovingly crafting them here on the shores of Tseng Wen Reservoir
02:35and infusing them with the sounds of Taiwan.
02:38We use local wood.
02:41Taiwan has a rich variety of wood.
02:47In other countries, for example,
02:50we use cloud mountains.
02:52Cloud mountains are also found in Taiwan.
02:54Since we've brought a good craftsmanship from the West here,
02:58I believe that with the accumulation of time,
03:01we can continue to produce,
03:03and I think we can create more unique cultures
03:07that belong to Taiwan.
03:11The villagers aren't just learning how to make the violins,
03:14they're learning how to play them, too.
03:16And that's inspired others from near and far
03:19to embrace this shared musical dream.
03:2274-year-old Zhang Yongbao is from nearby Tainan City.
03:26He moved to the village expressly to learn how to make and play the violin.
03:31You have to learn it slowly by yourself.
03:36It's like taking care of your own child.
03:40When you can play the violin,
03:44it really feels different.
03:47The impact of the violins is resonating beyond the instruments
03:51and the people who make them.
03:53The former village chief has turned the community center into a hub
03:57where visitors can enjoy music and play the violin.
04:01It's also encouraging more young people to return to their hometown.
04:32It's hard to imagine that these instruments were created from driftwood
04:36that washed down from the mountains because of a storm.
04:39But it's not just about the music,
04:42it's about the community that they're building with these
04:45and about how it's helping them to reimagine the future.
04:48The village is so proud of its violin makers
04:51that they hold an annual music festival on the banks of the reservoir
04:55to showcase their talents.
04:57And they've designed a museum
04:59to display hundreds of instruments made right here in Dapu village
05:03and the stories of the people who made them.
05:06Devon Tsai, Joseph Wu, Peachy Zhuang, and Andrew Ryan for Taiwan Plus.
05:11Coming up in Part 5 of our trip to Jiayi County,
05:15we visit the world's largest structure shaped like a high-heeled shoe.
05:19What's it doing glamming up rural Taiwan?
05:22We'll have the answers in our series finale.
05:29.