Yingge Township

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Yingge (Chinese: 鶯歌; pinyin: Yingge; Wade-Giles: Ying-ko; POJ: Eng-koa) is an urban township in southwestern Taipei County, Taiwan. It is famous for the production of porcelain.

The township takes its name, which is an old term for "eagle", from a nearby rock formation said to resemble such a bird. According to legend, this stone eagle produced a miasma that disoriented, sickened, and sometimes killed passers-by. One day, General Koxinga led his army past the rock. When they were caught in the miasma, he ordered his cannon to fire against the rock. When the neck of the stone eagle was broken, the miasma lifted and the troops could continue on their march.

Yingge, set at the downstream of Dahan River, once had numerous stacks so that smoke and dust were everywhere and become muddy whenever it rained. The name implied a contradiction between flourishing industries and the quality of life. Nevertheless, Yingge is a land full of God’s grace. With nearby area full of clay soil, large woodlands for firewood supply and coal mines in the San-Ying area, Yingge is the perfect place to build kilns. In the mean time, transportations are much convenient. Dahan River can have cargos to be shipped directly to Danshuei area. With railways and Dahan River, these means of transportation constituted the complete network for Yingge pottery industry. In present days, the stacks and dust in Yingge are less to block the view. Old streets and unadorned museums of pottery are injected with modern elements. Maybe through these, we can clearly admire more of Yingge’s beauty.

Yingge’s Craftsmanship
Many children who grew up in Yingge had a childhood full of playing mud and clay. No sooner than the pottery making industry entered Yingge had it outshined all other industries. Almost every child in Yingge grew up watching the making of potteries. When the children have grown bigger, they became one part of the whole production system. They were skilled gradually, either in family productions or in factory productions.

When it came to the golden age of Yingge pottery industry, the 1970s, these youngsters who shared same childhood memories had become new force of the industry. They devote themselves into the business; some of them became factory owners and some became skilled workers. They had written the most magnificent chapter in the history of the Yingge pottery industry. The prosperity lasted only two decades. In the shift of the entire economic environment, exports have been eaten away and the business was not as good as usual. The pottery art workers who survived the big challenge are like gravel that has been washed by the river of time, shines with mellow and rich brilliance. These workers take pottery technologies of exportation as a basis, through researches and studies, gradually come up with their own way of making potteries－absorb trends of artistic cultures from the past, and draw new ingredients from local living experiences.

Nowadays, these efforts have yield many positive results. Due to the diversity of backgrounds to the pottery art workers in Yingge, which include kiln owners, technicians, college graduates, it’s extremely hard to tell the specific characteristics of Yingge pottery. However, there’s one thing that we are all certain of: Yingge pottery is very close to people, sings no lofty tones, and it carries out art in every single part of daily life.