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Taiwan began introducing embroidery in 1959, and the craft was an accumulation of experience and lifestyle of early Taiwanese people. Embroidery is thus a highly prized intangible cultural heritage. Embroidery depicts not just the craftsmanship and skill of the embroiderer, it is also a media that preserves the cultural and historical traces of the common people. These cultural elements can also be applied in the research and development of Cultural and Creative Industries.
Puzi Township of Chiayi County used to be an important center of embroidery in early Taiwan. Embroideries such as the Tapestry of Eight Deities, stage curtains, and door curtains and pillows used during marriage ceremonies were all hand-made. Zhou Guo-qin (周國欽) recognized the high demand and knew he founded a business in this field. Zhou was an accomplished illustrator, while his wife Gong Yan-chun (龔燕春) was a professional embroiderer. Zhou thus established Guoqin’s Workshop (國欽工藝社) in 1966. In 1979, the second generation business owner Zhou Zhi-yun (周至雲) renamed the business as ’TOP YAJIH CO (鑫得行) and expanded the workshop into a factory that focused on wholesale markets. Later on, however, Chinese factories offering prices at only half of that in Taiwan invaded the market. Fine embroidery was no match for the low costs of Mainland Chinese products. As traditional industries started to decline, there was an urgent need to create new sales channels. In response to these social changes, the three Zhou brothers, all born during the 1980s, decided to transform the family business through generating brand value and competitiveness. They understood the importance of brand management and knew that Taiwan''s market would be completely dominated by cheap Chinese goods if no changes were made to their situation. Hence, they decided to participate in the Digital Inclusion for Small and Medium Enterprises Project and took their first step towards business transformation and established Shen Fu Creative Embroidery (神斧創意精品刺繡).
Data showed that Taiwan underwent rapid commercial developments after a series of revolutionary economic changes after 1987. The embroidery industry expanded with the rise of the garment industry, achieving a height during the 1990s. However, as living qualities improved, many companies began to lose workers. Increase in wages led to higher production costs. Yet Taiwanese business owners had already invested large quantities of capital in production equipment which led to an over-abundance of production capacities. Numerous businesses moved to Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia or Thailand where labor was cheaper, placing the future of Taiwanese embroidery in jeopardy.
In response to these social changes, Taiwanese embroidery searched for better management models to identify improvements for their products and sales channels in order to fight against the market for cheap Chinese goods and compensate for the lack of skilled and technical personnel.
Little research has been done investigating the business development and transformation of the embroidery industry. Hence, this paper focused on a traditional embroiderer that successfully underwent business transformation. In-depth interviews as well as relevant literature were reviewed in order to understand the development of this industry. Three structural aspects were identified: problems faced by the embroidery industry, investigating the development of the embroidery industry, and transformation of the embroidery industry. This paper aimed to identify advantages and weaknesses and to preserve these critical information in order to provide other industries with an important source of reference.
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