- Home
- Programs
- International CyberFair
- Participants
- Display Project Details
The Experimental Elementary School of the National Hualien Teachers College (2004 CyberFair Project ID 3337)
Taiwan,
Hualien/Taiwan
Official Status:
Final Project: Ready for Judging
Teacher:
Category: 8. Local Music and Art Forms
We estimate 8 student(s) from 11 to 12 will work on this entry.
Description of Our Community: Hualien is called “the Homeland of Stone”, partly because it is the major stone marketing city in Taiwan, controlling 90% of Taiwan’s stone materials, and partly because 80% of the stone collectors in Taiwan are people living in Hualien. The development and promotion of stone art industry has always been considered by government as the cultural industry most suitable for Hualien. In recent years, Hualien county government has focused on promoting its tourist activities, hoping this will bring an influx of people and commercial business. The promotion of stone art is helpful to the tourism, which should help employment, and is good for local economical growth. It also promotes Hulien’s international image as the “city of stone art”.
There are two major types of stone art in Hualien. One is stone carving, in which artists strive to release the spirits hidden in stone by using all sorts of tools. This is a result of the marble production in Hualien. Hualien’s marble quality has always been highly valued by the stone artists. The second is gem and rare stone collection. Under the marvels of Taiwan’s east coast scenic wonders hides the beauty of gems and rare stones. Such as the world famous Rhodonites, Watermelon Tourmaine, Gourd stone, and Design stone. Also various kinds of gems and minerals, such as Chalcedony, Jasper..
Whether it is using tools to make arts out of stone, or just appreciating the stone’s natural beauty, the value of stone is not just for mining and building houses. Stone itself is an art, and it is long lasting. It connects to our artistic experience. The continuing creation and innovation of stone art culture is not just a pastime. It affects our lifestyle artistically, uniting art and life.
Project Description: When we first entered the Cyberfair contest, we got together to brainstorm our project topic. The first we thought of was Hualien’s stone carving and gem/rare stones, because they have long been our local specialties. We have abundant activities related to stone art year round, such as stone art displays, stone carving festival, stone art street…. They become important tourist attractions. In addition, Hualien Bureau of Art has established a stone-carving art museum, displaying select works from each year’s stone carving festival. All these activities and displays aim at letting people appreciate the beauty of stone art. With our hometown Hualien being such an important stone art cultural city, we not only are proud of it, but also feel that we should let more people learn about this special art form. We’d like to show people how to appreciate these art works, from what angles they can view these works, how the stone artists and collectors started their love affairs with the stones, how a stone art work is completed, and so on. We hope that through our study, we can let more people understand that to get to know stones is not as difficult as people might think. And from our interviews with the stone artists and collectors, we hope to help interested people find a way to get started on their own love affairs with stones.