GOLDEN HOUR

The moving story of a master craftsman who handmakes wooden dragon boats

Keelung River and Tamsui River are the roots of Taipei City. LIU Ching-cheng’s family has been making wooden boats for five generations. Back when the main means of transportation in Taipei were waterways instead of roadways, the LIU family made sampans for almost the entire river basin. Today, the transportation function of rivers has been replaced by roads and bridges. The people of Taipei have also built towering high walls to cut us off from the two rivers. As the sampan industry declined, LIU Ching-cheng, who has never given up his family business, now only makes dragon boats for the races during the Dragon Boat Festival. For decades, he has made boats with his two hands; he is now building the last one in his life.