Taiwan Today

Decades of skill wielding needle and thread saw Lin Yu-quan embroider an enduring legacy.

Born into a salt farmer’s family in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City in 1941, Lin Yu-quan (林玉泉) started his 40-month apprenticeship in traditional religious embroidery at 16. After working in Taipei City for 15 years producing items such as altar hangings and clothing for god statues, he returned home to start his own business—initially subcontracting for larger shops. In 1982 he opened Guangcai Embroidered Crafts shop.

In the early 1990s, the market for local hand embroidery started to give way to cheap imported machine embroidery. Undeterred by competition due to his firm belief in his trade as a valuable heritage, Lin took part in artisan skills competitions, gave presentations at schools and offered embroidery courses to keep the craft alive and raise awareness of its unique beauty.

Lin diversified by expanding from solely religious to decorative items. His store was used as a collaborative educational venue to introduce the craft to potential markets. This resulted in his astonishing leap into the world of high fashion. Working with Taiwan fashion designer Justin Chou (周裕穎), Lin’s embroidery lit up the catwalk at 2016 New York Fashion Week. This rejuvenated the industry as textile creatives in Taiwan and beyond woke up to the wealth of color and technique inherent in embroidery traditions and enrolled in courses with Lin.

In recent years Lin’s daughter and his colleagues took over the business as Lin was in constant demand bringing the craft he loved to a wider audience, something he did right up to his last days in February this year, when he passed away. 

In one of his last interviews, Lin’s generosity of spirit and love for his calling were laid bare when he said, “My greatest happiness is to see the craft passed down. I want my students to become even better than me.” 

—by Jim Hwang