Taiwan Today

It was a beautiful mistake, says Philina Yang (楊彩玲), metal artist and founder of De Wind Gallery in Tainan, southern Taiwan, in reference to the “golden orchid” she helped develop. In 2004, staff at a metal research center in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan that was funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) forgot to turn off electroforming equipment over a weekend. The result was an unusually large and beautiful metal deposit that was created by the long hours of electroforming. Yang learned about the deposit from a former student, who worked at the research center, and was inspired to use the technique on organic materials. After experimenting with roses, pinecones and even insects, Yang concluded that electroformed moth orchids had the greatest market potential. “They’re a luxury gift that aren’t sold in great quantities, but they’ve been gaining popularity in mainland China in the last few years,” Yang says.

Yang’s golden orchids were featured in a wall calendar published by the MOEA’s Small and Medium Enterprise Administration (SMEA) this year. The calendar is aimed at promoting specialty products from different areas around the country, and Yang’s creation appeared for the month of March, the time of year orchids bloom in Taiwan.

“Orchid farming in Taiwan is already quite mature. We can develop businesses on the basis of such success,” says Chen Tsung-hsien (陳宗賢), manager of the Regional Industrial Service Department of the southern branch of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). The SMEA commissioned the ITRI branch to carry out the development of Tainan’s orchid sector as part of a two-year program to boost local industries with high growth potential. Tainan City Government is one of three local governments that are garnering help under the 2012–2013 scheme, the other two being northern Taiwan’s Miaoli County and Changhua County in central Taiwan, which are seeking to develop their woodcarving and flower-cultivation sectors respectively.

“With Tainan’s orchid industry doing well as a primary industry, we’re moving toward its second and third stages of development,” says Yin Shih-shi (殷世熙), secretary-general of Tainan City Government’s Economic Development Bureau. The official explains that the second stage of development includes the production of orchid-related cultural creative and biotech products, whereas the third stage is tourism centered on orchid farms. The SMEA has earmarked NT$10 million (US$345,000) for the development of orchid-related businesses in Tainan under the current two-year scheme, with the Tainan City Government providing a further NT$3.4 million (US$117,000). By the end of 2012, ITRI and the local government had approached 17 enterprises in the Tainan area, with 10 electing to take part in the project, including Orchis Floriculturing Inc., the only orchid farm participating in the program up to that point. “Most orchid growers hesitate to explore [other opportunities within] their existing business because they’re quite content with the sales of their flowers,” says Lin Yu-ming (林育民), an employee in ITRI’s service department.

Yang of De Wind Gallery has designed five new items centered on the moth orchid as part of the government program. “Compared with other flowers I’ve experimented with like roses and carnations, moth orchids are better suited to [electroforming] because their petals are thicker and much less complex, which means that the gold is deposited more evenly,” Yang says. “Moreover, the species is endemic to Taiwan and comprises the vast majority of Taiwan’s orchid exports.” The metal artist exhibited her golden orchids for the first time in 2007 at the Taiwan International Orchid Show, an annual event in Tainan displaying orchids and related products. “Since then I’ve focused on the moth orchid whenever I consider making an orchid design,” she says.

Allen Chuang (莊世豪), chairman of Hwang Sun Enterprise Co., is another Tainan-based business owner who has participated in the government program. “The image of the Tung blossom is now used on various cultural creative products. Why can’t we expect the same of images of orchids?” he asks. Tung flowers grow in many regions with a large Hakka population and are widely used as a cultural symbol of that ethnic group. As part of the SMEA scheme, Hwang Sun is endeavoring to find ways to use images of orchids in its existing tourism business, which is based on the traditional salt farms of coastal Tainan. In November 2012, and with the help of the Research Center of Cultural Creative Design at Tainan University of Technology, Hwang Sun created 366 decorative seals. Each of the seals corresponds to a specific day of the year and features salt crystals displayed in an acrylic handle and an image of a particular plant—including 20-odd orchid species—on the stamp. The seals are now on sale at tourist spots managed by Hwang Sun.

Since the summer of 2012, ITRI’s Clean Energy and Eco-technology Center has been researching the potential of orchid extracts for use in biotech products. According to Yang Psung-yin (楊叢印), the project manager for orchid-related research at the center, a number of orchid derivatives have been found to be especially effective at retaining moisture and have anti-oxidant properties. ITRI has already helped develop a number of products including orchid-based facial masks and toothpaste, as well as an orchid-based soft drink, which was launched at the 2013 Taiwan International Orchid Show.

Taiwan Orchid Innovative Biotech Co., a major enterprise in the local orchid sector, has high hopes for its new line of orchid-derived body care and cosmetic products named AMABILIS, a word that makes up part of the scientific name of the moth orchid, Phalaenopsis amabilis. The first products from the line were launched at a number of high-end retailers in Taiwan in March this year. The firm has ambitions to grab 10 percent of the ethnic Chinese market for body care products within three years, having already signed contracts with distributors in mainland China and other Asian nations.

The biotech firm is an affiliate of Taiwan Orchid Professionals Co., which has been commissioned to manage the Taiwan Orchid Plantation (TOP), a government initiative in Tainan City aimed at improving the competitiveness of Taiwan’s orchid-growing sector. Taiwan Orchid Innovative Biotech says all of the active ingredients of products in the AMABILIS line come from TOP, which claims to contain the largest cluster of orchid greenhouses in the world.

Natural Properties

Although it is not part of the SMEA-led scheme, Taiwan Orchid Innovative Biotech has been exploring the frontiers of research in orchid-based body care products for the past four years. It has relied on assistance from the Orchid Research Center, which was established in 2009 at Tainan’s National Cheng Kung University, and the company recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City to set up a research center at that school devoted to analyzing the properties of orchids. It is hoped that the Fu Jen center, which will be named after the AMABILIS brand, will be established by the end of this year.

Mavis Yang (楊富涵), general manager of Woei Shyang Dar Enterprise Co., is optimistic about biotech products that use orchids. A maker of body care products derived from seaweed since 1995, the Tainan-based business launched a line of cosmetics containing orchid extracts that made its official debut at the 2012 Taiwan International Orchid Show. Woei Shyang Dar then began to work with ITRI to produce toothpaste containing orchid and bamboo extracts, which are believed to improve gum health. Before teaming up with ITRI, all of the orchid extracts the company used were imported from the United Kingdom, but this year it gradually shifted to extracts from locally grown plants. Yang says the firm received a high level of interest in its products at this year’s flower show, where it set up two booths. “This time sales of orchid-based products doubled and gained more attention from international buyers,” she says.

Given the maturity of the local orchid-growing industry, especially in Tainan, orchid-themed cultural creative and biotech products are on track to enrich Taiwan’s image as the “kingdom of orchids.” From golden orchids to body care products made from the flower, local businesses are giving new meaning to that title.

When Art and Orchids Meet

In late May 2011, the atmosphere at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London was as vibrant as it always is around this time of the year, as the hospital’s grounds double as the venue of the annual Chelsea Flower Show. That year was an especially exciting time for Taiwan, however, as the team representing the country at the world’s most prestigious flower show won its first gold medal in the Great Pavilion Awards.

Represented by the Taiwan Orchid Growers Association (TOGA), the Taiwanese team presented a design for an orchid-decorated church wedding. “We showed a wide range of orchid species and the wedding theme is unusual compared with other contestants,” says Emily Cheng (鄭秀煒), the team’s chief flower designer that year, of two major reasons for the success at the competition. Cheng adds that the use of masses of orchids must have impressed the judges, the typical choice for wedding decoration in the West being roses.

The TOGA team led by Cheng first took part in the London show, which is organized by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) of the United Kingdom, in 2010, when it won a silver medal for its pavilion. The prize translates to a third-place award. Just one year later, however, the team was able to grab the highest honor thanks to its previous experience, which helped team members become more familiar with the overall event, Cheng says, as well as to financial support from the Republic of China (ROC) government.

Cheng began designing flower arrangements around 1990, but became serious about the skill in the mid-1990s when she traveled to Europe to study with experts and made trips to big flower shows around the world. “We put the money earned from flower sales at our shop into any learning opportunities that came my way,” she says, referring to Onely Floral Services Inc., the store she opened with her husband Jeff Chen (陳清鈺) in 1990 in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan. The investment has paid off as Cheng has been invited to show her talent at home and abroad. In 2010, Cheng was introduced to RHS chief director Stephen Bennett at the Taiwan International Orchid Show, which led to Taiwan’s debut at the Chelsea Flower Show two months later.

The flower designer says Onely and the TOGA shared the expenses of about NT$1.2 million (US$38,000) for the 2010 Chelsea Flower Show. Since then, the central government has been funding the team’s participation in the London event, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Council of Agriculture providing NT$2 million (US$67,880) and NT$1 million (US$33,940) respectively in 2011. The increased funding definitely helped the team’s effort to add richness and diversity to its presentations. In 2010, the TOGA team displayed 1,000 stems from 40-odd types of orchids. The following year it exhibited more than 4,000 stems from 100 types of orchids, 90 percent of which were moth orchids, with the remaining 10 percent made up of such species as dancing-lady orchids donated by Taichung City Government. The Taiwan pavilion at the 2011 show was also seven times larger than at the 2010 event, and was located at the most conspicuous site in the whole exhibition venue.

Flower Ambassadors

Chen adds that the choice of 100 types of orchids was deliberate as the ROC government celebrated its 100th anniversary that year, and the team publicized the centenary and the beginnings of the ROC among visitors to the Taiwan pavilion. It is apt to talk about the origins of the ROC in London, he says, because Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), the founder of the nation, was temporarily kidnapped in the city in 1896 by the Qing dynasty embassy there. He was finally released thanks to the intervention of several Englishmen and the British government. Sun went on to lead the revolution that overthrew the dynasty in 1911.

Having built a solid image with silver and gold performances at the world-class flower show, the TOGA team won its second gold medal, also in the Great Pavilion Awards category, in 2012 with a dragon-shaped centerpiece in honor of the Year of the Dragon in the lunar calendar. Queen Elizabeth II has visited the Taiwan pavilion every year since 2010. The 2011 visit was especially noteworthy since the queen was presented with Doritaenopsis Elizabeth II, a new type of orchid developed in Taiwan and named after her.

Winning awards at prestigious flower shows not only helps boost Taiwan’s visibility and image in the international community, but also enables the world to see the beauty of orchids and Taiwanese designers’ ability to combine art and flowers. Since November 2011, Cheng, the chief designer on the TOGA team in 2010 and 2011, has sold designs for orchid arrangements in Hong Kong, mainland China and Singapore. The design templates are either sold alone or together with orchids grown in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese team is ready to awe orchid lovers again by taking part in the 2013 Chelsea Flower Show, which marks its centenary this year. The new display was planned to create a scene of Taiwan’s lofty mountains, complete with butterflies and woodland spirits, with ferns and bamboo plants included to supplement the design. As Taiwan has performed impressively in the exhibition since 2010, its fourth pavilion in London is certainly one of the most highly anticipated at this year’s show.

—Oscar Chung

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw