The love and hatred lit by the sky lantern, Pingxi environmental protection sky lantern can not be pushed, how to co-exist with foreign innovation?

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With its sky lantern culture, Pingxi has become a world-class tourist landmark in Taiwan. The sky lanterns that write down their wishes are rising slowly with the fire, bringing good memories to tourists. However, at least 30,000 sky lanterns a month also bring environmental load and fire worries. The traditional sky lantern base made of bamboo frame and iron wire will burn and fall. Although most of the sky lanterns are recycled for money, some sky lanterns fall out of control, causing fires or causing animals to eat or be injured.

The "Cultural Bank", composed of a group of students from Jiaotong University, has developed environmental protection sky lanterns, which can be completely burned out, reducing the environmental burden and fire risk. It was officially launched in October of last year (2019). However, innovation seems to be difficult to be recognized by local industrialists. So far, there are only about 780 environmental protection sky lanterns per week, which translates to less than 1/1000 per month in Pingxi.

Businesses' resistance and negative attitude towards environmental protection sky lanterns have complex love and hatred. Environmental protection sky lanterns not only cause conflicts between environmental protection and business opportunities, but also reflect local different imaginations in the direction of development.

The sky lantern has become a representative tourism landmark in Taiwan. Lin Jiyang photographed the relationship between environmental protection sky lantern and traditional sky lantern

Ten station, this railway station, which is famous internationally for the movie "Love the Wind and Dust", gathers the densest sky lantern industry, just more than 200 meters, with 30 traditional sky lantern operators.

When the reporter visited the sky lantern shop and asked if there were any environmentally friendly sky lanterns, many businesses put back their smiles and stressed that their traditional sky lanterns were also "environmentally friendly" and that "every sky lantern has been recycled." When it comes to the topic of "environmental protection" of the sky lantern, I obviously feel the defensive dissatisfaction of the industry. Although the industry believes that traditional sky lanterns are recycled, frequent incidents of fires and burning mountains have indeed seriously damaged the image of sky lanterns. In the past year, there has been a fourth fire caused by sky lanterns, and the affected residents even have no way to ask for help.

Little knowledge: the traditional sky lantern base is made of bamboo frame and iron wire, with gold paper as fuel, the price is 150 yuan, after lift-off, the fuel burns up and falls, and the sky lantern base needs to be recycled by special personnel. The environmental protection sky lantern uses a patented design to make the pulp base, which will be about 380 meters after lift. the base will burn to ashes and no longer need to be recycled manually, and the price is about 450 yuan each.

On the left is the new version of environmental protection sky lantern base made of pulp, and on the right side is the traditional sky lantern base made of bamboo frame and iron wire. _ Lin Jiyang photographer refuses to pay "Sky Lantern Sustainable Development Fund", there is no way to claim for the fire.

Last year (2019) in July, a house caught fire in Pingxi. With a fire accident certificate issued by the fire brigade of "fire caused by sky lanterns", the owner submitted a claim of 1.7 million yuan to the provident fund "Sky Lantern Sustainable Development Fund" responsible for compensation for fires caused by sky lights.

The "sky lantern sustainable development fund" is paid by the sky lantern industry and is usually managed by the public office. once a fire accident caused by a sky lantern has been examined and approved by a committee composed of representatives of the industry, the fund will be allocated for compensation. However, due to the lack of coercive force to pay voluntarily, fewer and fewer shops are paying. According to public information released by the public office, there is only a balance of more than 6,000 yuan left at the end of November, and it is no longer possible to pay for any fire liability.

There is no way for the victims of this accident to claim compensation, and the incident has yet to be resolved, making the public safety issue of the sky lantern once again come to the surface.

In order to sprint the number, on the narrow ten-point station railway, the sky lanterns were released hastily, and a gust of wind caught fire on the trees. Chairman of Lin Jiyang Sky Lantern Association: outsiders hurt places in the name of environmental protection.

Hu Minshu, chairman of the Sky Lantern Folk Culture Development Association, is a well-known celestial lantern master, and he is one of the few pioneers who first started holding sky lantern activities more than 30 years ago. In view of the fact that the sky lantern started a fire, he thought, "the sky lantern will fall because the fuel (golden paper) is burnt out. Can the burnt sky lantern fly into the house and set the house on fire?" So there's something wrong with the fire. Coupled with the fact that profits have been compressed, the shop owner is not willing to pay this money again, because according to this standard, there is no way to pay for it! "

Hu Min-Shu, who is also a Sky Lantern businessman, expresses the knot of the shop owner's unwillingness to pay the provident fund. "the flying range of sky lanterns is limited, and special people will pick up sky lights that fall on trees with telescopic poles. A sky lantern recovers eight yuan, picking up sky lanterns from five or six years old to eighties or ninety years old, with a recovery rate of more than 95%. " Hu Minshu defended the environmental hazards of sky lanterns in a resolute tone.

Hook Sky Lantern (Photo courtesy of / Liu Jingfang)

With regard to the sale of environmental protection sky lanterns, Hu Minshu said that many operators have their own sky lantern production factories, and if they purchase patented sky lanterns from the Cultural Bank, it will be tantamount to self-abandonment, and the production and recycling of sky lanterns will face the problem of unemployment. in addition, the price of environmental protection sky lanterns is far higher than that of traditional sky lanterns, and the operators are also worried that the high pricing strategy will deter consumers and affect the Pingxi tourism industry.

"the sky lantern for fund-raising development should be to help in the real estate industry, not to turn into harm in the real estate industry!" In 2016, the Cultural Bank proposed the environmental damage of Pingxi Sky Lantern, which has seriously damaged the image of Pingxi Sky Lantern through online communication and media reports, which still makes Hu Minshu and local operators feel aggrieved. Hu said that outsiders criticized the traditional sky lanterns as "not environmentally friendly" and then launched their own patented products, which made them think that they were harming the place in the name of environmental protection.

Hu Minshu, chairman of the Sky Lantern Association, said that now most sky lanterns are made by recycling, and operators and residents have tried their best to raise the recovery rate of sky lanterns to the limit, so they should no longer criticize the environmental protection of traditional sky lanterns. _ Lin Jiyang photographed Cultural Bank: environmental protection sky lanterns have given way to the store owner.

Xu Jialin, the business manager of promoting green sky lanterns, said that at the beginning, through crowdfunding to raise funds for the research and development of moulds for environmentally friendly sky lights, sponsors knew about and were willing to support such business practices. And the cultural bank invests a lot of manpower time in research and development, experiments to obtain technology, the intellectual property of this achievement should belong to the cultural bank.

Xu Jialin said that most of the profits of environmental protection sky lanterns have been given to sellers, and in order to reduce the controversy among traditional operators on the environmental protection issue of "environmental protection sky lanterns," the Cultural Bank has also renamed its products to "sustainable sky lanterns." he also promised to give back to the local government and penetrate into the improvement of the environment in the future. However, after more than two months of visit and communication, there are still only two stores willing to sell environmentally friendly sky lanterns, and less than ten sustainable sky lanterns are sold every month.

Although the sales figures are not good, Xu Jialin believes that in the long run, the sustainable sky lantern has considerable room for growth. Xu said that the vision of the Culture Bank is not only in Taiwan, but also in Thailand or the United States.

Xu Jialin, Market Development Manager of Cultural Bank (Photography / Lin Jiyang)

Xu believes that in addition to the negative environmental assessment and risks of the traditional sky lantern industry, the actual situation is also quite fragile. "the sky lantern is a problem of price-cutting competition within the market. When the sky lantern is reduced from NT $300 to NT $400 to NT $150, tourists only come to Pingxi to promise to set it off at a cheap price, but the operators just keep pushing it, but their cultural perception is not deep enough. There is a problem with the image of the industry on the outside, and once international tourists stop visiting, there will be a crisis."

For Xu Jialin, the sky lantern is a dangerous market, and most of the operators do not realize that the industrial dilemma is moving towards shallow-rooted development, and there is no local cultural discussion or more exquisite operation. The market may be seized at any time by tourists who also promote sky lantern tourism, such as Vietnam and Thailand.

Assist with the "sustainable sky lantern", the old master wants to make the cultural depth of the sky lantern

Lin Guohe, a retired teacher, is a sky lantern cultural worker on the street. He is the first traditional master to participate in the research and development program of the Culture Bank. Lin Guohe believes that in order to deepen the sky lantern industry, the most important thing is to spread the understanding and feelings of culture.

"Sky lanterns were brought from Tangshan to Pingxi with the reclamation in Taiwan. in the past, the traffic in the mountains was inconvenient, and sky lanterns were set off to signal peace, but later evolved into rituals and beliefs. Sky lanterns represent 'Tianding'. The five colors represent health, wisdom, love, peace, and wealth." When he sold sky lanterns to his customers, he paid special attention to explaining the origin of sky lanterns.

He explained, "Culture needs to be more refined in order to maintain profits. But now the sky lantern industry has gone astray, stores ignore cultural exchanges for impulse, hire more staff for impulse, and then form a vicious circle of forced price reduction competition.

He agrees with the concept of "sustainable sky lantern". Although the purchase cost is high, the price is also high. The profit of selling a sustainable sky lantern is two or three times that of the traditional sky lantern, creating the same profit with less volume. He believes that only this pricing strategy can rectify the vicious circle of the original sky lantern market.