Taishan Township, once a major production site for Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls, held a two-day cultural festival starting Saturday to celebrate Barbie’s 50th birthday, with a total of 1,000 Barbie dolls displayed for the first time in Taiwan.
In the event, 1,000 Barbie dolls, dressed in different outfits, were displayed at Taishan High School, which is 13 km from Taipei City.
The dolls have never been displayed in Taiwan since they were produced by the town’s Meining Workshop. A group of nostalgic workers at the workshop in Taishan created various costumes featuring Taiwanese styles for Barbie.
Lin Mei-lin, project manager at the Meining Workshop, said the dolls were returned to Taiwan last month after being displayed at a Taiwanese cultural festival in Vancouver, Canada.
“They have been away for overseas exhibition since 2005, so this was the first time for them to appear in front of Taiwan’s public, “said Lin.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the event Saturday, Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei said the Meining Workshop has successfully transformed Barbie dolls into artistic dolls, from just ordinary dolls, evoking many people’s memory of Taishan’s culture and history.
The Meining Workshop applied various Chinese and Taiwanese traditional arts to Barbie’s costumes, such as the traditional Chinese dress “qipao,” Taiwanese indigenous peoples’ traditional clothes or Hakka-style clothing.
And in order to reflect the need for environmental protection, Lin also introduced a Barbie doll on display wearing a fancy dress made purely from vegetable sponge or Luffa.
According to the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Taipei County Government, U.S. toy maker Mattel Inc. set up its flagship factory in Taishan in 1966. Around one third of Taishan’s populace was making Barbies at the time, according to the bureau.
Although Mattel shut down its operations in Taishan and relocated its assembly lines to other places in 1987, Taishan is still considered Barbie’s second hometown.
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