POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION
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in the nationalist-communist split of the late 1920's and retains a nationalist orientation.
It was joined in the post-World War II Hong Kong setting of the art-carved furniture industry by a carpenters' union of teak/camphorwood workers also of Nationalist orientation. This carpenters' union, the Hong Kong Kowloon Camphorwood Trunk Workers' Union, was organized in 1951 during a strike which arose over a disagreement on piecework rates and discontent over measures taken to suppress gambling and to prevent workers from using the factory as sleeping quarters at George Zee & Co., to this day one of the larger firms in the Hong Kong carved furniture industry. The Camphorwood Trunk Workers' Union still operates but has not fared well recently as the fortunes of Nationalist Taiwan have declined. While its membership was upwards of 240 workers in the late 1950's and early 1960's, its membership declined to a little more than half that figure by 1970, and dropped to 82 members in 1971.
Within a year of the organization of the carpenters' union of nationalist persuasion in the teak/camphorwood industry, a carvers' union was organized, of communist persuasion, the Woodwork Carvers' Union. It became the dominant union in the industry quite early on, boasting a membership of more than 500 members in 1960, suffered setbacks in registered membership during the three bad years in the People's Republic and slowly built its membership back up over 500 in the early 1970's. A vigorous recruitment drive got underway in 1973 which was netting new members every day, and a merger between it and the left wing Rosewood Workers' Union was being discussed.
The organization of the left wing carvers' union quickly brought into existence another carvers' union, this one of nationalist persuasion, composed of workers from Chekiang/Shanghai exclusively. Their membership peaked at 160 workers in 1955, dropped to about 130 in 1957 and remained at about that level until 1966 when it underwent a further drop to 61 members, which was its registered membership in 1972. It was active in strike action in 1964 but seems to have waned in significance since then. I believe the assimilation into the Hong Kong melting pot of a second generation of carvers and carpenters of Chekiang/Shanghai origins, born in Hong Kong and fluent in Cantonese may have seriously...
POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION
85
in the nationalist-communist split of the late 1920's and retains a nationalist orientation.
It was joined in the post-World War II Hong Kong setting of the art-carved furniture industry by a carpenters' union of teak/ camphorwood workers also of Nationalist orientation. This car- penters' union, the Hong Kong Kowloon Camphorwood Trunk Workers' Union, was organized in 1951 during a strike which arose over a disagreement on piecework rates and discontent over mea- sures taken to suppress gambling and to prevent workers from using the factory as sleeping quarters at George Zee & Co., to this day one of the larger firms in the Hong Kong carved furniture industry. The Camphorwood Trunk Workers' Union still operates but has not fared well recently as the fortunes of Nationalist Taiwan have declined. While its membership was upwards of 240 workers in the late 1950's and early 1960's, its membership declined to a little more than half that figure by 1970, and dropped to 82 members in 1971.
Within a year of the organization of the carpenters' union of nationalist persuasion in the teak/camphorwood industry, a car- vers' union was organized, of communist persuasion, the Wood- work Carvers' Union. It became the dominant union in the industry quite early on, boasting a membership of more than 500 members in 1960, suffered setbacks in registered membership during the three bad years in the Peoples' Republic and slowly built its mem- bership back up over 500 in the early 1970's. A vigorous recruit- ment drive got underway in 1973 which was netting new members every day, and a merger between it and the left wing Rosewood Workers' Union was being discussed.
The organization of the left wing carvers' union quickly brought into existence another carvers' union, this one of nationalist persua- sion, composed of workers from Chekiang/Shanghai exclusively. Their membership peaked at 160 workers in 1955, dropped to about 130 in 1957 and remained at about that level until 1966 when it underwent a further drop to 61 members, which was its registered membership in 1972. It was active in strike action in 1964 but seems to have wained in significance since then. I believe the assimilation into the Hong Kong melting pot of a second genera- tion of carvers and carpenters of Chekiang/Shanghai origins, born in Hong Kong and fluent in Cantonese may have seriously under-
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