The ukulele is a plucked musical instrument invented in Portugal and popular in Hawaii. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the ukulele gained traction throughout the United States and gradually spread internationally. Today, the ukulele is also popular among young Chinese people.
However, what you may not expect is that this small, cheerful-toned instrument has become more and more closely associated with a village and town in northern Jiangsu in the past two years.
Sangxu Town, Shuyang County, Suqian City, originally started by selling timber. But today, walking on the streets of Sangxu Town, it doesn't take a few minutes to see a musical instrument company. Using poplar trees, which are common in rural northern Jiangsu, factories in Sangxu Town have produced ukuleles and sold them overseas.
Shuyang Botong Musical Instrument Co., Ltd., which settled in Liuzhai Industrial Park, Sangxu Town, in June 2020, was originally a little-known wood shavings factory, and after the transformation and development in June 2021, it has successively built a modern factory building of 13,000 square meters and 10,500 square meters, and introduced advanced high-end production equipment, and the current production of musical instruments has driven more than 500 people to work nearby.
Barrel body production, grinding, priming, coloring, assembly...... The ukulele production process is complex, with more than 30 processes to complete. However, the production and export of ukuleles is clearly more value-added than the traditional wood processing industry.
Sun Taiqi, director of Shuyang Botong Musical Instrument Co., Ltd., pointed out that the current annual output value of the company is about 200 million yuan, and the next step is to build Sangxu Town into the largest ukulele production base at home and abroad.
In 2022, more than 60 violin-making and related enterprises will be opened in Shuyang County, where Sangxu Town is located, driving more than 5,000 people to work, and the mid-to-high-end ukuleles produced are exported to European and American countries, with an annual output value of 5 billion yuan.
Behind the small ukulele, the story of the transformation and upgrading of the traditional manufacturing industry represented by Sangxu Town and Shuyang County is playing a new movement.
(Integrated from Shuyang County Financial Media Center, Visual Shuyang, and Speed News)