While we take pride in the once-thriving the Taiwan Cypress Straw Hat in Lukang and the legendary success it created, we cannot help but feel a sense of loss as the craft fades into obscurity. Today, few people have even heard of The Taiwan Cypress Straw Hat in Lukang.

We became curious about the hat-making industry in the United Kingdom, wondering if it faces similar challenges to our own cypress straw hat industry. Our attention was drawn to a fascinating report: "The British Royal Headwear—Surprisingly Made in Taiwan?! Lukang’s Hat-Making Industry Shines on the Global Stage."

If you have been paying attention to the British royal family for a long time, you will definitely notice the tradition of royal women wearing hats. Whether it is the Queen herself, or the media-focused Kate Middleton and Megan Markle, they must wear various hats when attending public occasions. Of course, well-known hat designers such as Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy are also important promoters of the hat tradition. However, most people would never have thought that the real hero behind them is the old Taiwanese hat company Sun Yorkos.

Vice President Ding Jianxiang's family is from Lukang, Changhua. His grandfather, Mr. Ding Longzhen, began to produce hat weaving materials for Japanese trading companies in the 1940s. In the late 1960s, when Japanese companies came to Taiwan to look for technology transfer manufacturers, his father, Mr. Ding Songyan, and his brothers founded a company to provide hat materials and semi-finished products to overseas hat factories and material suppliers. In 1977, after a series of management reforms, Jiaquan Industry was officially established and began to provide hat OEM and special materials for well-known brands and designers. It has a history of more than 40 years.

"My family started making hats with my grandfather. They used to plane cypress wood into thin slices, then spin it into fibers for weaving," said TING,CHIEN-HSIANG, vice president of the Canaan Group. "At that time, this natural fiber was produced during the slack season of farming. It could be woven into bamboo hats and straw hats. My grandfather was responsible for distributing materials such as cypress to everyone, and the finished products were then sold to Japan."