Professor says toys are the future

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on November 30, 2006. It features Hong Rongshao, a professor at the Taipei Education University and the founder of Taiwan's first Toy Research Institute. Hong is confident about the future of the toy industry. He often says to his students: "Kids, adults, old people, sick people, and even pets love toys. This is one career path that has a great future, and you can be your own boss and make good money, too."

In Hong's view, there is a lack of design professionals in Taiwan's toy industry. As part of his quest to educate new toy designers, he plans to open up cooperation with the Taipei Teachers University on integrated electronics and IC design for toys. A special curriculum will also be offered to train international digital toy designers.

According to Hong, Taiwan has never been particularly outstanding in the international toy market, because the major players in its toy industry did not invest in research and development. Since there was a lack of professional designers, the products were neither innovative nor creative. In Hong's words: "I believe that the domestic market's current difficulties are due to an inability to design good toys, and not because there is no money to be made in toys."

Hong's view is supported by experts from the Taiwan Toy and Children's Articles Research and Development Center, who believe that about 80 percent of such items now come from factories in China. According to these experts, Taiwan's focus in developing toys should be placed on professionals who can conduct research and development, instead of competing with China on price. Indeed, there is an urgent need for Taiwan's universities and graduate programs to train professionals in this area.

According to Hong, at present, only a handful of institutions in Taiwan provide courses that focus on toy design. The Taipei Education University (which operates the aforementioned Toy Research Institute) and the Taipei University of Technology are two good examples. While the China Medical University plans to establish a department of toy design, the Taipei Teachers' University has also proposed a degree program in the subject.

Hong believes that with more and more schools coming on board, toy departments will become more popular in Taiwan. In his words: "Right now, lots of industrial product design or art products use elements of toy design, such as the integration of IC technology design. So many art design students go abroad to finally get exposure to the IC side of things. Taiwan has the strongest computer and IC design fields in the world, but has never developed toys using these strengths, which is a great pity." In order to help the nation usurp China's leadership in the toy field, Hong is now calling on schools in Taiwan to set up PhD programs in design.

To maintain development in Taiwan's toy industry, Hong has also made cooperative arrangements with more than a dozen elementary schools and communities to train elderly people to repair children's toys in "toy workshops". In his words: "This not only engenders great goodwill between elders and youth, but also lets the kids get the idea that toy resources are valuable, as they see their elders dressed in white coats doing repair work."