Metamorphasing Hierarchy Of Networks: The Reemergence Of Chinese Redwood Furniture Manufacture

By using the twin perspectives of organizational and cultural sociology, this thesisexplains how the lost tradition of Chinese redwood furniture manufacture reemergedwithin just20-30years. In so doing, this ancient craft not only revived the careers ofmodern craftsmen, it also entered the high-end furniture market as a neweconomic-cultural sector. Lin County in Kaixian City of Hebei Province in North Chinais the birthplace of this revival. In this county there is a cluster of Chinese redwoodfurniture manufacturers, formed by600-700factories of different scales, all of whichhave complicated interconnections while also generating a clearly differentiatedhierarchy.Among the redwood furniture factories, Yixianyuan, Cangjinxuan, and Jinyuxianghave achieved distinguished performances in terms of total output value, total profit,and brand recognition. The three owners have established the foundation of the redwoodfurniture industry and led its development over the past three decades, which in turn hasmade a significant contribution to the reemergence of the tradition of redwood furnituremanufacture and its success in Lin County.In the course of conducting fieldwork in Lin County, ten thousand words offieldwork records were collected through in-depth interviews and participantobservation. Based on them, this thesis proposes a mechanism characterized by a"metamorphasing hierarchy of networks" can account for the revival of the lost redwoodfurniture manufacture tradition in the hands of the farmers in Lin County.The leading role in this process is the redwood furniture manufacturers. During thethree periods of reselling old furniture, repairing old furniture, and creating newfurniture, they successfully accomplished the three stages of reviving the lost furnituretradition: reconstruction of its knowledge system, reappropriation of its manufacturingskills, and creation of a new production pattern. Therefore, what underlies each stage isa metamorphosing hierarchy of productive networks among manufacturers, buyers,suppliers, brokers, collectors, scholars, workers, and apprentices. When the focus of themanufacturers changes the relative position of different roles within the hierarchy also changes. Every transition from one stage of the revival to another takes place throughthis evolving hierarchy.Within this hierarchy, the three furniture factories of Yixianyuan, Cangjinxuan,and Jinyuxiang not only cooperate with sincerity but also compete with each othersecretively, thereby establishing entirely different operating styles while also sharingsome key links. The three owners-manufacturers started from scratch but becamebillionaires, climbing from the bottom of the metamorphasing hierarchy to its apex.Relying on this unique experience, this thesis aims to represent this classical furnituretradition’s road to revival, and to analyze it concretely from two sociologicalperspectives.