This umbrella has more stage experience than we do

The red canopy hogs nearly half the photograph. Black cut-paper patterning closes in around the centre, held up by fine bamboo ribs. Guang Jin Sheng's workmanship extends to getting the umbrella's underside properly dressed.

Lin Rong-jun and Wu Jian-ying's design has played a big room: it appeared in Jolin Tsai and Namie Amuro's I'm Not Yours video. Here, the same design is catching some sun in a Meinong garden. The lotus and vase motifs carry a wish for peace at home; the round-and-square pattern slips in a coin's promise of prosperity. A career in entertainment, and the whole family's blessings to carry. Give the poor umbrella a chair.

Now look at the frame-making photograph supplied by the workshop. The paper isn't on yet, and long bamboo ribs spread from the maker's hands, cutting straight across the frame. The umbrella already has a shape and a considerable presence before anyone paints it. Kaohsiung's city magazine has written about Lin's calligraphy and Wu's cut-paper work. Behind the ancestral hall, their workshop carries on founder Lin Xiang-lin's formidable craft.

Find it near Meinong Lake, behind the Lin family ancestral hall. Browse the handmade umbrellas, take home the one that catches your eye, or arrange to put your own ideas on a small paper canopy.

Go after ten

Guang Jin Sheng Paper Umbrella Studio is tucked away at 47 Minquan Road, Meinong, Kaohsiung. The workshop's LINE account lists visiting hours of 10:00–17:00. Browsing costs nothing. For painting arrangements and prices, call 07-681-3247. From Kaohsiung Bus's Meinong station, allow 25 minutes for the roughly 1.5km walk, following the signs behind Jinan Hall.