People could not separate the utilitarian use from the artistic value these pieces bore. They were too close in terms of age--these were the goods that many people may have used as children or at least the household articles of their grandparent's generation. Unlike the magnificent artworks of antiquity, these beds, clothes, chairs, pots and pans represented the recent past, not some distant, powerful dynastic tradition.
他表示，無論是老祖母的眠床、刺繡，廟裡的神像、交阯陶，過年過節做紅龜粿用的印模，平日餐桌上粗燒的魚蝦盤……，這些先民生活中以實用為先決條件的器用飾品，或許談不上什麼哲學理念、藝術精神；它們只藉著簡單的裝飾，坦白訴說了碌碌村民對於健康長壽、多子多孫、錢財滾滾的祈願。