TED/Dong Woo Jang: The art of bow-making

Unlike any ordinary kid, while at a young age, Dong Woo Jang avoided video games and the attractions from computers. instead, he focused and spent most of his childhood on art-craft and hand making. Dolls, bark made robots and other toys. He kept going on and never swung away from his original path. Days, months, and years followed, eventually he turned himself into a skilled master of handcraft. This video from Ted mainly speaks about how he turns an ordinary stick of bamboo into an archer’s bow.

Back in Seoul, first, Dong studied the spider anatomy and hunting skills for nearly three years, accompanied by his hobby of hand craft. He used the same skill creating the spiders' habitat in his room. Next, Dong headed outside, where he picked up fallen tree branches and turned them into archery bows. It wasn't easy at first, despite his excellence in woodcraft and the technique possessed. He would either snap the branch or make the string too tight. Obstacles and failures were everywhere on the way, but he stuck to his initial purpose and determined to make a perfect bow.

He started researching the age-old craft, discovering better and steadier design and learning from books and his ancestors. He learned from mistakes and breaking, redesign and mend, more breaking and adjusting of the bows. He even accidentally set his building on fire! Eventually he made the perfect bow.

As now he talked about his inspiring story on the stage and we listened, oh it's just a bow. However what's really behind the bow wasn't just some wood and leather, but a combination of skills, hard work and persistence indeed.