Rebuilding The Tongan Ships
Director Ke Tzu-Chien
Countries Taiwan, Province of China
Duration 50 min
Synopsis
The documentary ‘Rebuilding the Tongan Ships’ takes the audience back to the nineteenth century’s raging seas of Southeast Asia where the dominant Chinese sailing Tongan ship design was used by merchants, navy and pirates. This film reveals parts of the naval warfare history of this era through scholar’s observations, and through the expertise of a carpenter who created a 1:20 scale model of the Tongan ship according to two precious diagrams from the archives of Taiwan National Palace Museum. Aside from the historical background narrated by scholars, the development of international trade, piracy and naval design is also illustrated with 3D animation of the Tongan ship building design as well as with its historical reenactment while at seas.
The documentary ‘Rebuilding the Tongan Ships’ takes the audience back to the nineteenth century’s raging seas of Southeast Asia where the dominant Chinese sailing Tongan ship design was used by merchants, navy and pirates. This film reveals parts of the naval warfare history of this era through scholar’s observations, and through the expertise of a carpenter who created a 1:20 scale model of the Tongan ship according to two precious diagrams from the archives of Taiwan National Palace Museum. Aside from the historical background narrated by scholars, the development of international trade, piracy and naval design is also illustrated with 3D animation of the Tongan ship building design as well as with its historical reenactment while at seas.