logo
Malaysias first professional violin maker carves out a rare craft

Malaysias first professional violin maker carves out a rare craft

Mint18-07-2025
SELANGOR, Malaysia (AP) — Hunched over his workbench, Tan Chin Seng shaves the wooden top plate of a violin, removing thin layers with slow, deliberate strokes. The work is meditative, out of the public eye. For Tan, transforming raw wood into a violin is a labor of artistry and love.
The 45-year-old is Malaysia's first professional violin luthier, or maker of string instruments like violins, cellos and guitars. Over the past decade, he has earned international accolades. Now he mentors a new generation of makers in a field still little-known in Southeast Asia.
Traditionally, violin luthiers are associated with Europe, where masters like Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri shaped the modern violin. The craft has spread globally, with thriving communities now in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Tan's path to violin-making was unconventional. A computer science graduate who doesn't play the violin, he was helping in his family's food business and co-owned a music school. In 2010, a trip to China to restore an aging violin sparked a deeper fascination with the instrument's construction.
Curiosity led him to apprentice with Chinese luthier Han Zhao Sheng, and he built his first violin.
'After completing the first violin, I knew this craft was for me,' Tan said. 'There's woodworking, carpentry, artistic design. There's chemistry, acoustics, physics — everything about violin-making, I like it. Turning wood into music is just amazing.'
What followed was, in Tan's words, a 'crazy' devotion. He flew back and forth to Beijing for more training, then traveled to Italy to study under other luthiers. In the early days, he would spend up to 16 hours a day hunched over wood, perfecting every curve and contour. In 2015, he committed to violin-making full time.
The process is painstaking, often taking hundreds of hours to create a single violin and requiring intense focus. His studio, Deciso, located in a suburb near Kuala Lumpur, is cluttered with chunks of aged wood, chisels and jars of hand-mixed varnishes.
Tan crafts up to 10 instruments a year, using spruce for the top plate — the wood is prized for its resonance — and maple for the back, sides and neck. Sourced from Europe and at an annual wood fair in Shanghai, they are aged for years to ensure tonal quality and prevent warping and cracking.
Each violin begins with carving and smoothing the wooden boards to precise dimensions. Tan said the top and back plates are shaped to exact thicknesses that affect resonance. The ribs are bent and assembled, and the scroll is hand-carved at the neck. Varnish — often a luthier's secret blend — is applied in thin layers for protection and tonal influence. The last steps include cutting the bridge and stringing the instrument.
Tan's early years were challenging. Some Malaysian clients compared his handmade work to mass-produced instruments. But business grew after he won international awards in Italy and beyond.
Today, he builds violins — and occasionally violas and cellos — mainly on commission. Half of his clients come from abroad including France, Germany and Hong Kong. Each violin sells for 12,000 euros ($14,000).
Tan's journey has inspired others. While most of his students are musicians and young people, few pursue it as a trade due to the demands of the craft. Still, some have followed in his footsteps including Chan Song Jie, Malaysia's first female violin luthier.
Today, there are two other full-time violin luthiers in the country, both trained by him. Tan notes that the domestic market is still too small to support many more.
'I would say passion is not enough,' Tan said. 'We're all crazy. Everyone in this workshop — you see — they're all crazy. We just love the work too much.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Have been preparing to get out soon: Jamie Lee Curtis on leaving Hollywood
Have been preparing to get out soon: Jamie Lee Curtis on leaving Hollywood

Mint

timean hour ago

  • Mint

Have been preparing to get out soon: Jamie Lee Curtis on leaving Hollywood

London, Jul 28 (PTI) Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis says she is planning to "get out of Hollywood" soon after noticing how her star parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, have been rejected by the industry as they aged. Curtis, who will next star in "Freakier Friday", a sequel to the 2003 hit film "Freaky Friday", said she witnessed how the success and fame that her parents achieved was slowly eroding and called it a painful phase. "I witnessed my parents lose the very thing that gave them their fame and their life and their livelihood, when the industry rejected them at a certain age," the 66-year-old actor told The Guardian in an interview. "I watched them reach incredible success and then have it slowly erode to where it was gone. And that's very painful... I have been prepping to get out, so that I don't have to suffer the same as my family did. I want to leave the party before I'm no longer invited," she added. Her upcoming film "Freakier Friday" is slated to release on August 8. Also featuring Lindsay Lohan, who is reprising her role from the first installment, the film is directed by Nisha Ganatra. The Disney film also stars Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Rosalind Chao, Chad Michael Murray, and Mark Harmon, and will pick up the story years later from where it ended. Directed by Mark Waters, "Freaky Friday" revolved around the mother-daughter duo (Curtis and Lohan), whose souls get switched after a visit to the mysterious Chinese restaurant. The next morning, both of them find themselves in each other bodies and a chaos follows. It was based on the 1972 novel from Mary Rodgers.

Have been preparing to get out soon: Jamie Lee Curtis on leaving Hollywood
Have been preparing to get out soon: Jamie Lee Curtis on leaving Hollywood

News18

timean hour ago

  • News18

Have been preparing to get out soon: Jamie Lee Curtis on leaving Hollywood

London, Jul 28 (PTI) Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis says she is planning to 'get out of Hollywood" soon after noticing how her star parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, have been rejected by the industry as they aged. Curtis, who will next star in 'Freakier Friday", a sequel to the 2003 hit film 'Freaky Friday", said she witnessed how the success and fame that her parents achieved was slowly eroding and called it a painful phase. 'I witnessed my parents lose the very thing that gave them their fame and their life and their livelihood, when the industry rejected them at a certain age," the 66-year-old actor told The Guardian in an interview. 'I watched them reach incredible success and then have it slowly erode to where it was gone. And that's very painful… I have been prepping to get out, so that I don't have to suffer the same as my family did. I want to leave the party before I'm no longer invited," she added. Her upcoming film 'Freakier Friday" is slated to release on August 8. Also featuring Lindsay Lohan, who is reprising her role from the first installment, the film is directed by Nisha Ganatra. The Disney film also stars Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Rosalind Chao, Chad Michael Murray, and Mark Harmon, and will pick up the story years later from where it ended. Directed by Mark Waters, 'Freaky Friday" revolved around the mother-daughter duo (Curtis and Lohan), whose souls get switched after a visit to the mysterious Chinese restaurant. The next morning, both of them find themselves in each other bodies and a chaos follows. It was based on the 1972 novel from Mary Rodgers. PTI ATR ATR ATR view comments First Published: July 28, 2025, 12:00 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

'Love it or hate it...': What Shooter McGavin ‘said' about Happy Gilmore 2 reviews
'Love it or hate it...': What Shooter McGavin ‘said' about Happy Gilmore 2 reviews

Hindustan Times

timean hour ago

  • Hindustan Times

'Love it or hate it...': What Shooter McGavin ‘said' about Happy Gilmore 2 reviews

It has been thirty years almost since Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore managed to beat Christopher McDonald's Shooter McGavin at golf, but Netflix's Happy Gilmore 2, sees the actor reprise his role as the pro golfer. The profile on X, going by the name Shooter McGavin, has had interactions with Fred Couples, the pro golfer who made a cameo in Happy Gilmore 2. (AP) While Happy Gilmore 2 packed a hefty dose of nostalgia and peppered the story with cameos – all designed to take fans down the memory lane – the movie apparently got mixed reviews. While some loved the memories it brought back, others felt the sequel failed to live up to the mark. Amid contending narratives online, a profile calling itself Shooter McGavin has shared its opinions on Happy Gilmore 2 reviews. What Shooter McGavin said about Happy Gilmore 2 reviews? The profile with McGavin's name shared an image with the text 'Hate me or love me, you watched.' The profile captioned it saying 'How I feel about all the Happy Gilmore 2 reviews I'm seeing.' Notably, McGavin is not a real person and is just a character portrayed by McDonald. However, the profile seems to have had very real interactions with actual golfing legends. Fred Couples who has a cameo in Adam Sandler's movie, tagged the X profile named after McGavin and wrote 'Welcome to the Gold Jacket Club,' adding, 'Your Gold Jacket will look good next to the @PresidentsCup trophy!' To this, the X profile named after McGavin replied 'Thank you Fred. The Presidents Cup would look great in my trophy room.' Notably, the Gold Jacket was something McGavin had coveted and lost in the first Happy Gilmore movie. During the filming of the sequel, star Adam Sandler took the chance to give the actor the gold jacket. 'Shooter finally gets what's coming to him,' Sandler wrote when posting the clip of him handing the jacket to McDonald. The profile named after McGavin also shared this video, remarking 'For the record… This was just Gilmore returning to Shooter what was rightfully his.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store