NFTs Are Helping Taiwanese Puppeteers Keep Their Art Alive

Pili International Multimedia — which makes Taiwan's longest-running puppetry television show, Pili —  told Reuters that it is now looking to use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to keep its traditional art form relevant in the modern era. 

The Taiwanese puppeteer's group has thousands of glove puppet characters, which are a traditional part of Taiwanese street entertainment culture. It revealed that four of its puppet characters were made into digital versions, and 30,000 sets have been sold as NFTs already. 

See Also: How To Buy Non-Fungible Tokens

"The sort of imagination everyone nowadays has for the online world is developing so fast that we are almost unable to grasp it," Seika Huang, Pili's brand director, told Reuters.

"Instead of sitting on the sidelines, the best approach is to go ahead and understand fully what's going on. This is the fastest way to catch up," he added. 

The company did not reveal the profit-sharing with the market platform VeVe, which is in charge of selling the NFTs. But said the prices for each set started at $40, translating into $1.2 million in revenue since its listing in early February.

Meanwhile, Huang said that they saw sweeping sales at the time of their initial listings, and the company is now working on transforming up to 50 other puppet characters into NFTs.

NFTs have seen a rise in popularity since late last year with many artists and celebrities like Beeple, Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Stephen Curry and Shaquille O’Neal jumping the ship.

Blockchain platforms like Ethereum ETH/USD and Solana SOL/USD have seen a rise in interest and activity from this increased popularity of NFTs.

Photo: Courtesy of Laika AC via Wikimedia