Hugh Fang

WHEN the jigsaw puzzle was created in the 1760s, it probably never occurred to the inventors that vanity and technology would breathe new life into their homemade toy.

Chen Liangxiong, a refined businessman, has been running a jigsaw shop in Dongmen’s Xihua Palace since 1997. In his 10-square-meter store, jigsaw puzzles occupy every shelf. His specialty is custom-made puzzles.

“Custom-made means customers can supply a photo or a pattern, and we will make it into a jigsaw puzzle,” Chen said.

Custom-made jigsaw puzzles were a possibility when Chen began the business nearly 10 years ago, but then only one or two custom puzzles were ordered per month. Now the demand has grown to two or three puzzles a day at Chen’s shop.

“Custom-made puzzles just became popular about one or two years ago,” Chen said.

What contributed to the trend挂

Chen said one factor is technology. Ten years ago, Chen couldn’t find a factory to produce a puzzle with more than 1,000 pieces. Now a 3,000-piece puzzle can be easily made. A related factor, the prices of electronic equipment such as computers and scanners used to produce custom-made puzzles have been reduced dramatically. In fact, when computerized printing machines made puzzles cheaper to produce, Chen bought one himself.

The equipment enables Chen to produce his own puzzles rather than sending his orders to Hong Kong. The result is production that took more than one week in the past now takes two days, and Chen is able to cut prices from 400 (US$50) or 500 yuan to about 100 yuan.

The other factor in puzzle popularity is the strong desire to make a personal statement. “If you can have a unique jigsaw puzzle at home, it’s really something worth showing off,” Chen said.

The majority of the buyers of custom-made jigsaw puzzles are young couples under the age of 30, with Hong Kong customers a bit older, according to Chen.

Over the years, Chen has sold tens of thousands of puzzles. Among the custom orders, photos of couples are the most popular, and after that photos of the whole family, the baby and individuals. Sometimes, the subject might be a cartoon character or even an image of a computer game avatar.

A few customers are unforgettable. Chen remembers the day a young man showed him the photo of a young woman. He said he was pursuing her and ordered a 520-piece jigsaw puzzle with the photo as the subject. In Chinese, the number 520 has the same pronunciation as “I love you.”

About one year later, the young man came back with the woman in the photo. They ordered another puzzle, this time with a wedding photo.

The young man smiled at Chen and said: “Yes, I finally got her love, and she really appreciates the jigsaw puzzle I gave her.”

As young couples are the major buyers of custom-made puzzles, Valentine’s Day is Chen’s busiest time.

“The popular subjects also change with the seasons. The class photo is very popular at this time of year,” Chen said.

Not surprisingly Chen is a very good jigsaw puzzle player and doesn’t mind giving advice. One of his suggestions is to first group the pieces by color. For example, if one piece is blue and the upper part of the puzzle is of the same color, you won’t put it elsewhere.

What makes Chen very happy these days is his 7-year-old daughter shows a talent in solving jigsaw puzzles. As the Chinese saying goes, “A tiger father will not have a canine son.”