Taiwan-based Ducky, known for its popular mechanical keyboards, today at Computex showed off its tribute to the country’s culture: the limited-edition “Year of the Pig” 65% keyboard. The latest of Ducky’s yearly Zodiac releases, created in collaboration with metalwork artist Kulele Ruladen, the keyboard pays tribute to the Paiwan, one of Taiwan’s indigenous tribes.
Ruladen’s design draws on several aspects of Paiwan culture, including a metal cut-out at the front of the keyboard inspired by a wild boar, a symbol of bravery for Paiwan people, and a golden backplate with images of Paiwan warriors battling the boars.
Design concept & the stories behind #YOTP
Kulele Ruladen’s passion is to bring the Formosan culture to light through arts and crafts. Over Master Kulele’s career, he has received various international awards, cementing his places as one of the leading artists in all of Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/WGhO1IySGd— Ducky Keyboard (@DuckyChannel) May 24, 2019
The keycaps are bronze red, a reference to the importance of bronze as a medium in Paiwan art. Instead of the alphabet, each key has a pictogram that draws on other symbols that are meaningful for the Paiwan community. For example, the space bar has a hawk feather representing “the aristocracy of men and women.” There are also four keys inspired by Paiwan glass beads that represent different values: agility (kaluazung), courage (mananigai), nobility (mulimulitan-maca) and kurakurau-liling (love).
The Year of the Pig keyboard is limited to 2019 pieces, in reference to the year, and designed to last. Each one has adopted aluminum casing with nano coating, a zinc alloy keyboard stand and dye-subliminated keycaps, as well as a Type-C USB port and RGB backlighting.