With Taiwan under Japanese rule as its backdrop, the work aims to discuss Shui-long Yen's indigenous craft surveys in the 1930s. Through historical research and analysis, the internal clues of the craft surveys are sorted out, revealing the complexity and contradictions of Taiwan craft modernization during the Japanese colonial period. Then, the literature review method is adopted to reconstruct the details of Shui-long Yen's life experiences, ideological changes, survey processes, and other craft activities. By combining these with an analysis of Japanese colonial policies, the complex relationship between Shui-long Yen's craft surveys and industrial revitalization strategies in the colonial context is investigated, specifically the "ideal of cultural preservation", the "dream of industrial revitalization", and the "reality of colonial control". Although Shui-long Yen's craft surveys in Taiwan during the 1930s accumulate the most systematic documentary records of Taiwan crafts, the results of his surveys are objectively incorporated into the colonial resource control and development system. This indicates that cultural and industrial revitalization initiatives under colonial contexts are difficult to reconcile with the colonial system dominated by the colonial power.