VietNamNet Bridge – Hanoi is known as the land of hundreds of traditional jobs with up to 1,530 craft villages (accounting for about 50 percent of the country’s total craft villages), including 281 traditional villages with 47 trades. Because of economic recession, cheap foreign goods have flooded into the country, threating the existence of traditional craft villages.

Dying craft villages

Bronze casting in Ngu Xa, Hanoi.

Phu Vinh village in Phu Nghia commune, Chuong My district, Hanoi has been the most famous craft village producing rattan and bamboo products in the country for nearly 400 years.

Once it was named the "village of billionaires" but now coming to Phu Vinh you will only hear moans.

Production scale has been narrowed by a half. Many companies and workshops have closed for a long time. Ms. Hang, a worker in the village, said the villagers now live between "two fires." The customers ask for lower prices while the inputs and wages are more expensive.

Artisan Nguyen Van Chung said the main markets such as Russia, France, Germany, South Korea and Japan have reduced imports of rattan and bamboo products from Vietnam. Lacking new orders, many people have turned to other jobs. Previously, Phu Vinh had dozens of businesses and workshops but only a few facilities are operating moderately.

According to Mr. Hoang Van Hanh, the owner of the Hoang Hanh enterprise, the villagers currently earn only VND30,000 ($1.5) per day and senior craftsmen can earn only VND70,000 ($3.5) a day. Hanh’s enterprise is struggling to exist in the current difficult situation.

"We do not know how long it will last. If we cannot keep the trade, that would be a huge pain for Phu Vinh people," he said.

Hanh added that the materials are seasonal products and the prices for materials are skyrocketing while Phu Vinh people have to wait for orders.

Located on the bank of Huong River, Phuong Duc and Thuy Xuan bronze casting villages (Hue City, Thua Thien – Hue Province) were born in the seventeenth century.

To date, Phuong Duc bronze casting village has 61 workshops of 58 households, one private company and two cooperatives. Although Thua Thien - Hue is during the peak season of tourism, but only six out of 12 kiosks in Phuong Duc open.

Ms. Nga, a saleswoman of Nguyen Thang Tin bronze casting workshop, said: "There is a slump in the market so they close their kiosks to not have to pay salary for staff."

Senior artisan Nguyen Van Thuy, 76 years old, said: "We have not any new order for more than a month."

Ms. Ho Van Vang, chairman of Vinh Long Province Ceramics Association, in 2007, Vinh Long’s ceramic villages for export has 120 workshops but the number has dropped to 32 at present, of which only about 20 workshops are operating regularly.

In 2012, ceramic villages in Vinh Long produced nearly 12 million products, reaching less than 60 percent of the yearly plan, down 20 percent compared to 2011. In this situation, if there are no technological improvements to save fuel, the death of long-standing traditional villages in Vinh Long is unavoidable.

More tragically, La Khe silk village in Ha Dong district, Hanoi, now has only two people including one old and one young who continue to preserve the traditional trade.

Ngu Xa bronze casting village located on the bank of Truc Bach Lake, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, which was very famous in the past, currently has only two households maintaining the trade.

Ngu Xa village is now an urban street. Going along the village, one will only see restaurants and hotels. Mr. Thanh Long, the son of famous artisan Nguyen Van Ung, said he did not know when his family would maintain the job.

"To make a product, craftsmen have to do several stages which last for a month but their earning is very low," he said.

Likewise, in Lu Cam village in Ngoc Hiep Ward, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province, only five households pursue pottery making and their major products are terracotta ovens.

Mr. Le Van Suong, a senior worker in the village, said: “My children only focus on studies. They are afraid of making ovens. This job is hard while the products are unmarketable."

Mrs. Ngo Thi Dan, the second artisan who still maintains the bronze casting trade in Ngu Xa village, Hanoi, said: "We cannot blame villagers for giving up the traditional trade when they cannot earn their living from this trade.”

Mr. Tran Tuc from the Ma Chau silk weaving village in Quang Nam province said it is very difficult to find textile workers because most of them have become workers at modern textile factories, to earn higher income. Cannot recruit workers, traditional silk weaving workshops are dying.

Artisan Duong Ngoc Tien from the craft village of Phuoc Kieu in Quang Nam province, said: "All families in this village want to send their children to school, not to pursue this traditional trade. If we do not have enough workers, we cannot open workshops."

Mrs. Ngo Thi Dan from Ngu Xa the bronze casting village, Hanoi, said the rules of Ngu Xa village is not to teach the traditional trade to outsiders, but now Dan has to teach the secrets of her trade to workers from Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa ... for the fear that this trade can be lost.

NLD