VietNamNet Bridge – As the Year of the Pig, approaches, the demand for souvenirs increases.

Quality: Duong Ngoc Tuan works on his products. VNS Photo Le Huong

And that means good news for the many families in Duong Hong Village in the west of Hanoi.

For more than ten years, dozens of households in the locality have earned a good living making zodiac animals.

And this year they are banking on the pigs by creating ‘piggy banks’ for children to store money.

Porky: There are dozens of samples for pigs in Tuấn’s workshop. VNS Photo Le Huong

“My brother initiated the craft in Hanoi first,” Duong Ngoc Tuan, who first introduced the skill to the village, told Việt Nam News.

“In 2002, we decided to move the workshop here to increase production and use up free time between harvest seasons.”

Now Tuan’s workshop is among the biggest supplier to wholesale customers countrywide. Each month, he produces around 16,000 animals.

He’s so busy, his family and ten staff have to work day and night to meet demand.

Nearly done: Plaster pigs are waiting to be painted on.

The producing process includes designing, making plaster moulds then adding artwork.

“Designing sample products is the most challenging stage,” said Tuan. “This requires artistic creativeness and is crucial to the attraction of the final products.”

After he and his younger brother brought the craft in the village, many locals came to work at their workshop.

“Our experience and creative designs confirms our product quality,” Tuan said. “Customers are the most objective judges. They choose the best products. That’s why we keep regular customers for years.”

When the mould is made according to a sample design, workers make many plaster pigs, dry them and use sandpaper to smooth the products before painting.

Satisfying: Duong Ngoc Viet feels happy as he complete beautiful products. VNS Photo Le Huong

“A worker with an artistic eye makes the pig more vivid with beautiful eyelashes, nice smile and cute dimples,” said Nguyen Thi Oanh, Tuan’s wife.

“Women can make plaster pigs from the small moulds, but bigger moulds require strong men to work on,” she said.

Oanh said even when customers need the products quickly, they don’t let quality slip.

“Children will save money in the pigs,” she said. “The pigs will stay with the children for a long time so they must be beautiful and good quality.”

Brush strokes: Nguyen Thi Oanh paints a plaster pig. VNS Photo Le Huong

“I feel happy to finish a beautiful pig,” said employee Duong Ngoc Viet. “If customers say I make ugly pigs I will learn from that and improve my work.”

Tuan said in 2015, one of his nephews introduced the products to the online marketplace alibaba.com and received an order from Pennsylvania in the US for 2,500 pigs.

“Exported products require stricter criteria for deadline and quality,” Tuan said. “Now we just focus on the domestic market.”

Pig in folk culture

According to historian Le Van Lan, it is not clear how Vietnamese people started to save money in clay pigs.

“When we excavated at historical sites dating back 4,000 years ago, we found skeletons of domesticated pigs,” he said.

“So pigs became close friends of human beings for four thousands years. They have been friends of hard-working peasants. They have been featured in Dong Ho ancient folk paintings,” he said.

Off they go: Final pig products are ready for customers.

“I remember at small age, I made my own clay pigs and put a hole in its back to put coins in,” he said.

The clay pigs that are used to save money could even be described as having qualities similar to peasants.

They are diligent, thrifty and work hard to save money for the future. 

By Le Huong & Bao Hoa

Source: VNS