As the 1000-year-old traditional craft village of Van Phuc undergoes the mixed blessings of modernization, some fear that it will lose its former reputation as home to the most beautiful silk in Viet Nam.

The village of old



Preserving traditional Van Phuc silk For many years, the pleasant sound of looms and shuttles have been heard throughout the streets of Van Phuc Village. For a thousand years these looms have wovenalong with cascades of the now-famous “five-color brocade” and “Cloud Silk” -a prosperous village. The sounds of silk production have not only contributed to the economic well-being of this village; these reverberations have also given Van Phuc, one of Viet Nam’s traditional craft villages, a quality of life all its own.

In feudal times, Van Phuc produced silk only for the middle class. However, during the Nguyen Dynasty, which lasted until the end of the 19th century, dignitaries encouraged all the people of Viet Nam to buy domestic products.

Consequently, Van Phuc artisans collected, studied, and perfected innovative methods of silk production in order to popularize silk and brocade products in Viet Nam. Between 1931 and 1936, Van Phuc Silk made its wildly successful debut outside Vietnamese borders when it appeared at commercial festivals in Marseilles and Paris. From that time on, Van Phuc Silk has acheived world-wide fame.

Of the numerous highly-celebrated Van Phuc products, Cloud Silk, known to the Vietnamese as Lua Van, swiftly became the most sought after. Mr. Mai, a silk artisan, explained that “Van” means cloud. If you look closely at the surface of Van Silk, you can see many small clouds. This complicated form of silk is only woven in Van Phuc.”

Advocates of this luxurious fabric say that wearing Van Phuc silk “makes the old look younger and the ugly more attractive.”

Present-day Prosperity

Among the numerous Van Phuc villagers who have prospered from the silk industry is Mrs. Hoa, a silk shop owner who attributes all her property including a three story house and two silk shops to her flourishing career selling silk

According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Chanh, the Chairman of the Association of Craft Villages, over 60% of the area’s population have stable jobs and incomes thanks to this village’s thriving craft. Mr. Chanh said that silk making and related businesses account for more than half of the economic activity in the village

Since its development into a commercial tourist center, Van Phuc has attracted between three and five thousand visitors each year. The village continues to expand as tall buildings made to house silk showrooms spring up rapidly. As bigger companies emerge and take advantage of the latest technological advances, Van Phtic’s silk-makers use modem machinery to produce an even greater plethora of designs and types of silk. Instead of weaving manually, today’s weavers focus on diversifying the types and designs of silk available.

Mr Chanh affirms that Van Phuc will continue to create beautiful silk forms in order to meet the demands of customers; however, some have raised the question of whether the efficiency and diversity afforded by modernization is worth the other changes it has brought to this formerly small, quaint village, which the silk-weaving industry has transformed into a lively, large, prosperous town.

The future of the silk village



In 2007, Van Phuc was honored as one of the most authentic craft villages in Viet Nam. This honor would appear to be well-deserved based on the number of people who visit the village not only to buy silk, but also to witness its 1000-year history.

However, as modem technology and machines replace traditional looms, and other processes such as silk drying and steaming are mechanised, the appeal of the silk village declines. Many shop owners even sell imitation silk, undermining the integrity of pure Van Phuc Silk.

Recently, the Association of Craft Villages in Van Phuc confronted the artisans, petitioning them to return to the former integrity of the silk craft. The Association plans to develop a system which will allow only legitimate Van Phuc silk to be sold in the village’s shops. However, if not all shop owners resonate with this goal, the dream of restoring the silk village’s former bona fide reputation will never be realized.

VCW