Craft
Villages
Traditional
craft villages are a longstanding convention in Vietnam
as a means of supplementing income from farming – nearly
always rice cultivation. Over time, the members of individual
villages developed special skills and combined their efforts,
either working as single units making a common product,
or working on a particular element of a more complex article,
such as inlaid furniture, where the production process could
be broken into stages – an early forerunner of the ‘assembly
line’.
Hanoi’s craft villages
The heartland of craft villages is the Red River Delta,
and particularly around Hanoi. Ha Tay Province, adjacent
to Hanoi to the south, has dozens of them, specialising
in products as diverse as fine silk, bamboo bird cages,
knives, and woodcarving. On the outskirts of Hanoi, Bat
Trang village has become famous for its ceramics and attracts
thousands of visitors each year.
Economies to scale
The craft village concept has its roots in the Vietnamese
family structure and the availability of local raw materials.
Non-competitiveness meant that labour could be pooled, costs
shared, and products delivered in large consignments to
wholesalers in the city, therefore cutting down on time
lost in transportation. In an environment where innovation
hardly ever occurred, the market was stable and production
levels could be controlled to fit in with the peaks and
troughs of rice production.
The Old Quarter in Hanoi was the destination
for most of the products produced in craft villages. The
areas were divided into specialist streets, each selling
a specific product range. From there, the merchants would
retail direct, or sell the products on for retailing elsewhere
or for export.
The
decline of the craft villages
The craft village tradition thrived through hundreds of
years, but after Ho Chi Minh’s Declaration of Independence
in 1954, the new government of North Vietnam implemented
a programme of collectivisation based on the Marxist-Leninist
USSR model. This mainly affected agriculture, but also included
light industrial production. Small producers were linked
together, but the theoretical advantages of economies to
scale were overwhelmed by the loss of communal benefit and
ownership. A softening of the policy from collectives to
co-operatives did little to stem the decline of craft villages.
New opportunities open
up
The introduction of the ‘doi moi’ (open door) policy in
1986 breathed new life into the craft villages. However,
two other factors led to their resurgence. As ‘doi moi’
gathered pace, the government committed itself to tackling
the enormous legacy of poverty left by nearly a century
of conflict. Realising the potential of the craft village
model, the authorities began to encourage other poor villages
to specialise, and to welcome investment and projects aimed
at helping poor people to work communally to generate income.
Simultaneously, tourists began to arrive
in ever increasing numbers. Traditional crafts were a big
attraction, and several villages began to cater for the
new market that was opening up. Bat Trang, originally a
poor village producing low quality pottery products from
clay from the Red River for local consumption, is a good
example. Investment in skill training, marketing and new
kilns enabled the village to upgrade to ceramics. Since
then it has gone from strength to strength and now sells
large quantities of fine ceramic products to the domestic,
tourist and international markets.
The title ‘craft village’ for Bat Trang
is something of a misnomer in these days of large-scale
production schedules and major expert contracts! However,
plenty of the craft villages are still involved in ‘high-skill,
low-tech’ production for the local and domestic markets.
A key role for the
craft villages
Craft village development is now a key element in the government’s
poverty alleviation programme. New craft villages are being
established all over the country, particularly in poor areas.
In June, 2003, Ho Chi Minh City announced that it would
be developing several new ‘craft villages’ in the very poor
area surrounding the city. Hardly ‘traditional’, but very
good for generating employment and wealth in impoverished
communities!
Nevertheless, plenty of authentic traditional
craft villages, barely touched by tourism and offering fascinating
insights into a bygone time, are available to Haivenu customers!
