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Chuong Village - conical hat making
Place: Chuong Market (Chuong Village) Phuong Trung Commune, Thanh Oai District, Ha Tay Province
Characteristics: Sell and display Chuong Village, a big village of Phuong Trung Commune, is famous for conical hats making long time ago and Chuong Market Festival is one of the biggest one in the region.
This is the place not only to exchange goods
but to occur the cultural activities in the region, especially village
handicraft culture conical hats, contests of human chess, rice cooking. If you
look at a hat, it seems that it is easily to make. It is wrong! To make a proper
hat it is not only required the maker's talent but also their experience. Bamboo
cataphyll must be split into very thin strings during the dry season. They then
must be quickly submerged in water to preclude tearing and breaking. Main rings
(the largest) must be even, smooth and shiny. The most sophisticated work is
treading the palm material. The makers buy dark green palms, then clean them by
sand and work them with a light touch or other while they will tear. After the
step of treading the palms, they sun-season them. The palm will go from dark
green to white. The stronger the sun the whiter the palms will become. Before
using the palms, makers expose them briefly to sulfur to make them whiter and to
preserve the color. Finally, before using them, they are exposed to frost to
make them soft, and then they are split and ironed. From the palms and ring,
using silk thread, you only to have to sew it together. It is easy to say than
to do. Sewing and decorating are very sophisticated too. You have to sew small
and even stitches what mean you need time and have to be very patience. For
professional purposes, Chuong hat-makers do not accomplish all the stages but
specialize - building upon a frame made somewhere else. The local hat-makers
complete the hats with an aesthetic appeal suitable to customer's taste. Chuong
hats are different from hats of other provinces which are revolved only two
times, with the second being in a reverse direction, Chuong village's hats are
revolved three times, two times with white palm and once with bamboo cataphyll.
Thank to the addition layer of bamboo cataphyll, Chuong hats are more solid and
durable. Show them what revolve mean.
Since the first images of Non were etched into Ngoc Lu bronzes drums 3000 years
ago, it has become an inseparable multi-purpose item for Vietnamese women. It is
used as a shield to protect them from sun and rain, a glass to get water when
they are thirsty, a fan when they are hot, and a basket when they have nothing
else with them to carry things. Due to its popularity, each region in Vietnam
has, for itself, a well-known non-making village. The non of the Tay ethnic
group has a distinctive red color, while Non in Thanh Hoa differs from others
with its 20-hem frame. Hue's Non is thin and elegant, in contrast with the
thickness of those from Binh Dinh. Chuong artisans make two types of Non: the
traditional flat-top, known as Non quai thao, and the cone-shaped Xuan Kieu that
appeared in the 1930's.Women in the village learn to make Non since as
teenagers. Anywhere and anytime, you can find them wrapped up in their work,
stitching the white palm leaves." on making is work of painstaking precision",
said 83 year-old Le Thi Viet, the oldest master of Chuong village. Palm leaves,
the raw material of Non are bought from Thanh Hoa and Quang Binh in the Central
region, or Phu Tho and Son La in the North. After being sun dried, the leaves
are flattened by hand, and then ironed with a hot ploughshare until they turn
absolutely white. The skeleton of Non is formed by round bamboo hems. A Chuong
village Non always has 16 hems, to make it firm and easily identified among
others. It is said by another 90 year-old artisan that in the past Chuong village
produced three types of the hats; Non ba tam, Non nho and Non dau. The classic
Non was large and flat, with a small hummock in the centre that fits the
head. Vietnamese women used to wear the traditional three-tailed or seven-tailed
dress. The tails come in various tints: they may have the colors of a peach
blossom, a day-lily flower, a Tonkin bunch, or a lemon. In the old days, Non quai
thao were sported with a pair of buffalo-leather bow shoes or painted wooden
clogs. A light pink or yellow belt makes a perfect match during festivals. In the
late half of 20th century, the flat-top hat was gradually replaced by the
cone-shape, just as change has affected the basic ingredient; the palm leave. A
new material, lui leaves from Nghe Tinh and Quang Binh province, make each Non
Chuong lighter, and therefore more elegant. Non are no longer built from the
ground up by the tinkers of Chuong village. The process is divided into several
phases, and the less important parts, such as skeletons and edges, are now
farmed out to nearby villages. To days Chuong artisans only undertake the
roofing and sewing. Such specialization, however, may be a little misplaced, as
women of modern times find Non less than practical for day to day life in the
urban environment. But the little girls of Chuong village are still sewing Non,
and the hearth of the Non will always be warm.
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