Vu Thi Thoan’s family has been making paper mache masks as a part of traditional Vietnamese Mid-Autumn festival celebrations for over forty years. But low-cost Chinese toys threaten her business.
The mid-autumn festival, which falls on Sunday with the total moon, is the equivalent of the harvest festival in Vietnam.
It is often characterised by giving gifts and eating mooncakes – thick, sweet treats – performing colourful lion dances and giving children gifts, including traditional masks.
Large paper mache lion head masks are utilized in lion dances, and smaller versions, depicting characters corresponding to Ong Dia, a folk spirit, are given to children to play with throughout the festivities.
“My family has been sewing masks for over 40 years,” said Thoan, 55, who lives in a village in Hung Yen province where just about all local families once sewed masks.
Now there are only three mask-making families left.
Each mask is sold wholesale for roughly 15,000 Vietnamese dong (80 US cents).
Thoan said she and her family earn a superb income and that latest imported toys aren’t an issue for the time being.
“I’m not worried about Chinese imports,” she said.
Its masks are “a conventional toy whose sales increase 12 months by 12 months.”
“Vietnamese children love them,” she said.
But lately, Hanoi’s Hang Ma Street – the epicenter of Mid-Autumn celebrations where families go to purchase all their fall accessories – has been flooded with low-cost Chinese toys.
Experts are concerned in regards to the impact this has on the festival – crucial holiday for kids within the communist country.
Vo Quang Trong, director of the Vietnam Ethnological Museum in Hanoi, said it was essential for people to understand the craftsmanship and heritage of the unique paper mache masks.
“Chinese plastic masks… are industrial production for commercial purposes,” he said. “Masks should be made of paper mache – it is cheap, popular and easy to make.”
Both the museum and the Vietnam University of Fine Arts organized events this 12 months aimed toward encouraging local children to learn the right way to make paper mache masks to maintain the traditions alive.
However, on Hang Ma, traditional paper mache masks far outnumber modern, imported masks – often depicting popular Disney characters.
Dang Thi Dung, who was shopping on Thursday, said she was afraid of shopping for goods imported from China, but her children loved them.
“They just want the Superman mask!” – said the 52-year-old.
