The following short clip, titled Women of Hanoi, is only really connected to its titular meaning by its captions, which refer to "dusky ladies" and love notes scrawled on dó paper by street-side calligraphers.
What’s perhaps most profoundly moving in the video, especially when viewed through the lens of digital modernity, is the depiction of the arduous process of creating traditional, handmade dó paper.
Hanoi, as the video states, was once a "center for an ages-old industry of paper-making – using special kinds of barks, pounded primitively into pulp." It takes about a month of highly labor-intensive work to create the paper, which is then used by calligraphers and artists.
While villages in Hanoi and on the banks of the city’s lakes were once a hub for the industry, this artisanal skill is now only maintained by a few families in Hoa Binh.
Take a look below:
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