While Saigon’s younger crowd is busy picking up the hottest new foreign trends, like parkour or wearing bean sprouts on your head, artisans from older generations have held fast to their traditional crafts, which are dying out at an alarming rate.
Water puppet maker Phung Quang Oanh knows this problem all too well, having been in the business for 20 years. In a recent feature, Thanh Nien’s team of reporters visited Oanh’s home and studio in District 7's Binh Thuan Ward.
The 46-year-old craftsman was born in a farming community in Ha Tay, now part of Hanoi. After graduating from high school, Oanh passed the entrance test at the Hanoi College of Arts, majoring in sculpting.
His time at art school sowed the seed of his passion for wood sculpting and later, water puppets. Along with two friends, Oanh spent months making trips to some of the best water puppet artisan villages in northern Vietnam, like Dong Anh Village in Hanoi and Thanh Ha Village in Hai Duong province.
After graduating in 1996, he went back to Ha Tay to start a small workshop producing puppets. According to Oanh, this was the golden age of water puppetry, both as an art form and as a source of income for this family. At times he even had to hire extra help to finish the orders.
During the early 2000s, puppets from Oanh’s workshop were the stars in many of Vietnam’s water puppet theaters; they even followed national performers to foreign countries. However, things are not looking great for Vietnam’s water puppet artisans these days, although Oanh still manages to make ends meet.
“Currently all water puppet groups in Saigon use my products,” Oanh told the news source in Vietnamese. “These include even the prestigious ones like Rong Vang, Saigon, the Phuong Nam Theater.”
He added that, depending on the size and complexity of its paint jobs, each puppet can cost from VND800,000 to VND1.3 million and last for around 200 shows.
“This craft is heavily dependent on passion, and I want to preserve it,” Oanh shared with Thanh Nien. “The income from making puppets is just enough to feed my family.”
[Photos via Thanh Nien]
