Reviving Chu Dau Village’s ceramic crafts
Sunday, 27 August 2006
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Reviving Chu Dau Village’s ceramic crafts

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(after a 300-year hiatus) After discovering that their predecessors had been skilled ceramic craftsmen, Chu Dau villagers sought to revive the tradition. Pham Thanh Long reports on the villagers’ challenges and successes.

Villagers like Dang Van Chuyen face two main obstacles when trying to produce ceramics: lack of investment funds and limited access to bank loans.

Chuyen, 44, is among 60 other households in Chu Dau Village whose major income comes from weaving rattan, a tropical Asian climbing palm used for weaving furniture, to decorate flowerpots for export.

"It’s frustrating because I know that if we could start making ceramics like our ancestors once did, our village would be lifted out of poverty," Chuyen said, "and we could honour the traditions of our village’s history and be recognised on an international scale once again.
History unearthed
Archaeological research found that Chu Dau ceramic craft was a centre of refined ceramics beginning at the end of 14th century. The craft reached its pinacle in the 15th and 16th centuries and started to perish a century later. Historians believe that there were many reasons for the extinction, including the civil war between the Mac and Le dynasties. The destruction of Chu Dau Village in Hai Duong province’s Nam Sach District. forced the nebulus of skilled craftmen to flee to other regions.

The ceramic revival didn’t take shape until the 1980s when Makato Anabuki, the former secretary for the Japanese Embassy, identified a ceramic pot which was on display at Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Anabuki, who was very knowledgable about Chinese and Vietnamese Nom characters, read the letters printed on the pot. He translated the written characters and discovered the pot was made by a Bui family villager who was living in Nam Sach District at the 8th year of the Thai Hoa Dynasty (1450).

He wrote to the head of Hai Duong Province, where Nam Sach District is located, to suggest a search for other artefacts.

Excavations lasted from 1986 until 1997. Vietnamese archaeologists, their local counterparts and the Museum of Hai Duong confirmed that a great many ceramics existed in Chu Dau Village. Pots, bowls, plates and jars dug up were dated back 500 to 600 years. Most of the artefacts were found in kilns that were burried one to two metres below homes in the village centre.

"Many people in the village had already found kilns full of bowls (both broken and whole), pots and plates, but none realised the historical significance of them," said Doan Duc Luan, chairman of Thai Tan Commune, which contains Chu Dau Village.

"It was striking news for the villagers and for us. We found our history and started to wonder what to do with it."

Return of the craft
The excavation attracted attention from the media and the general director of Ha Noi Trade Corporation who decided to invest in a project with two goals: reviving the craft to honour its history and building a trademark for village products so residents could make more money.

The corporation started in 2001 to build the factory with a total investment of VND24 billion, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the factory came into operation, said Nguyen Van Luu, director of the ceramic factory working under the corporation.

"Infrastructure (like roadways) was poor at that time. It really delayed our progress at the village even though we did receive support from local authorities," Luu said.

Then came the series of setbacks. The volume of clay needed to make decent amounts of production wasn’t available and local residents, who the factory was supposed to hire, knew nothing about making ceramics.

"We started to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the country but still put a priority in hiring locals," Luu said, adding that 80-year-old Vu The Cuu was on their recruiting list.

Clay had to be transported from the neighbouring district of Chi Linh and Dong Trieu in Quang Ninh Province.

On the bright side, the factory already had their design models from the artefacts dug up; the broken pieces were analysed for exact solutions to help mixers with their formulas.

Leaders of the corporation and the factory worked with scientists to ascertain the mixture in Chu Dau ceramic and its layer of coating.

"The green colour used for flowers on Chu Dau ceramics is unique. Recovering the colour was difficult," Luan said. After all the money, time and effort invested in the process, the colour is still not an exact replica of their ancestor’s mixture.

The factory director said two glazes claimed to be unique to Chu Dau Village were also revived. One was a glaze made with a special glutinous rice husk; the other from circle crackle glaze. The two were very fine in colour – at least three colours in normal conditions – and look their best in natural light.

The first products got out of the gas and coal kilns (instead of wood and charcoal) were exported to Spain in May 2003.

Since then the factory has recreated most of the designs it got from excavations for both domestic and international customers.

Their products have reached 29 markets in Asia, Europe and North America with factory production doubling year after year.

"But the major target of villagers being the ones resuming the craft is still ahead," Luu said. "The real recovery is the remaking of the craft by local people while the factory is just a jumping-off point."

The road ahead
The factory has nearly 200 workers from the village and surrounding areas.

"We can export the ceramics we make, but only the villagers can revive it within the country," Luu said, explaining that they are trained by craftsmen and professional designers.

The factory also works with the provincial education department to train villagers (and anyone else interested in the work) with short courses. A crafting curriculum is also now required for vocational training school students.

Chuyen has taken one of the courses in addition to visiting other craft village like Bat Trang in Ha Noi.

"I really want to learn the steps of making ceramic wares. I am totally into it," Chuyen said.

But he’s still short of money for a kiln of his own.

"Technical help I can get from the factory, but a kiln is really expensive for a farmer like me," Chuyen said, adding that the setup costs can run to VND300 million.

Luu said his corporation has allocated VND100 million to lend to local villagers. "We have this amount and we are serious about this issue," Luu said.

However, Chuyen said the amount couldn’t make up for the inability of villagers to obtain low-interest loans.

Luan, the commune’s chairman, agreed with Chuyen, saying that "the villagers need to have priority when it comes to loans. They need low-interest loans to start a few kilns first," Luan said. He agreed it would be much easier if the village had one or two kilns to start with.

The provincial and district authorities enabled the commune to allocate 8.6ha of land outside the village for possible kilns, the chairman said.

But Luan asserts the available area in the village is too small for even a kiln and the setup would have to benefit the village socially and environmentally.

"It is undeniable that the villagers’ lives are unstable if they continue to rely on only two rice crops a year," Luan said, explaining that the craft may be the life jacket saving them from hunger in case a crop is destroyed.

Chuyen agreed with the chairman about the importance of the craft to the villagers, but he needs to break the ice for others to follow. The only way that could happen is with low-interest loans and a place to build a kiln.

"I know I can feed my family more if I get the chance to make ceramic ware. It would be a more stable life for everyone in the village," Chuyen said. He didn’t share the chairman’s concerns about finding a market in which to sell finished products. "Once products are available on the markets there will be more demand for them," he said.