Economic and social development towards a sustainable direction in Van Lam Embroidery village (Ninh Hai, Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh

1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES





DO THI HONG THU




ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE DIRECTION IN
VAN LAM EMBROIDERY VILLAGE
(NINH HAI, HOA LU, NINH BINH)





MASTER’S THESIS

Major: Vietnamese Studies
Code: 60 31 60

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Truong Quang Hai


Hanoi - 2011



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INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 5
COMMITMENT 6
INTRODUCTION 7
CHAPTER 1: SEVERAL BASIC QUESTIONS OF REASONING AND
METHODOLOGY OF VAN LAM TRADE VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT 13
1.1. History of the question study 13
1.2. Concept and features of traditional trade villages 18
1.2.1 Concept of traditional trade village 18
1.2.2. Classification 21
1.2.2.1. Trade villages 21
1.2.2.2 Traditional trade villages 21
1.2.3. Features of traditional trade villages 22
1.2.4. Role of trade villages in economic and social development 26
1.2.5. Sustainable developing trade villages 30
1.3. Factors influencing the formation and development of trade villages 33
1.3.1. Geographical position 33
1.3.2. Demands of the consumers and economic pressure 34
1.3.3. Professional skill level of the artisans and qualified workers;
traditional techniques and long-standing experience of trade villages 35
1.3.4. Regulations of trade villages and the government’s policies 36

1.4. Study viewpoints and methods 40
1.4.1. Study viewpoints 40
1.4.2. Study methods 40
Chapter 2: REAL SITUATION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT OF VAN LAM EMBROIDERY TRADE VILLAGE
(NINH HAI – HOA LU – NINH BINH) 41
2.1. Geographical position and natural condition . Error! Bookmark not
defined.

3
2.2. Shaping and developing process of the embroidery trade in Van
Lam trade 41
2.2.1. History of the embroidery in Vietnam 45
2.2.2. Forming and developing process of Van Lam embroidery village
48
2.3. Real situation of economic development 52
2.3.1. Situation of development and number of embroidery businesses 53
2.3.2. Scale and level of growth of the trade village 55
2.3.3. Economic structure 57
2.4. Real situation of social development in the trade village 59
2.4.1. Population and workers 59
2.4.2. Families and lines 60
2.4.3. Relics and landscapes 61
2.4.4. Festival 65
2.4.5. Infrastructures 66
Chapter 3: ORIENTATION AND SOLUTIONS FOR ECONOMIC AND
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY IN VAN LAM
EMBROIDERY VILLAGE 68
3.1 Assessing the real situation of development of Van Lam trade
village from the sustainable viewpoint 68

3.1.1. Economic effect 68
3.1.3. Environmental meanings 83
3.1.4. Difficulties and challenges in the development of the trade
village 84
3.2. Orientation of sustainable development of Van Lam embroidery
village (Ninh Hai commune, Hoa Lu district, Ninh Binh province) 88
3.3. Some solutions contributing to sustainably develop Van Lam
embroidery 90
3.3.1. Production materials and renovating product designs 90
3.3.2. Consuming markets 91

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3.3.3. Investment 92
3.3.4. Land and production premises 93
3.3.5. Developing human resources 93
3.3.6. Protecting trade village environment 94
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS……………………….
REFERENCES 100


LIST OF ILLUSTRATED TABLES AND GRAPHS

Order
Tables and graphs
Page
Table 2.1
Number of lace embroidery from 1993 to 2010
54
Table 2.2
Scale of lace embroidery businesses in 2009

56
Graph 2.1
Structure of lace embroidery businesses in Van Lam
56
Table 2.3
Economic situation of Ninh Hai commune from 2007 to 2009
58
Table 2.4
Situation of population and workers of Ninh Hai
commune from 2007 to 2009
60
Table 3.1
Export value of lace embroidery businesses from 2007 to 2009
71
Graph 3.1
Economic structure of Ninh Hai commune phase 2005 - 2010
73
Table 3.2
Comparing income between lace workers and
agricultural workers
74
Table 3.3
Contribution to Ninh Hai commune budget of lace
embroidery businesses from 2007 to 2009
76
Graph 3.2
Contribution rate to Ninh Hai commune budge of lace
embroidery businesses from 2007 to 2009
77
Table 3.4

Job formation of lace embroidery businesses in 2009
78-79

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Table 3.5
Activities to maintain and develop traditional lace
embroidery scale of businesses from 2007 to 2009
82




ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude and deepest respect to
Prof.Drc.Truong Quang Hai, my supervisor, who enthusiastic instructs and conveys
basic knowledge to me, as well as contributes valuable ideas to help me complete
this thesis.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the people of Van Lam
communes for their enthusiasm in supplying me information during my field work
in these areas.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends who always care, share,
motivate and encourage me.
Date: / /2011
Signed


Do Thi Hong Thu

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COMMITMENT

I hereby declare that the researched results in this thesis are absolutely
honest. Information and results published in this thesis are my researching work. If
there is any shortcoming, I will bear all responsibilities before the training unit and
the law.
Date: / /2011
Signed


Do Thi Hong Thu

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INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
Throughout history, handicraft villages have always played an
important role in the economic - social life, and in spiritual cultural activities
in the countryside of Vietnam. In the process of industrialization and
modernization, and the international economic integration, the development
of these trade villages is very important for transferring rural economy,
preserving and promoting national cultural values.
In recent years, along with the implementation of policies to support
agriculture and rural development of the Party and Government, industries

and handicraft villages have been restored and developed. Many villages have
created permanent jobs, taking full advantage of most of the workers in their
leisure time.
Ninh Binh locates in the south of the Red River Delta at the gateway
from the North to the South. Therefore, it becomes an important strategic
hyphen for the North - South traffic. Ninh Binh is also the crossroads of three
major cultures that are Red River, Ma River, and Hoa Binh. Hence, this is the
land of history and culture with many traditional villages such as Van Lam
lace embroidery, Kim Son sedge fine arts, Ninh Van stone carvings, Phuc Loc
carpentry, Van Long bamboo mat weaving, and Binh Khang rock garden.
Artisans in traditional villages with skilled hands and creative minds make
products are not only beautiful and valuable but also contain elevated values
for the land and people of Ninh Binh.
Referring to Ninh Binh, people think of the Hoa Lu ancient capital of
Dai Co Viet under two dynasties of Dinh and Pre-Le. It is also the start of the
Ly dynasty. However, maybe not many people know about Vu Lam royal
step-over place (It is now Van Lam hamlet). This is where the ancient King
Tran Thai Tong after defeating Nguyen Mong invader for the first time (1258)
ceded the throne to his son, Hoang Crown Prince, and became the King’s
father. He then came to Vu Lam Mountain to lead a religious life and build

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Vu Lam royal step-over place. The area of Vu Lam ancient mountains is now
Van Lam village in Ninh Hai commune, Hoa Lu district, Ninh Binh province.
In the second resistance to struggle against Nguyen – Mong aggressors, once
a gain the King and mandarins of the Tran dynasty chose Vu Lam mountains
as their revolutionary base, consolidated forces, counter-attacked Thang Long
imperial capital city, and defeated the invaders to gain the national
independence.
The reason for choosing this place is that this is a dangerous mountain

area with the Ngo Dong River flowing through in the front, and rocky
mountains and valleys behind in order to maneuver in both on land and in
water. The names of land and people in Van Lam village today still strongly
remains their historical stamps of those days such as Truong Thi field for
holding maneuvers, Ben Thanh for gathering naval forces, Tuan Cao village
for mandarins to notifying the King, Hanh Cung village for the King’s
residence, and Thai Vi temple where Tran Kings are worshipped. According
to records in the history books, when the King Tran Thai Tong (Tran Canh)
and his court came to Phi Van Son to build the revolutionary base to fight the
Nguyen - Mong for the second (1285). Mrs. Tran Thi Dung, mother-in-law of
King Tran Thai Tong had passed on the lace embroidery to the people of Van
Lam, Ninh Hai [43, tr.1248]. Since then people have involved in embroidery.
Van Lam embroidery village now locating in Ninh Hai commune, Hoa Lu
district, Ninh Binh province, becomes the “kingdom of lace embroidery” that
is famous throughout the country.
With the pride “Fields all four sides are not equal to having a job within
reach” and “A rolling stone gathers no moss”, Van Lam people is more proud
when this traditional embroidery has contributed to create job for hundreds of
unemployed workers. This increases income and improves people’s life to
eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, and transfer agricultural - rural
economic structure. Embroidery products with variety of designs attract many
tourists at home and abroad.

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However, today, along with the rainstorm development of scientific and
technological revolution, the application of new scientific and technological
achievements into production has freed the labor of many people. Machines
are taken the place of manual labor. Accordingly, embroidering machines,
drying equipments, and units used to design patterns, product lines, and
modern embroidering technology gradually develop and replace manual

embroidery. Embroidery by hands is also facing sharp competition with
machine-made embroidery and garment industry. On the other hand, under
the influence of the market economy, pressure on capital, market, product
design, and price has made many villages to transform their trading form.
Along with this, the traditional craft has greatly deformed. Van Lam
embroidery village is not an exception of the influencing impact rules of the
market economy. However, in the future, whether the embroidery has been
maintained in the Van Lam village or not? Alternatively, will the Van Lam
embroidery suffer the same fate as some other villages? Therefore, the
conservation and development of a traditional village in the context of
modern society has meant both keeping national cultural characters creams,
and contributing to solve the problem of “not involved in agriculture but still
staying in homeland”.
Developing trade villages not only transfers the rural economy,
contributes to the increase of trade industry density, and reduces the
proportion of agriculture, but also conserves national cultural and historical
values. The special thing is that most of the villages in Vietnam locate on the
axis of convenient transportation both on land and in water. Tourism of
traditional craft villages in Vietnam is becoming attractive destination for
domestic and foreign tourists because of long-standing cultural values and
specific crafts in each area. Visitors can not only observe the peaceful
landscape of the Vietnamese countryside, learn about the job ancestor, and
make the acquaintance of artisans, but also directly participate in the
production process of the local handmade products. Van Lam embroidery
village is such a village. In this province, Tam Coc - Bich Dong tourist area is
named “dry Ha Long”, annually attracting a large number of tourists.

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Developing economy and society in a sustainable way in trade villages
is a new direction and a major challenge for many trade villages in the process

of industrialization, modernization, and market economy opening. Although
Van Lam village has a great advantage for trade and tourism development,
Van Lam embroidery village is now facing many challenges. Therefore, its
socio - economic development should be in a sustainable and long-term
direction. Although Van Lam embroidery products have been present in many
countries around the world, in general the development of Van Lam
embroidery village still has many limitations. The embroidery bases are small
and in unprompted development without coordination and combination. The
work of trademark registration and product quality improvement is still
limited, not well exploiting tourism potential of trade villages. The market for
product consumption is not stable. On the other hand, at present and in the
coming years, the area of commune’s farmland has declined rapidly. The
number of people without frequent employment is increasing, putting a
greater pressure on labor and job. Therefore, in the future, the development of
embroidery villages aims to promote the advantages and potentials of a local
traditional handicraft. Since then, trade villages will be promoted in a
sustainable and long-term way, contributing to the transfer of local economy.
This is an essential requirement and a concern of all levels and sectors in the
province.
Learning about the traditional embroidery in Van Lam not only sees the
rise and fall development of the village, but also contributes to promote local
tourism in order to popularize its trade name and preserve a traditional
village. Hence, I chose the topic “Economic and social development towards
a sustainable direction in Van Lam embroidery village (Ninh Hai, Hoa Lu,
Ninh Binh)” for my MA thesis with the instruction of Prof.Dr. Truong Quang
Hai. I hope that the findings of Van Lam embroidery village will help me
learn more about the villages of Vietnam, and the role of trade villages in the
country industrialization and modernization process.

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2. Goals and meanings
Through studying the economic and social development of Van Lam
embroidery village, we wish to generally assess the natural and social
conditions of Van Lam trade industry; real situation of the trade village
(products, consuming market, price, labor force, material source, local policy
on this trade village, and the impact of trade village development on people’s
life). From then, we will propose solutions to deal with the social and
economic development of Van Lam trade village in a sustainable way.
In my thesis, I use the method of area studies to research a trade village
of traditional embroidery, connecting its development with tourism activities,
and building and developing a tourism form of trade village in Ninh Binh.
3. Sources of materials
It can be said that the materials play a very important role in the
research work. Especially, when doing research on Vietnamese village
community, the materials are profound. The materials may be in written form,
or handed down from generation to generation. They would be photos,
epitaph, or genealogy. However, no matter what the materials are, they should
be verified and compared, especially with the unwritten form. With Van Lam
embroidery village, the materials of the village are not much. They mainly
exist in unwritten form, theogony, and legends. Hence, we have to select and
verify collected information, then comparing with written materials, epitaph,
and family genealogy to make accurate and scientific conclusions with
specific, clear and coherent quotations.
In addition, we cannot disclaim the value of written materials that
agencies and individuals have done thorough researches of Van Lam
embroidery trade village such as: Ninh Binh general monograph (2001),
Names of villages and communes in provinces in the North of Vietnam (1999);
Ancient capitals of Vietnam in the past and at present; Ninh Binh celebrities
(2000); Names of villages and communes in Vietnam at the 19

th
century
(1981); Countryside inspiration; Vietnam traditional crafts and their trade
ancestors (2000), and Ninh Binh monograph (2010). Materials archived in the

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one National Archive Center, libraries of Ninh Binh province and Hoa Lu
district, and works focusing on trade villages were inherited. We consider
them the suggesting perspectives and orientations in my study.
4. Study subject, scale, and methodology
Van Lam embroidery village is selected to be my case studies.
However, I did not focus on any specific field but the exploitation of the
economic and social factors that make up the look of a Vietnamese traditional
village and an age-old handicraft village. Therefore, the study subject of the
thesis is the Van Lam village space (in Ninh Hai commune, Hoa Lu district,
Ninh Binh province) with its compositions such as landscape; natural
environment; economic, cultural, and religious activities; and festivals. They
are the factors making the appearance of Van Lam village from traditional to
modern time in the continuous development of the national and local history.
When doing research and learning about Van Lam embroidery village,
we apply the interdisciplinary approach and the combination of history,
sociology, cultural education, and economics. At the same time, we use a
number of methods such as document analytical and comparative methods,
statistical method, sociological survey method, observation method, and
analysis synthesis method.
5. Structure of thesis
In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, and Appendix, the thesis
content is divided into three chapters:
Chapter 1: Several basic questions of reasoning and methodology of trade
village development

Chapter 2: Real situation of economic and social development of Van
Lam embroidery trade village
Chapter 3: Orientations and solutions of sustainable economic and social
development in Van Lam embroidery trade village

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CHAPTER 1: SEVERAL BASIC QUESTIONS OF REASONING AND
METHODOLOGY OF VAN LAM TRADE VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
1.1. History of the question study
Studies of Vietnamese village community have been conducted for
hundreds of years, concentrating in books to record the location, land, climate,
natural resources, habits, customs, religious beliefs, culture, and history. They
include Geography written by Nguyen Trai (15
th
century), Gia Dinh general
chronicle by Trinh Hoai Duc, and Nghe An book of Bui Duong Lich. Then, in
17
th
and 18
th
centuries, the Vietnamese village communities had been outlined
through a set of travel stories of Western traders such as Description of
Kingdom of people from North Vietnam (S. Baron), History of people from
North Vietnam (Richard A.), and A travel to the North Vietnam in 1688 (W.
Dampier). Although each foreign scholars had different perspectives on the
Vietnamese village communities, they all had a common study goal of serving
the invasion, domination, and exploitation of the French in Vietnam.
After the first World War, studies of the Vietnamese villages were
conducted more widely. In addition to foreign scholars who were interested in
finding out about the Vietnamese, a number of domestic scholars also learnt

about and explained customs and habits of Vietnamese rural areas. Their
books included Vietnamese customs of Phan Ke Binh and Village problem of
Ngo Tat To. The most remarkable book of this period was Farmers of the
Tonkin delta published in 1936 by Pierre Gourou. This was a sophisticated
research projects, accessing many different aspects of the Red River Delta and
considering Vietnamese villages in a comprehensive structure from material
to spiritual life. Commenting on this book, Professor. Dao The Tuan said:
“The Pierre Gourou’s study book of the Red River Delta, the most populous
one in the world, the cradle of Vietnamese civilization, is an unique work of
the social geography. Although it was published from the 1930s, after more
than 70 years, it has still been a topical question. As there have been many
changes in politics, economy, and society in this area, the basic features and
problems have still existed until now”

[12, pp.3]. Therefore, this book can be

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considered a pioneering work for the studies of Vietnamese village
communities in the northern midland plains in the future.
After the August Revolution in 1945, although the country still faced
many fierce difficulties and hardships, studies of the village communities
were still being implemented with small number. In this period, we could
mention the books Rural areas in Vietnam by Nguyen Hong Phong. The
author approach was in ethnological point of view and referred to the many
basic issues of Vietnamese rural areas, such as: feudalism and public land,
land ownership in rural Vietnam under French colonial regime, patriarchal
family structure, structure of rank and village community management, and
spirit of rural communities. From the revolutionary practical situation,
historical requirement, and land reform work, the book Peasantry of Qua
Ninh and Van Dinh was collected and republished in 1959. The book

mentioned problems of the farmers such as land of the tillers, their role in the
revolution, and their life under the colonial mechanism. By the late 1960s,
Toan Anh released his book Old way including six volumes: Festivities
(upper and lower volume), Vietnam religion (upper and lower volume),
People of Vietnam, and Vietnam villages. This book introduced in details
about habits, customs as well as structure of traditional villages in Vietnam.
After the country became united and peaceful, to serve the
reconstruction, and building the country, the question of Vietnamese rural
communities still attracted attention, learning, and research of many scholars.
In 1977 and 1978, the Institute of History published the book Rural Vietnam
in history with two volumes. With 21 papers, first volume focused primarily
on village economy, regime of land ownership, industry, commerce, and the
role of villages in the struggle to defend and liberate the country. Twenty six
papers of the second volume focused on social and political institutions of the
villages, village culture and ideology, assessed the village heritage before the
socialist revolution, and introduced the world’s communes and Bao Lac
mountainous villages. In the form of gathering research papers of famous
scholars such as Vu Huy Phuc, Nguyen Dong Chi, Vu Khieu, Dang Nghiem

15
Van, Ngo Duc Thinh, Truong Huu Quynh, and Phan Huu Dat, villages and
communes were studied in many sociological, psychological, and historical
views. The goal was trying to give a general picture of the Vietnamese
villages, their strengths and weaknesses, historic position, and traditions in
society today [41, pp.10].

In order to unravel the ancient sites in historical
record in a systematical, detailed, and sufficient way, in 1981, the Institute of
Chinese literature and demotic script published the book Names of
Vietnamese villages and communes in the beginning of 19

th
century from
Nghe Tinh province to the North. Also studying of village communities, the
book Names of villages and geography of the Northern provinces in Vietnam
of Ngo Vi Lien consisted of two parts. The first was listed by names of the
Northern villages with the of districts, mountain districts, and provinces. The
second part was considered a Northern geographic dictionary transcribing
phonetically geographical names into Han scripts. It introduced the population
of villages, communes, and provinces according to the 1927 census. It was
also accompanied by written descriptions of specific villages, so that the
readers could know immediately the districts and provinces that those
communes belong to, as well as their political and administrative features.
The book is a handy reference for the extraction and lookup of the readers as
well as researchers of the villages in Vietnam. In 1984, Tran Tu, an
ethnologist with his book The organizational structure of Vietnamese
traditional villages in the North, profoundly presented the organizational
aspects of the Vietnamese village such as gathering in hamlet, blood line, age,
machinery of government, side, association, and group. Among those the
explain of “12-year cycle age” in traditional society is considered a major
contribution. In the general studies of Vietnamese village communities, it is
worth to mention the name of Prof. Phan Dai Doan with the book Vietnamese
village communities - several economic, cultural, and social issues. The book
focuses on analyzing key issues from the past to present, and from economic
to cultural and social structure of villages in Vietnam. It pointed out clearly
that land ownership and economic household is very important in the strategy
to develop the villages into a model of socialism-oriented market economy,

16
ensuring a harmonious combination between modern civilizations with
traditional cultural villages. Although just aiming at the villages in the North

and northern Central Vietnam, the book is an useful referential material for
researchers and policy makers in Vietnamese agriculture, farming, and rural
areas. In 1994, the book The experience to manage organizations of
Vietnamese rural areas in history co-written by Prof. Phan Dai Doan and
Prof. Nguyen Quang Ngoc mentioned issues of reasoning and reality of the
rural management experience in history on aspects of administration, civil
institution, and village institution. At the same time, it provides researching
material source of rural political and social institutions up to now. Village
culture is one of the content attracting the attention of many scholars. Prof.
Phan Dai Doan has always concerned about the villages. His book Several
problems of Vietnamese village culture in history about village culture, family
culture, convention, and human behavior towards the nature partly contributes
to the conservation of village culture. The book Vietnamese village is pluralist
and tight is a collection of valuable researching paper on Vietnamese villages
of Prof. Phan Dai Doan. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoc in the book preamble
stated “Vietnamese villages are now on a change, but the sublime ideas and
essences filtered in his researching and training life of the Vietnamese
villages will probably never change.”

[11, pp.10] It should be mentioned
books focusing profoundly on learning about a specific village. They include
Prof. Nguyen Quang Ngoc’s historical PhD thesis of Some business villages
in the northern delta in the 18
th
and 19
th
century. It presents the socio-
economic context of Vietnam in the 18
th
and 19

th
century and the appearance
of business villages in the northern delta such as Da Nguu, Bao Dap, Phu
Luu, and Dan Loan; at the same time pointing out their characteristics. In
addition, there is a book named A Vietnamese traditional village in the
northern Plains: Understanding the economic-social structure of Dr. Nguyen
Hai Ke. The book is about Duc Tu village (Dong Anh district, Hanoi) basing
on materials of land register, convention, and family register. It presents
questions of population, land, public and private field, family, family line,

17
ancestor worship, as well as managing social organizations in the economic
and social structure of traditional villages of the northern plains.
The culture of wet rice cultivation has permeated deep into the
unconsciousness of each Vietnamese people. The agricultural culture with the
core of village culture dominated all activities from production to people’s
daily life. Therefore, since the renovation time, the question of village
community has been more interested, particularly the role of village economy
in the country’s development process. Hence, the number of studies of
village community is more and more increasing. However, they focus mainly
on the study of traditional trade villages that show the national cultural cream.
The book Talented hands of our ancestors published in 1990 by Prof. Phan
Dai Doan and Prof. Nguyen Quang Ngoc mentioned the traditional excellent
crafts once representing the country’s civilizations, national proud, and the
talent creation of our ancestors. However, they also clearly pointed out the
contribution of these crafts in the economy in the past, at present, and in the
future. This book becomes a referential material for those interested in
research on traditional craft villages and their trade ancestors. In 1995, the
book Bat Trang traditional ceramic village with the chief authors of Prof.
Nguyen Trung Que, Dang Dinh Tuc, and Do Hong Tuyen brought out a full

review of the real economic - social situation of Bat Trang ceramic village.
The book also gave developing directions in accordance with the Party and
State guideline on the country modernization and industrialization. Another
book, Vietnamese traditional crafts and their trade ancestors of Dr. Do Thi
Hao published in 2000 presented the appearance of traditional crafts and their
trade ancestors in the mind of the artisan. To point out that the culture of trade
villages is the integration of all habits and customs, village life, community
unity, professional cream, and talented artisans, preserving for future
generations, the book Traditional Craft Villages in Vietnam written by MA.
Bui Van Vuong was published in 2002. The work clearly showed the role of
Vietnamese traditional craft villages in the country civilization and culture
history, as well as the need to conserve and develop typical traditional crafts
with economic values. They include Bat Trang ceramic village, Chau Khe

18
gold and silver carving village, Dong Xam silver carving village, Kieu Ky
thin gold leaf making village, Quat Dong embroidery village, Van Lam
embroidery village, and Dong Ho block print paintings village. In 2003, the
book The development of traditional trade villages in the industrialization
and modernization process of Prof. Dr. Hoang Ngoc Hoa and Prof. Dr. Vu
Van Phuc focused on clarifying what traditional trade villages are and their
role in the economic and social development over times. At the same time,
basing on the analysis and assessment of potential and real developing
situation of traditional trade villages in innovating years, the authors pointed
out the direction and proposed solutions to develop traditional craft villages.
In the book Traditional villages in the process of industrialization and
modernization, author Tran Minh Yen (2004) basing on the basic study of
some basic theoretical issues of traditional villages, analyze and assess the
real situation as well as moving trends of traditional trade villages in rural
areas. Then, the author brings out his/her oriented views and solutions to

develop traditional trade villages in rural areas. This aims to accelerate the
industrialization and modernization process up to 2010, especially until 2005.
However, the limitation of these two books is focusing too widely on
theoretical research, not analyzing any particular case to clarify the issue.
Van Lam embroidery village has been mentioned in the books of
traditional crafts such as Traditional handicraft villages in Vietnam (Bui Van
Vuong); Countryside inspiration (La Dang Bat), and Ninh Binh monograph
(Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences). However, these books have just
mentioned an overview of Van Lam embroidery without any systematic
study.
1.2. Concept and features of traditional trade villages
1.2.1 Concept of traditional trade village
Formerly, traditional trades were formed, survived, and developed in a
certain region or village. From those major production areas, trade villages,
towns, and communes have been formed with the most basic features that are
traditional techniques and technologies, and skilled artisans and artisans.

19
Handicraft products have been made to be both goods and artistic objects,
bearing national characteristics.
In Vietnam, there are trade villages that have been formed and existed
for hundreds of years; their with products are well-known at home and abroad
such as Bat Trang ceramics village (Gia Lam, Hanoi), Dong Xam silver
carving village (Thai Binh), and Van Phuc silk village (Ha Dong, Hanoi) et
cetera. However, there are some villages appearing due to the agricultural
economic restructure such as Ninh Phuc flower village (Ninh Binh).
Hence, the concept of trade village is understood in many different
ways.
Prof. Tran Quoc Vuong thought that trade villages (such as ceramics
villages of Bat Trang, Tho Ha, Phu Lang, and Huong Canh; bronze casting

villages of Buoi, Vo, He Nom, Thieu Ly, and Phuoc Kieu; the paper making
villages of Buoi area and Duong O; iron forging villages of Canh Dien, Phu
Duc, and Da Hoi) still do small farming and breeding (pig and chicken) and
have some other secondary jobs (weaving, making soybean jam and tofu).
However, they are outstanding with a traditional sophisticated handicraft,
even professionally or unprofessionally. They have merchant guilds
(organizational structure), supervisors and their assistants along with some.
They give their whole mind to their profession with a certain technological
process “A rolling stone gathers no moss”. They live mainly by that job and
make handmade artistic goods that have become commodities. They have
marketing relationship with markets of the surrounding areas and with urban
markets and the capital (Ke Cho, Hue, and Saigon), and eventually planning
to expand to the whole country and exporting abroad. These trade villages
have little better known for a long time (with hundreds or a thousand years of
age). People know their names and the names of those villages have gone
down in history, folk songs, and proverbs, and they become folklore
heritage[4, pp.38-39].
Prof.Dr. Hoang Ngoc Hoa and Prof.Dr. Vu Van Phuc in their book
“Developing traditional trade villages in industrialization and modernization

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process” said that “Trade village consists of a group of people living in a
village (hamlet). They have one or several jobs that are separated from
agriculture to be independent businesses. Income from those occupations
makes up a great proportion of the total product value of the village” [28,
pp.13]
Researcher Bui Van Vuong believed that “Trade village is a center
producing handicrafts and a place gathering together many craftsmen and
households specializing in a traditional trade. They have a combination and
support in production and sale with the form of guilds and small and medium

enterprise system. They have the same professional ancestor and members
always aware of the convention to comply with social institutions and
families. The combination and support each other in term of job, money,
technique, and young worker training among families of the same clans and
merchant guilds in the job history and development formed the trade village in
their traditional residential unit and village.” [5, pp.13-14]
Hence, it can be seen that the concept of trade village focuses on the
following contents.
First, the trade village is understood as an economic and social
institution in rural areas, composed by two factors of village and profession. It
exists in a certain geographical space, including many households that live
mainly on craft. Among them, there are economic, social and cultural
combinations.
Second, trade villages in our country have been formed and developed
according to the request of labor assignment and specialization process in
order to meet the development needs of rural areas. Hence, they have the
characteristics of wet rice cultivation and self-sufficiency economy. However,
the noticeable thing is that in those villages, people involved in handicrafts
and live mainly on the income from those jobs make up a large proportion of
the villages’ total population.
Today, when the science and technology has made fast progress, the
division of labor according to the specialization direction is more professional.

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People apply mechanical and semi-mechanical technologies to do faster and
more convenient production. However, the concept of traditional trade villages
in our country is still understood that most of the people of those villages
involve in traditional jobs or a few lines specialize in some hereditary jobs.
Nevertheless, the jobs are not transmitted in a copy and imitated way; they are
improved with creativity and bear the age echo to make their products have

unique features that are different from the products of others, villages, and
regions.
1.2.2. Classification
1.2.2.1. Trade villages
In our country, today there are many trade villages. Hence, the
classification of trade village is extremely difficult. There are many ways to
classify trade villages; however, they can be roughly divided in two ways:
+ By the number of trades:
- Villages of a trade: Have only one trades besides farming
- Villages of many trades: Have more than one trades beside farming
+ By nature of trades:
- Traditional trade villages are the ones that have appeared for a long
time and still existed today.
- New trade villages are the ones that appear because of the pervasive
development of traditional trade villages, or are imported from other
provinces. Some of them have just been formed because of some localities’
policy of creating jobs for local people. They send workers to other areas for
vocational training and then come back to guide the local people.
1.2.2.2 Traditional trade villages
Basing on traditional trade groups, it can be divided into four types of
traditional trade villages that are corresponding to four traditional trade
groups, namely:

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- Traditional trade villages specializing in producing handmade artistic
items such as pottery, porcelain, silk weaving, wood carving, stone carving,
and embroidery
- Traditional trade villages specializing in producing goods for
production and daily life such as blacksmith work, carpentry, masonry,
welding, iron casting, and construction materials

- Traditional trade villages specializing in producing goods for ordinary
consumption such as textiles, sedge mat, conical hat, and clothing
- Traditional trade villages specializing in processing foods such as rice
millwork, making rice vermicelli, and seafood processing
1.2.3. Features of traditional trade villages
 Features of techniques, technologies, and products
It can be said that the first characteristic is traditional handicraft
technique and family secret. Production tools are mainly handmade by the
artisans to manufacture handmade products. Products require not only skills
but also experience accumulated over many generations of the artisans. These
experience then become trade secret and can be only passed to children in the
family and clan. These factors create the specific quality and aspect for the
products to make them more enduring, better, and different from products of
the same job elsewhere. This feature also specifies the nature of labor and
products of the traditional trade. The products are determined by the skills and
dexterity of the artisans.
In the past, because of small capital, narrow production space, and
small farming, technologies were slowly improved and replaced. This greatly
affected production process, lowering the labor productivity, wasting working
time, and producing products with bad and uneven quality. Especially, the
technical backwardness greatly influences the production environment and
health of workers. However, today with the harmonious combination of
modern and traditional technologies in the manufacturing process, special
important advantages have been brought. They are the creation of labor
productivity with many times higher than manual method. Products are with

23
high quality, reducing heaviness and hazard for workers and providing main
income to change the rural social face. Although modern sciences and
technologies develop and contribute to the technical innovation and products’

quality improvement in some certain production phases, traditional
technologies are still at top priorities making the tradition of the products. For
instance, in making fine art furniture, people apply modern technology in
cutting wood and polishing products. In other carving phases, people must use
traditional manual tools such as awls and chisels with the artisans’ ingenuity
and sophisticated skills. Even some occupations still use conventional
technologies such as pearl inlaying, lacquer, embroidery, and weaving.
As the traditional manufacturing technique and technology has a long
history and it is passed from generation to generation, traditional products
have their own unique and distinctive features. They show the originality and
art of the products with unique characteristics of each village and region that
are not common anywhere. For instance, the ceramic products of Bat Trang
are different from those of Dong Nai; Dai Bai bronze-casting products are not
similar to those of Thua Thien - Hue; and Ninh Van village’s stone products
(Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh) are different to Non Nuoc stone products (Da Nang).
Artisans with their skillful hands and creative mind have transmitted the
breath of life and specific art character to each product. Customs, traditional
festivals, historical and cultural vestiges, and the desire to conquer nature are
naturally and closely reflected in handmade products by talented hands of the
artisans. Therefore, traditional handicrafts are products of economic activity
with high artistry, combining material culture and spiritual culture and often
bearing single nature. Handicraft products are made by each individual;
hence, they cannot be mass-produced. This makes the products have their
own nuances and attraction; thus, traditional products are often expensive
with not many modern models. This is the main cause leading to limited
competition and expansion of product consuming markets. Several unique
products not only meet the domestic needs but also are exported to many
countries, gradually attracting international friends such as products of
ceramics, wooden carving, embroidery, and silk weaving.

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 Economic-social features
At first, crafts were secondary jobs of agricultural households to create
more income and work in their leisure time. However, later due to the
specialization in labor division, the productivity and product quality has being
increased. Products not only meet consumers’ demand but also can be
exchanged mainly in rural markets. Therefore, in trade villages, the artisans
are also the farmers. In addition to farming time, having a secondary job in
their native land is a great advantage for people to improve their life and
increase their income. They can both cultivate in their land for foods and
create valuable handicrafts to exchange with other commodities in the market.
This is a basic and popular characteristics of traditional craft villages in
Vietnam. Especially, the appearance of traditional crafts meets almost basic
and essential needs of the rural people. It has a positive impact on promoting
agricultural production and service activities, contributing to build the rural
economic and social infrastructure and improve people’s cultural standards.
As handmade products require skilled artistic and technical proficiency
with meticulous lines, handiwork of the artisans is used mainly. They are
skilled, ingenious, and creative with aesthetic self-determination. They decide
everything from production, processing, and repair to sale. In order to develop
traditional crafts, the role of artisans is very important. They are the core force
of the production process and product innovation. These people teach and
hand over directly to the members of the family or lineage. The training is
handed over from generation to generation, becoming a trade secret that each
member of the families has responsibility to conserve. Hence, traditional
crafts have been conserved in each family and are not popular outside, even
there are secrets being transmitted only to sons. This trade-transmitting
method has the advantage of keeping trade secret in each craft village and
training talented artisans. Its limitation is that techniques and trade secrets are
not widely spread to other localities. If we do not find a reliable successor, the

trade will be lost in a certain time.

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Therefore, after peace was restored, the agricultural cooperative
movement was promoted in the 1960s. Many state-owned businesses and
teams involved in traditional craft industry were established and developed.
People paid more attention to vocational training and transmitting in the form
of household, individual, locality (district, commune) and state. Traditional
crafts develop in many places, attracting many unemployed people in the
countryside and bringing benefit to the state and locality. Since the
innovation, the vocational training has been a combination between old and
new methods. They still open vocational training schools and courses; some
training classes are with method learning by doing under the instruction of
artisans to ensure that the trade secrets have been still preserved.
To bring the handmade products to the consumers and make they know
about these products, the market factor has a very important meaning,
deciding the existence and development of each trade village. First, the
decisive factor of the production process is market to supply raw materials. In
the past, with small production, the markets of raw materials were mainly
market on the premises. However, today they are developed to a network of
individuals and businesses in other areas and localities that professional
supplying big contracts for households and production units in trade villages.
In addition, the capital market is also one of the factors promoting the
development of traditional occupations. Capital for production development
can be self-funding, appropriate, and loaned in order to expand production
scale and maintain the development of trade villages. Traditional credit forms
of loans, lending with interest, taking part in a tontine, and making make
guilds are still common in traditional trade villages.
Trade villages appear to meet the demands of production and
consumption of the people; hence, consuming markets are mostly in rural

areas. Later, when the production was developed, the exchange of goods was
extended. The system of rural markets developed; market systems increased
in trade villages, rapidly meeting the demands of exchanging, trading, and
consuming products of craft villages. However, due to people’s low income