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Located about 8 km from Truong Tien Bridge in Hue City, Thanh Tien village, belonging to Phu Mau commune, lies amidst rice fields, lotus ponds, and the tranquil lower reaches of the Perfume River. Walking along the main road leading into the village, visitors will encounter signs in front of the houses. These are the paper flower workshops of the artisans of Thanh Tien village – a traditional craft village recognized by the Thua Thien Hue Provincial People's Committee.
Thanh Tien village has a traditional craft of making paper flowers that has existed for over 300 years.
The people of Thanh Tien village are mainly farmers, and at certain times of the year there are only 5 paper flower production facilities. But every Tet holiday, the whole village is busy with bamboo, reeds, and colored paper to decorate houses and serve the needs of people in the village and other provinces, said artisan Nguyen Huu Hung, 78 years old, the owner of a paper flower production facility in Thanh Tien village.
Mr. Hung's house is located in the middle of the village, notable for its display of traditional paper flowers that have been present in the village for the past 300 years. With a three-generation tradition of making paper flowers, he knows how to make almost every type. Through his calloused hands, lotus, orchid, lily, and chrysanthemum blossoms bloom profusely, vying with each other to show off their beauty in the old room.
Artisan Nguyen Huu Hung has dedicated a room in his house to displaying traditional paper flowers from the village.
The cool breeze blowing from the fields carried his story back many years. "Back then," his voice deepened, "Hue didn't have as many fresh flowers as it does now. Flowers from Da Lat were scarce and expensive. But Tet (Lunar New Year) was the only time of year, and everyone wanted to redecorate their ancestral altars. So people came up with the idea of making flowers from dyed paper, which lasted longer and were cheaper than fresh flowers. That's how the paper flower village was formed, and it has continued to this day."
In the past, paper flowers were placed in places of worship in homes, temples, shrines, and altars dedicated to the Earth God, Kitchen God, and other deities, serving as decorations that brought solemnity and reverence. The flowers were kept year-round and only replaced during the Lunar New Year. Therefore, every year in the twelfth lunar month, households would be busy making paper flowers in a bustling atmosphere. Today, alongside the development of traditional craft village tourism, some establishments, like Mr. Hung's, produce paper flowers year-round. Besides business, these paper flower production facilities also serve as places for tourists to visit, experience, and learn about local culture.
Thanh Tien paper flowers were used by people in the past as offerings, conveying a sense of reverence and solemnity.
A distinctive feature of Thanh Tien village's paper flowers is that all stages of production are done by hand. Using readily available materials in the village, combined with rich imagination and skillful hands, the people of the past recreated the shapes and colors of various flowers.
The main materials for making paper flowers are bamboo and colored paper. Before the rainy season, many families like Mr. Hung's go to cut bamboo, split it into smaller pieces, and whittle it into round shapes, taking advantage of the sunny June and July weather to dry them. The dried bamboo sticks are then bent by hand into shapes to make branches and flower stems.
Thanh Tien paper flowers are made from simple, locally available materials such as bamboo and colored paper.
To create different types of flowers, artisans use iron chisels to cut colored paper onto wooden flower molds, then use fishing line to create creases and lines. The flower pistils are also made from colored paper, trimmed into shape, and glued to the center of the petals to form a complete flower before being attached to the stem.
Previously, households in Thanh Tien that made paper flowers used tree sap and leaves to create dyes according to traditional recipes. This manual method was time-consuming and labor-intensive, so nowadays, most establishments have switched to using colored paper.
Mr. Hung introduces the kit used for making paper flowers.
A complete branch of Thanh Tien paper flowers includes various flowers such as orchids, lilies, roses, chrysanthemums, daisies, and rose bushes, along with red flower buds and slender green rice leaves, symbolizing local agriculture. These complete flower arrangements are attached to a straw-wrapped bamboo pole, with each pole containing approximately 50 branches, and cost around 750,000 VND.
This product is favored by hotels, restaurants, and cafes with a traditional style, and they order it in large quantities because of its rich colors, beautiful design, long-lasting quality, and cost-effectiveness while also reflecting the poetic soul of Hue. Mr. Hung said that during the recent Lunar New Year of the Snake, he received about 70 orders. The paper flower branches and bamboo sticks wrapped in straw are carefully packaged in boxes and shipped to customers in other provinces, after which Mr. Hung guides them on how to arrange the flowers remotely via their phone screens.
A branch of bougainvillea consists of many different types of flowers in a variety of vibrant colors.
A bougainvillea plant with about 50 flower stems.
The most famous product of Thanh Tien village is the paper lotus flower, highly realistic and meticulously crafted, with a history spanning over 130 years. Thanh Tien paper lotus flowers, in four main colors: blue, yellow, pink, and purple, appear in major festivals such as the Hue Festival, the Ao Dai Festival, and cultural and artistic exchange programs. They are displayed at the Hue Imperial Citadel and the Nguyen Chi Dieu Memorial House in Thanh Tien village, Phu Mau commune, Hue city.
Paper lotus flowers are a famous product of Thanh Tien village, known for their high realism and beautiful color blending.
During the recent 50th anniversary celebration of the Liberation of Southern Vietnam and National Reunification on April 30th, the image of convoys decorated with sunflowers inspired artisan Nguyen Huu Hung to create sunflowers made from colored paper. Holding two vases filled with vibrant, ever-present yellow sunflowers, he smiled proudly. Sunflowers are flowers that always turn towards the sun, just like the Vietnamese people's unwavering devotion to their homeland. "I hope my new product will be well-received, especially during the upcoming 80th anniversary of National Day on September 2nd. That would be a source of comfort and motivation for people like us to preserve our traditional craft and pass it on to the younger generation of the village," Mr. Hung confided.
The sunflower is a product created by artisan Nguyen Huu Hung, inspired by the sunflowers used for decorations during the recent April 30th holiday.
Over time, Thanh Tien paper flowers have become a distinctive cultural feature of Hue. The people of Thanh Tien village infuse the poetic spirit of Hue into each piece of colored paper and bamboo stick to create immortal, everlasting flowers, just like the beauty of Hue and the Thanh Tien paper flowers that flow forever with the Perfume River.
