(Cinet) – “To He” was made and sold only during festivals, particularly Tet (traditional Lunar New Year) holiday and Mid-Autumn festival. To He artisans hope for support and involvement from relevant agencies to provide them with directions for further development as well as from scientists to find an advanced recipe for To He making, in a bid to preserve and uphold one of the rare surviving traditional toys of Vietnam.
“To He“craft making village originated from Xuan La hamlet, Phuong Duc commune, Phu Xuyen district in Hanoi more than 300 years ago.
For children, “To he” can open a colourful world where they can see characters from history, movies and cartoons, from the famous monkey named Ton Ngo Khong in “The Journey to the West” Chinese novel to Picachu and Pokemon, characters from famous Japanese cartoons to princesses in fairy tales, etc. With simple tools including a tray of glutinous rice powder in various colours, a small comb, a bunch of sticks, and a spongy box to display their products, “To He“ artisans can knead many shapes thanks to their skilled hands and creativity. To make “To he”, craftsmen only need glutinous rice powder, which is dyed with seven basic colours (green, sea blue, red, purple, yellow, white and black), and bamboo sticks.
The soft and colourful flour made it easy for them to shape cute little things. In the past, the product was then pinned on the top of a small horn, which generated sounds like “to… te…” when it was whistled. As time went on, the toy was named “To He “ as a play on the sound “to…te…”
Like other traditional craft villages, Xuan La villagers encounter obstacles to increasing output for their products and widely advertise the toys.
“To He” cannot be widely introduced outside the traditional communal market due to its traditional ingredient; rice power makes it easy for the craftsmen to knead but on the other hands, it causes the toy’s appearance to quickly get mouldy, dry and split. A “To He ” product can be kept for three to 30 days, depending on the craftsmen’s skill and weather condition.
The obstacle urged the craftsmen to try experiments to seek new suitable ingredient.
Mrs Dien’s family is the first and the only one in Phu Xuyen to try to make “To He“ using tapioca flour. The huge advantage of the paste is a shelf-life of up to one year, without any threat of moulding.
However, it takes the artisans longer to complete their crafts with tapioca flours as it needs to be boiled in water before being brought the market. With this technique the craftsmen can only provide premade crafts, diluting the uniqueness of “To He“ as customers cannot request custom designs.
The “To He“ artisans also try to catch up with the increasing demand of customers, particularly children. In the past, “To He“ used to be in the shape of fruits, flowers, and main characters in the ‘Journey to the West’ TV series. Nowadays, the artisans update children’s favourite cartoons in case they have orders on making characters from these films.
Đăng ký: VietNam News