Folk toys are now lost among the digital products of modern life. However, there are still people who quietly preserve the craft of making traditional toys, keeping the beauty of Mid-Autumn season of the old days.
Nguyen Van Quyen, an artisan in Cao Vien Commune, Thanh Oai District, in Hanoi has made Den keo quan (a traditional handmade lantern with vivid rotating paper-cut figures on the cover) for more than half a lifetime. There are only two families preserving the traditional craft in Dan Vien.
Quyen’s family is mainly providing toys to schools and museums at special occasions, rarely supplying them to the market.
It’s not just families like Quyen’s trying to conserve the craft of making folk toys.
Over the last 40 years, artisan Nguyen Manh Hung still diligently makes Mid-Autumn toys from recycled cans like this. He is the only one preserving the craft.
Even though society is rapidly developing, there are men still making folk toys. For them, it is a responsibility to preserve the culture of the family, as well as the core values of the traditional festival.-VNA
