Changes in Trung Kien, a century-old shipbuilding village.
(Baonghean.vn) - In early spring, visiting Trung Kien village, a village with a centuries-old tradition of building wooden ships, one can clearly feel the transformation in the face of changing times. Shipbuilders still remain in the village, grappling with the dilemma of both preserving the traditional craft and finding new ways to make a living.
Changing livelihoods
Located right next to the main road running between the two hamlets of Rong and Dinh in Nghi Thiet commune (Nghi Loc district), Phan Van Anh's carpentry workshop is only about 100 square meters in size. In the days leading up to the Lunar New Year, the sound of saws and wood-cutting machines is almost constant, and the number of people coming and going from the workshop is much higher than usual.
"Boss" Phan Van Anh smiled brightly, stopping his work. Standing before a pile of unfinished household items, he said: "Orders increase more during the period leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year), about four orders a month. However, the carpentry business today is also very stressful and competitive. Compared to shipbuilding in the past, producing household furniture requires much more technical skill and talent."
Sharing about the "new profession" of shipbuilders in Trung Kien Craft Village, Mr. Phan Van Anh said that those in the profession have to market themselves, contacting acquaintances to solicit orders. Very few households produce goods for free sale because they fear unsold stock and lack of buyers. This is because most households engaged in this civil carpentry trade utilize the cramped space of their homes for production, or have to rent land in other hamlets or communes to set up workshops.
During the months leading up to the Lunar New Year, Phan Van Anh works almost exclusively at his workshop because orders increase two to three times compared to normal days. In the remaining months of the year, he averages only about one to two orders per month, each worth a few tens of millions of dong. In his free time, he takes on custom-made wooden furniture at home for customers, mainly in Vinh City.
"Usually, I only accept home-based work orders worth over 100 million VND, because it often requires traveling long distances, transporting accompanying machinery, and also covering the living expenses for myself and the hired workers," shared Phan Van Anh.
Ms. Pham Thi Dinh, the head of Dinh hamlet, who visited Mr. Phan Van Anh's workshop, added that Mr. Phan Van Anh's family has been involved in shipbuilding for generations, and was one of hundreds of households that participated in the former Trung Kien Shipbuilding Cooperative. Today, like many other shipbuilders, when orders for wooden-hulled ships cease, those in the trade have to change their livelihoods.
Besides Mr. Phan Van Anh's household, there are several other households with fairly large-scale production, generating revenue of over 500 million to 1 billion VND per year... Previously, more than 300 households in the hamlet were involved in shipbuilding. Now, only 14 households in the hamlet still maintain the traditional craft by switching to producing household wooden furniture such as cabinets, beds, tables, chairs, various types of door frames, and staircases... The old Trung Kien craft village used to have more than 30 shipbuilding workshops operating day and night, but now only a few workshops remain in operation.
Eager to preserve the craft
Arriving at Trung Kien village in the early days of the Lunar New Year, Mr. Vo Van Chien, the "guide" with nearly 40 years of experience working at the shipyard, confided as he walked along the long, narrow alley that the familiar sounds in Trung Kien have always been the roaring waves of the sea mingled with the sound of sawing wood.
“That sound has become deeply ingrained in the subconscious and memories of generations of people in Trung Kien. Although the sounds of the craft are now less frequent, they will never disappear,” Mr. Vo Van Chien confided. Mr. Pham Van Yet from Dinh hamlet, who has nearly 50 years of experience in shipbuilding, shared: “Back then, the shipyards were always bustling, working three shifts a day continuously across more than 30 workshops. Each workshop built at least two ships a month, with some large workshops building 7-8 ships at peak times. Each year, the craft village built hundreds of ships, large and small.”
Around a warm cup of green tea on a late spring afternoon, reminiscing fondly about glorious pasts, the elders of Trung Kien shipbuilding village shared that the villagers have been familiar with the craft of building wooden ships for five to seven hundred years, passed down through generations from father to son since the days of building ships for emperors. Although times have changed and producers and businesses have had to adapt to market trends, the traditional craft in Trung Kien has always had people continuing it, remaining dedicated and cherished.
One of the few remaining owners of a shipyard in Trung Kien is Mr. Tran Dang Lu in Dinh Hamlet. Mr. Lu's house and shipyard are located not far from the Dinh Hamlet cultural center. After navigating several winding alleys, Mr. Lu's shipyard sits right by the riverbank. The scene is quite dilapidated, with overgrown grass in many places due to lack of clearing. Many pieces of equipment and tools, rusted, infested with termites, and worn down by rain and sun, lie scattered throughout the workshop.
“In the past, the shipyard was always busy. This workshop has been passed down from my ancestors. I’ve been familiar with shipbuilding and carpentry since I was a child. Carpentry has supported generations of my family. Now, market trends are changing, forcing those in the trade to adapt, but I still want to preserve the craft that has existed in the village for hundreds of years,” Mr. Lu confided. To maintain the traditional craft, Mr. Lu’s shipyard still undertakes the construction of 2-4 new wooden-hulled boats each year, mainly small-capacity vessels. The rest of the time, his workshop primarily focuses on repairing old boats.
In 2014, Trung Kien Craft Village was honored by the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Craft Village Association as a "Typical Vietnamese Craft Village"; Trung Kien Shipbuilding Cooperative was awarded the title of "Typical Vietnamese Craft Village Economic Unit".
Sharing the same sentiment as Mr. Lu, many people in Nghi Thiet, when mentioning the shipbuilding profession, always express pride in the glorious past of the village's shipbuilding industry that served the king.
“Later, if the shipbuilding craft of Trung Kien village can no longer be sustained, we can shift towards developing it into a tourist village. Nghi Thiet has beautiful scenery with mountains bordering rivers and the sea, its people have distinctive traditions, and it is a place with long-standing and unique cultural heritage, making it very suitable for tourism. And we hope that the village's shipbuilding workshops will also be preserved,” a resident of Trung Kien village expressed.
