Sad story in the largest tile-making village in the Central region

Sitting on the brick floor, looking far away at the towering tile kilns, Mr. Le Van Luong (58 years old) expressed his regret for the glorious days of Cua tile village. The man who has been working in the tile making profession for 24 years said that he really misses the profession, misses the smell of clay, the strong smell of smoke rising from the towering kilns.

Mr. Luong expressed regret when recalling the glorious days of the craft village. Photo: Tien Hung

For nearly 3 years now, 200 manual tile kilns in Nghia Hoan commune have had to stop operating, while high-tech kilns are “still on paper”, like many people here, Mr. Luong is unemployed. To make a living, he has to work many jobs. In his spare time, he finds old abandoned tile kilns. Sometimes just to look at them, remember the days when buyers and sellers were bustling, then shake his head and sigh...

One time glory

In the early days after the liberation of the South and the unification of the country, Mr. Hoang Quang Dan took his youngest son from his hometown of Hung Yen and traveled to many provinces to find a place to start a business. At that time, the capital of Mr. Dan and his son was only the skill of making Western tiles passed down from their ancestors. In his hometown, the land was narrow, the population was large, and the source of raw materials was limited, so Mr. Dan had to find a new land. In 1976, Mr. Dan decided to choose Cua village, Nghia Hoan commune, Tan Ky district (Nghe An) as the place to start a business.

Workers producing tiles 5 years ago in Cua tile village before the shutdown. Photo: Tien Hung

“After traveling to many places, he decided to choose this land. Because the clay here is abundant, it has all the elements to make beautiful and durable tiles,” said Hoang Ngoc Binh (47 years old). Binh is the grandson of the person considered the founder of the tile making profession in Cua village. Like many other children and grandchildren of Mr. Dan, Binh also followed his father and grandfather from Hung Yen to Nghe An and then became attached to the tile making profession.

According to Mr. Binh, the reason his grandfather chose Nghia Hoan as a place to settle down was because nature had bestowed this place with a special type of soil. There was an abundant source of clay here. And especially the clay here was flexible, durable, and very beautiful when baked. Unlike making bricks, to make roof tiles, the soil had to meet the quality of both flexibility and aesthetics.

Mr. Binh said that his ancestors learned the art of making Western tiles from the French in the 19th century. At that time, they were often forced by the French to work as laborers and build dikes on the Red River. After those hard days, they were fortunate to learn the art of making tiles from the French. That is the type of tile that people still call “Western tiles” today.

These manual tile kilns have been shut down for nearly three years. Photo: Tien Hung

After the first tile kiln was built in Cua village in 1976, within a few years, Mr. Dan's sons such as Hoang Quang Kiem, Hoang Quang Tan... also followed their father from the North to the midland district of Nghe An to start a business with this profession.

At first, this job only helped Mr. Dan and his father make a living, and the income was not much better than farming. All steps of making tiles were done by hand. The clay was dug up, trampled by foot until it was soft, and then cut into molds with manual scissors. Therefore, the number of products made was also small.

But according to Mr. Binh, even if he produced a lot, he would not know who to sell to. Because at that time, the life of people in Nghe Tinh in particular and the Central region in general was still very difficult after decades of war; houses were mainly thatched. That is why, in the 80s of the last century, in Nghia Hoan commune, there were only tile kilns owned by Mr. Dan and his son.

The entrance to the craft village cooperative has been deserted for many years. Photo: Tien Hung

It was not until the late 1980s, after the country entered the renovation period, that people's lives gradually improved. Since then, the demand for tiles increased, and Mr. Dan's family business also "prospered". Seeing that the father and son from the North came to make tiles and had "food and savings", local people began to come to learn the trade.

In 1992, after 16 years of Mr. Dan coming here to start a business, the first tile kiln of Nghia Hoan people was built. Since then, Nghia Hoan people have almost "lived only on tiles". In the golden age, there were nearly 200 tile kilns with nearly 130 production households, creating jobs for thousands of workers. There were years when nearly 100 million tiles were produced here, enough for tens of thousands of level 4 houses. In tax declarations, the profit of the tile making profession here was up to 120 billion VND. Many households had profits of up to billions of VND each year. In those years, Cua village tiles had a near monopoly in the market of 6 provinces of North Central Vietnam, and were even exported to Laos. Cua village was also the largest tile producing village in the Central region.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hung - Chairman of Nghia Hoan Commune People's Committee said that the most prosperous period started in 2006, when this place was recognized as a small-scale handicraft village, at the same time as the Cua brick and tile production and trading service cooperative was established.

“During that period, massive villas were built one after another. People rushed to buy cars. I remember one time, to celebrate the founding anniversary of the cooperative, a convoy of more than 70 cars of tile kiln owners followed each other to show off their power throughout the district,” Mr. Hung recalled. But those same people, a few years later, became debtors, some even had to sell their houses to work for hire. All because of internal fighting within the cooperative.

Abandoned houses

When we arrived at Nghia Hoan commune, the first thing that caught our eyes were the ancient houses, with the architecture of the previous decade. Compared to other midland communes, at a glance it was easy to recognize the prosperity of Nghia Hoan commune through these villas. However, inside the premises of those houses now was a desolate scene, quiet to the point of fear.

“They all go to work for hire. No one is home. Many people even have to sell their houses to pay off bank loans because they previously borrowed money to invest in making tiles,” said Hoang Ngoc Binh, who also owns a massive villa that has been unfinished for many years. Like many others, Binh has also fallen into debt since the tile kilns stopped production.

Massive houses were built thanks to the tile making profession. Photo: Tien Hung

Talking about the reason why the craft village is in the current situation, Mr. Vo Van Cau (64 years old) said that since the cooperative was established in 2006, Mr. Nguyen Van Hanh was the head and Mr. Cau was the deputy head. In the beginning, production went smoothly.

In 2014, Mr. Hanh retired and Mr. Cau became the head of the company. Upon receiving information that the manual tile kilns would be eliminated, Mr. Cau immediately called on members to contribute capital to gradually convert to a high-tech tile production model.

According to Mr. Cau, when the members had contributed more than 20 billion VND and the competent authority approved the project, Mr. Nguyen Van Hanh filed a complaint to demand the land. At that time, Mr. Hanh also established another cooperative. The two sides continuously sued each other. After a while, the two cooperatives merged together, but the conflict was still not resolved.

Desolation in Cua tile-making village. Photo: Tien Hung

Members of the cooperative have continuously sent petitions and complaints, from the commune level to the provincial level. Inspectors and police have also stepped in to investigate the complaints and denunciations, but the disputes and conflicts have not been thoroughly resolved.

By the end of 2017, implementing the Government's policy, 200 manual tile kilns in Nghia Hoan were forced to stop operating. But due to internal conflicts, the high-tech tile production project has not been implemented yet. Therefore, manual kilns no longer exist, high-tech kilns do not exist, thousands of workers are unemployed. Many kiln owners have invested billions of dong, but now they are bankrupt. Until now, this project is still a mess.

During its heyday, there were up to 200 tile kilns operating here. Photo: Tien Hung

"The main reason is still the poor management level of the cooperative leaders. But regardless of who is right or wrong, one side should have given in, not letting it affect hundreds of other households. But the dispute is still lingering. The commune has organized many meetings but still cannot resolve it, it is helpless," said the Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghia Hoan commune.

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Binh, one of the largest tile kiln owners in Nghia Hoan commune, expressed his hope that the authorities would soon resolve the conflict between the cooperative so that the project could be implemented. “If not, I hope the government will provide land for households with potential to open their own high-tech tile manufacturing businesses, which will have nothing to do with the cooperative,” Mr. Binh said. The land Mr. Binh mentioned is where 200 handmade tile kilns have been abandoned for nearly 3 years. This land is managed by the commune. However, when there was a policy to abolish handmade tile kilns, the households refused to demolish them to return the land.

Tien Hung