Phu Binh is a lantern-making hamlet near Dam Sen Park in HO Chi Minh City, but most of its residents come from Nam Dinh Province's Bao Dap Village, which is ninety kilometres southeast of HA NO and famous for paper-dyeing. After 1954, many Nam Dinh people moved to Sai GOn (former name of HO Chi Minh City), taking their traditional crafts with them. During their leisure time, these skilful artisans created beautiful lanterns for children to welcome the full moon at the Mid-Autumn Festival. Since then, they have produced lanterns shaped like butterflies, chickens, and other animals. Now, because of its lucrative profits, their craft has spread to neighbouring districts.
More than a hundred households in Phu Binh make about 500,000 lanterns a year for distribution throughout southern and central Viet Nam and for charitable organisations to give to orphans and street children. This part-time job brings workers a handsome income. Mr. Minh, a lantern maker, said the profit margin on a lantern is about fifty per cent. Village houses are more comfortable now as a result of this thriving industry, and some people have even saved enough money from lantern-making seasons to buy a motorbike or build a house.
Makers prepare their materials and begin lantern production. July is their busiest month; they work all day to get ready for their autumn market. Making a lantern involves several stages. First, the artisan forms bamboo slats into the desired shape, then covers this frame with coloured paper, and then decorates it. While not difficult in artistic terms, decorating a lantern requires skill and concentration to produce an attractive finish.
Increasing demand for lanterns has prompted families to cooperate in an assembly-line production process. Some families focus on frames, while others specialise in decoration. Families hire unskilled workers to do simple tasks.
Lantern makers in Phu Binh say they strive to improve their designs, materials, and productior methods so their products can compete with those of ethnic Chinese lantern makers in CO Lau ("Big Market"), H6 Chi Minh City's Chinatown. Luckily for Phil Binh lantern producers, Vietnamese children seem to have changed their tastes recently and now prefer locally made lanterns with candles inside over Chinese-inspired designs.