ÃÂông Há» painting (), full name ÃÂông Há» folk woodcut painting () is a line of Vietnamese folk painting originating in ÃÂông Há» village (Song Há» commune, ThuáºÂn Thành District, Bắc Ninh Province).
With the consent of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the Provincial People's Committee of Bắc Ninh and the specialized agencies conducting research, have set records for ÃÂông Há» folk paintings to be submitted to UNESCO for the recognition of intangible cultural heritage.
ÃÂông Há» painting is considered a fine reflection of traditional aesthetic value, social philosophies, and humanitarian desires. The traditional themes of ÃÂông Há» painting are good luck signs, historical figures, folk allegories, popular stories, and social commentaries. Elements of everyday life are well integrated in ÃÂông Há» paintings to express the thoughts and wishes of people. Following is a table of main themes in ÃÂông Há» paintings and exemplary pictures of each theme:
Because ÃÂông Há» paintings are mainly bought and displayed on the occasion of Tết Nguyên ÃÂán (Vietnamese New Year), contents are often humorous and optimistic with bright and powerful colours such as red, yellow, and white. The most popular and best-selling paintings are Lợn ÃÂàn, GàÃÂàn, and ChÃÂn trâu thá»Âi sáo, which represent the wish for prosperity, happiness and luck in the New Year. Together with the illustration, a ÃÂông Há» painting also has some chữ Hán to literally describe the meaning. Sometimes, ÃÂông Há» paintings are shown in couplet or quartet to fully express the signification of the set, for example, the Vinh Hoa (eminence) and the Phú quý (prosperity and honour) should be taken in a couple. In addition, ÃÂông Há» paintings are a medium to express the social concern of craftsmen through subtle social, political, and cultural criticism. For example, before World War I, ÃÂông Há» villagers produced a set of four prints entitled VÃÂn Minh tiến bá» (The Progress of Civilization) in which the Westernization of the Vietnamese society was delicately criticized through the satirical portrayal of contemporary Vietnamese people dressing and behaving like French people. Some ÃÂông Há» paintings became famous for their interesting themes like the picture ÃÂám cðá»Âi chuá»Ât (Rat's wedding) which features a wedding march of rats with the rat bride and groom and other rat guests delivering gifts to a big cat in hope that the cat will leave the happy couple alone.
Below are some examples:
ÃÂông Há» painting is the exclusive product of the ÃÂông Há» village, a craft village located on the left bank of the ÃÂuá»Âng River in Bắc Ninh Province, about 35 km from Hanoi. Craftsmen in the village often produce their own raw materials for the making such as ÃÂiá»Âp paper and natural colours.
In printing pictures, ÃÂông Há» craftsmen use a special type of paper named giấy ÃÂiá»Âp. The paper is obtained in almost the same way as dó paper. The bark of dó tree, which normally is grown in Tuyên Quang Province, is soaked in water for months, then mixed with powders of seashells (sò ÃÂiá»Âp), which is the origin of the paper's name, and glutinous rice to make sheets of paper. Due to the elements of seashell and glutinous rice, ÃÂiá»Âp paper possesses an exotic sparkling hard background and is able to conserve the durability of colours. The colours of paint using in printing are refined from various kinds of natural materials which are easily found in Vietnam. For instance, the red colour is taken from red gravel in Thiên Thai Mountain, while the black comes from charcoal of burned bamboo leaves. In that way, a ÃÂông Há» painting can keep its colours for a long time.
The last stage of making a ÃÂông Há» painting is printing, the woodblock is applied with paint and pressed on a sheet of paper like a stamp. The process is repeated with different colours until the craftsman is satisfied with the painting. One woodcut is for outline and several others are for each colour printed, and they are carefully engraved by hand so the woodcuts can be preserved through generations. The finished picture is covered with a layer of rice paste (há» nếp) to strengthen the durability of its illustration and colours and afterwards dried under the sun. In the past, to prepare for Tết, craftsmen had to begin the process of making these paintings six or seven months ahead.
According to the villagers, the making of tranh ÃÂông Há» painting was dated back to the 11th century during the reign of the Lý dynasty, while researchers propose that craftsmen began to print pictures in ÃÂông Há» village during the rule of Lê KÃÂnh Tông (1600–1619) of the Lê dynasty. In the dynastic time, ÃÂông Há» village is one of the few places which had the tradition of making folk paintings, along with Hàng Trá»Âng, Kim Hoàng, and Sình village. Originally, ÃÂông Há» paintings were made only with black-and-white prints of woodcuts, but from the 15th century, different colours were introduced by craftsmen in the village. As a village specialized in making woodcuts and paintings, almost all ÃÂông Há» villagers were involved in the manufacturing of paintings from carving the woodblocks, producing ÃÂiá»Âp papers, obtaining natural colours to creating new themes, and printing.
Traditionally, ÃÂông Há» painting was an essential element in every Vietnamese family during the Tết holiday. The colourful tones and optimistic content of the images livened up the house and the picture was considered a good luck sign for the family in the New Year, thus ÃÂông Há» paintings had other names like Tết paintings (tranh Tết) or spring paintings (tranh xuân). In 1945, there were 17 local families in ÃÂông Há» village were making pictures. However, the tradition faded rapidly under the dominance of modern life in Vietnam, and ÃÂông Há» pictures gradually disappeared in Vietnamese families during the Tết holiday. The principal buyers of ÃÂông Há» paintings today are tourists who are interested in traditional arts. Therefore, the villagers can no longer make a living based on this production. ÃÂông Há» painting also has to face the menace from fake pictures which are mass-produced by printing machines. As a result, only several households in the village still make pictures, while many others have switched to producing joss paper and votive paper objects (vàng mã).
Several efforts have been made to preserve this traditional art form. A "ÃÂông Há» Painting Center" was established in 2008 by Nguyá» n ÃÂÃÂng Chế, one of the few remaining experienced craftsmen of the village. Some artists have also tried to adapt the elements of ÃÂông Há» painting in modern fine art such as using the technique of woodcut printing like ÃÂông Há» craftsmen or drawing with the inspiration from ÃÂông Há» pictures. To honour this traditional art and propagate the beauty of ÃÂông Há» painting, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of Vietnam issued in 2007 a set of commemorative stamps with the artwork in the style of traditional ÃÂông Há» paintings such as Lợn ÃÂàn or Lợn ÃÂm Dðáng.
In March 2020, Viá»Ât Nam submitted the dossier on ÃÂông Há» folk paintings to UNESCO for inclusion in the list of intangible cultural heritages in need of urgent safeguarding.
ÃÂông Há» painting village is famous for its folk paintings. Year-round, many foreign tourists visit to buy souvenirs. A painting fair is held annually on the Tết holiday in the communal house in the village.