Many parents in Hanoi have turned to traditional hand-made toys for
their children for the coming Mid-Autumn Festival instead of the once
dominant made-in-China imports.
Traditional toys are cheaper and safer, they explain.
Although shops on Luong Van Can street, Hoan Kiem district, are flooded
with Chinese toys of various types and designs, those in nearby Hang Ma
Street display more made-in-Vietnam toys.
Nguyen Chi Hai says he has saved money buying traditional toys.
"My son already had too many modern toys," he says as he inspects a mask and a lantern from a Hang Ma street shop.
"I bought him some traditional toys so that he would know what my parents, my wife and I played when we were small."
He also worries that imported toys may contain substances harmful to children.
"I hesitate when buying such toys for my son," he says.
"Traditional Vietnamese toys are our best choice now."
Le Thu Huong, an employee of a private company in Dong Da District, also prefers folk toys.
"I can buy Vietnamese toys of beautiful shape and colour for the cost of just one Chinese toy," she says.
Hang Ma Street shop owner Truong Quoc Khanh confirms that customers now
prefer traditional Vietnamese toys rather than modern Chinese imports.
"A customer asked me for a Vietnamese lantern yesterday but it was sold
out," he says. "I showed her a Chinese lantern with music but she
refused it."
The family shop sold only about 100
Vietnamese folk lanterns last Mid-Autumn Festival. So far this year it
has sold almost 800 in the shape of a star, rabbit, fish and lotus.
"I expect to sell more than 1,000 Vietnamese lanterns this year," he says.
Other Vietnamese folk toys are also selling better.
Luong Van Can street in Hoan Kiem District shopowner Nguyen Ngan Hoa
says every kind of traditional toys including drums and masks made from
cardboard is selling well.
"I sell wholesale and retail an
average of about 300 masks a day," she says. "Last year I sold only
slightly more than 700 for the entire festival."
Customers have become saturated with Chinese toys, she argues.
Hang Ma Ward People's Committee deputy chairman Nghiem Xuan Giao says
his committee joins with the Hoan Kiem District People's Committee each
year to organise the Hanoi Traditional Mid-Autumn Fair.
"The fair opens a week before the day of the festival day is held to
display and introduce Vietnam's traditional toys," he says.
"I'm glad to see that this year children are more interested in the toys."
Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally celebrated on the 15th day of the
8th lunar month when the moon is at fullest and brightest.
This year it falls Wednesday next week.
It is one of the most important festivals of the year in Vietnam when
family members gather for a feast and children dance and parade with
colourful lanterns and cakes in the moonlight./.
