"Dó" is the dó paper, which is considered the "dawn" of paper types and applications in Hue. “Gone with the dó”, which also means “Gone with the paper”, or “Let the paper blow it away”. The "blowing away" is not washing away and dissolving, but intertwining and forming the strength of Hue cultural spirit, with a traditional handicraft product, which is safe for the environment…
Foreign visitors participating in experiential activities
In Hue, many paper donation stations have recently appeared in green restaurants and coffee shops. This is being "Gone with the dó", a "green" action by young people from the Legend of Hue, a creative and entertaining content design unit, to spread traditional historical and cultural values to the young generation and friends from all over the world, which is sponsored by Thua Thien Hue Institute for Development Studies.
Rather than just donating paper, Legend of Hue creates the "Gone with the dó" festival with the desires to give people the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of art forms from paper, and instruct them to make paper crafts or paper creation.
The Legend of Hue has already organized the Sunday Handicraft & Art, a space to experience Hue's traditional and modern crafts, which is held every two weeks. Through the process of organizing and researching, it realizes that up to now in Hue, the uniqueness of the craft story does not exist in the successive generations of artisans, but in the diversified ways that Hue artisans develop product series. Among them, the most outstanding ones are paper products, ranging from traditional items such as Sinh village paintings, and Thanh Tien paper flowers... to products of the new era such as Truc Chi paintings, and May PaperFlower paper flowers, etc.
Making notebooks for children in A Luoi
Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh (born in 1997), founder of the Legend of Hue shared: “The more we study about paper and its development in Hue, the more we believe that “Gone with the dó” will be the first activity of its kind, where we can tell everyone about paper story in our Hue, and also the first "touching" point, where they can try their own dexterity and meticulousness with paper in Hue culture.”
At the "Gone with the dó" festival, participants not only listened to the story of paper, but also participated in activities, including using paper to make unicorn’s heads; making paper flowers; making fragrant paper; creating paper from vegetable waste; shaping kites and drawing on them; writing calligraphy on dó paper; making notebooks; making stamps to decorate the notebooks; coloring with natural colors; and Japanese-Vietnamese cultural exchange: Origami (a Japanese paper folding art) and pháp lam color box.
Participants had a chance to experience "going to market" with green vegetable markets, with paper toy markets, green goods markets with environmentally friendly packaging solutions, and craft booths for making notebooks.
To be able to organize such a paper festival, it took not only one or two days to grasp all the information about traditional craft villages, and paper products of Hue. Even until now, although Hanh exposed to the culture, history and traditional product making establishments in Hue for quite a while, she confided that she only knew… a little bit.
The young girl said: “During the implementation process, we had the opportunity to meet and receive a lot of support from the forerunners and researchers. We are also very grateful to Thua Thien Hue Institute for Development Studies and Hue Innovation Hub for their support and connection. Thanks to that, our group is able to implement the idea, contributing to preserving the paper culture of the Ancient Capital."
This event is aimed to gather and introduce traditional and contemporary products, which are made from paper in Hue; at the same time, promoting the innovation in traditional products with paper application, spreading the spirit of avoiding waste and of green living with environmentally friendly materials.
This is also an opportunity to set up a special summer rendezvous for young people. They bravely organized the donation of old notebooks, and notebooks with leftover papers after each academic year, to make the new ones for children in A Luoi. This is also a good way to avoid wasting paper. And then, these beautiful little notebooks also give wings to beautiful ideas, spreading joy to children in the highland.
The paper collection activity is carried out with the desire to foster the community's awareness of environmental protection while products from the donated paper also remind people to reduce and refuse to use plastic. Currently, there are dozens of establishments that have agreed to accompany and support Legend of Hue, namely Đa:me café, Nhiên café, Leaf café, View café, Olab café, An Nhiên Garden Vegetarian, Midori Sweets, Đề-pô café, Yang café, Nhà Bên Hồ café, and KODO, etc.
“I did not expect that our idea would be so supported by the owners of food stalls, restaurants, and cafes. Many of them also promise to continue participating when we carry out activities to protect the environment and reduce plastic waste. It's nice that the spirit of "Building a green, clean, and bright Hue" has permeated the people of Hue, we just need to rekindle that spirit for a green, clean and safe Hue," Hong Hanh said.
Story and photos: Pham Phuoc Chau
