Nguyễn Hóa
A keeper of the Thanh Tien paper-flower craft, with nearly 50 years devoted to the blossoms.
Artisan Nguyen Hoa (68) is one of the most emblematic keepers of the flame at the traditional Thanh Tien paper-flower craft village in Duong No Ward, Hue City. With nearly 50 years in the trade, bound to every petal, he has devoted his whole life to preserving, safeguarding and nurturing the unique spiritual culture of the former imperial capital.
With skilful hands, patience and deep reverence for his roots, artisan Nguyen Hoa breathes soul into humble bamboo and paper to create brilliantly coloured paper flowers and paper lotuses, imbued with the philosophy of the Five Constants and the refined aesthetic sense of the people of Hue.
For him, each paper flower is cherished not merely for a livelihood or to adorn the Tet holiday, but as a fragment of memory, a cultural soul and a heartfelt offering to the ancestors. His workshop has become a living cultural space where visitors from every direction come to touch and experience heritage values kept intact through the flow of time.
At first, these paper flowers were made for worship during Tet and festival occasions, solemnly placed at the Trang Ong and Trang Ba altars or the family ancestral altar. Through the artisans' deft hands, rustic materials such as bamboo, reed and art paper are given soul to become vividly coloured blossoms that mimic natural flowers such as the chrysanthemum, orchid and rose, and above all the paper lotus.
Today, Thanh Tien paper flowers are no longer confined to the local space of belief; they appear at the Hue Festival, the Hue Traditional Craft Village Festival, the Ao Dai Festival and the traditional Tet, and travel with visitors across every region of the country and even abroad.
