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| Dao Huu Quy always carries within himself a love for Hue cuisine and culture |
Graduating from the University of Economics, Hue University, Dao Huu Quy (born 1993) got his first job as an accountant in Ho Chi Minh City. After 5 years of working in the city away from home, Quy decided to quit his job and return to the Ancient Capital. For Quy, after the days away from home, he realized how beautiful his homeland is, and since then, his love for his homeland has grown deeper. He desires to contribute to promoting and spreading the beauty of his homeland.
Loving the traditional craft villages of his homeland, Quy realized that aside from the famous craft villages such as Thanh Tien paper flowers, Sinh Village paintings, etc. Hue has traditional crafts and craft villages that almost faded into oblivion and became extinct. Therefore, the young man began to do research into those craft villages, delve into the reasons why those crafts had no successors as well as the anxieties of the predecessors who wished to hand the craft down to the next generation.
Quy quietly went in search of information about the craft villages such as Mau Tai popcorn village, Trieu Son palm-leaf conical hat village, and Dia Linh village where earthen Kitchen Gods are created.… He came to meet every household that is maintaining the craft and confided to them.
Thanks to his real-life efforts, he understands the hardships of traditional craftspeople, the burden of bread and butter as well as the responsibility of preserving the craft ... The real life and anxiety over the fading beauty of traditional craft villages inspire him to make videos of the craft villages.
For Huu Quy, the videos of the dishes or craft villages that are sinking into oblivion are posted on social networks not to "get likes" or "increase views", or just for people to “watch flowers while riding on horseback" and then ignore, but for “gently reminding" everybody about the national identity.
It is his fervent hope that the videos will become a mental pabulum for the elderly to evoke memories and create regrets, and for the young to get acquainted with typical products that have been silently handed down for generations.
Always bearing in mind that "if no one else does it, I will do it", even though he knows that to revive a traditional craft village, the influence of one individual is not enough. However, Huu Quy is not discouraged, even more enthusiastic about his product. It takes him many days to produce a complete video research. He has to go to the place to observe, join in crafting, and video the entire process.
“The videoing time varies by craft. For example, in Dia Linh Village, after the soil preparation, I waited a week to bake before returning to continue to video the process of removing the statue, and so on. Until the finalization of the earthen kitchen god statues, the video ended. It took time, but producing an authentic video clip made me feel secure," Quy said.
In the early days, besides his enthusiasm, Quy had no experience. Many times he went to the places but was rejected by the craftsmen for fear of trouble. Some places wanted to protect the secrets of the craft. There are also many ironic cases when the artisans simply do "hereditary" crafts without knowing the information and history of the craft village. Sometimes, after I videoed the beautiful images of the crafting stages, the artisans were shy about having to speak ahead of the camera, making it difficult to make videos.
Quy shared, “Honest Hue people are very... shy, especially when standing ahead of the camera. The skilled craftsmen, meticulous and enthusiastic about explaining each step of their crafting, suddenly became confused and faltered when they found me videoing the conversation.
At those moments, he patiently worked with the craftsmen to get the most beautiful and natural images... Thanks to his seriousness and perseverance, his videos gain growing popularity. After each video clip, he is contacted to ask where to buy those traditional craft products, helping the craftspeople earn more income. Quy knows he does the right thing.
Currently, Dao Huu Quy's TikTok channel has nearly 100,000 followers and 800,000 likes. His main viewers come from cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang, and Nha Trang... Many of his followers, upon reaching Hue, contacted him to be introduced to the scenic spots and craft villages of the Ancient Capital.