Chuong Conical Hat Village

A pair of hands chooses one palm leaf at a time. They hold it up to the light, turn it over to check both sides, then lay it gently on a bamboo hoop already bent into a circle. Nothing is rushed. In Chuông village, every stage of the work goes this way.

Chuông lies about 30 kilometers southwest of central Hanoi, on the bank of the Đáy River. It belongs to Phương Trung commune, in Thanh Oai. Hat making runs through every household here. This is a real working community, not a tourist attraction put on for show.

According to the newspaper Nhân Dân, the hat craft in Phương Trung is almost 400 years old. No one in the village knows exactly where it came from. The oldest residents say only that it has been here for a very long time. Folk tradition says the hats of Chuông were once presented to the empress and the princesses of the court. Many generations have told the story, though no written source confirms it.

A Chuông hat goes through eight stages. They are making the frame, setting the hoops, laying the glossy paper, laying the lining leaves, covering with areca sheath, laying the outer leaves, stitching, and weaving the fibers. The leaves are young palm leaves, taken before the palm bud opens. They are bought from the provinces of Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh. The old Quảng Bình province, now part of Quảng Trị, supplies them too. Workers rub them with sand and dry them in the sun until they turn silvery white and evenly supple. The rims are made from bamboo and nứa, shaved round by an even hand. The areca sheath covers the middle layer. It gives the hat a light stiffness without making it heavier. Nhân Dân reports that a practiced worker stitches about two hats a day.

The stitch is the stage that decides everything. The thread must pass evenly through every layer of leaf, and the seam must sink out of sight, leaving no thread showing. A skilled craftsperson stitches by the feel of the fingertips more than by eye. That is why this craft cannot be learned quickly.

Hanoi's Department of Culture and Sports says Chuông hats were once a main supply for Hàng Nón Street, in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The French named that street rue des Chapeaux, which is Hat Street. From the village, the hats reached the inner city through retailers and then buyers everywhere. The chain held for many centuries.

Vietnam's Intellectual Property Office, part of the Ministry of Science and Technology, has granted Nón Chuông a collective trademark. According to the Hanoi department, the mark records the brand of the whole community, not of a single household. Many Chuông hats have also earned four-star OCOP certification, scored by the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade. OCOP, short for One Commune One Product, is a national program that rates local products with stars. Hats from the village have traveled to Japan, France, South Korea, Thailand and Russia.

Today the commune has more than 3,000 households making hats. Together they produce about 3 million hats a year, Nhân Dân reports. The hat market meets on several days each month by the lunar calendar. Craftspeople lay their hats out on mats, and buyers try them on and carry them away.

Under every roof comes the sound of a needle touching a bamboo hoop. In every yard, palm leaves lie white in the sun. The Chuông hat craft still stands because of patient hands that sit and stitch every day.