Hang Manh Street

Stripes of light and shade lie across the pavement of Hàng Mành Street. They come from the morning sun, filtered through the bamboo blinds that hang at the doors. With luck, you walk through just as the sun comes up. That picture is what the street's name has carried for more than 100 years.

Hàng Mành lies in the Hoàn Kiếm area, in Lý Thái Tổ ward. It is short, only about 152 meters long, and it winds among the old streets of Hanoi. But short does not mean few stories. According to the web page of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports, the street grew on land that belonged to the villages of Yên Thái and upper Kim Bát. These lay in the canton of Tiền Túc, in the old district of Thọ Xương. The land was close to Hoan Kiem Lake, and it was settled long before the French redrew the map of Hanoi.

The people who began the trade and gave the street its name came from the village of Giới Tế. It lies in Yên Phong district, in Bắc Ninh province. Its everyday name was Rừng Mành, which means a village that specialized in making blinds. The villagers came to Hanoi to make a living. They brought the craft of weaving bamboo blinds, and they chose this street for selling and for making them. The name of the street was born from that.

Making blinds is work of the hands and of patience. The material is mature bamboo with a straight grain. It is split into thin, even slats and left to dry. Each slat is then threaded on hemp or jute cord, in order, and woven across. The blind comes out thicker or thinner, closer or looser, depending on its use. A thin blind hangs at a window to soften the sun. A thicker one serves as a partition or shades the eaves of a roof. A finished blind may take many hours, even days, depending on its size.

Under French rule, the street was called Rue des Stores. That can be translated as Door Blind Street. The French name kept to what the street did. That quietly shows the blind trade here was no passing business. In 1945, the name Hàng Mành came back into use, and it has stayed to this day.

Over time, fewer people on the street made blinds. Plastic, factory-made curtains and stainless steel blinds were cheaper and, in plain physical terms, longer lasting. In many homes they slowly replaced the bamboo blinds. The trade that had given the street its name began to retreat to the background.

But it did not vanish. The portal of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports records that Hàng Mành still has stalls selling bamboo blinds. Blinds still hang in front of some houses. They are for sale, and they are also a sign that says: this is the street of this trade.

A street name holds the memory of a trade, of a community, of a way of life that once shaped the face of the neighborhood. Not many bamboo blinds remain, but there are enough to show that behind a name there is always a story longer than the street.