These days I wander around the street to take snapshots on this dynamic annual event and suddenly have just realised something that has been missing for so many years: The traditional hand-made lanterns. The lanterns that was made with bamboo and red-transparent decoration paper (hereby is called "traditional lantern")
Pride of a kid - Made in Vietnam
When I was a kid, I was amazed by a dramatic change on the street during mid-autumn. It's decorated with moon-cake sellers and their golden banners with thousands of lanterns hanging around almost every corner of the street. People gets their moon-cake and children scream for their lanterns.
My first lantern was not even that type of big and fabulous traditional lantern. It was made with two cans of Pepsi (not Coca Cola, Pepsi - that's why I always prefer Pepsi than Coca Cola). My dad was thirty-five and I saw he was struggling for days to make one, just to make sure that he would not lose any cash into that "stupidly-costly-kid-thing". That little thing looks like this:
For kids, getting a traditional lantern with all sort of ships, butterflies, Triển Chiêu, Pikachu, stars, etc. is a pride that will last for months. A lantern is a show-off weapon, a tiny little light to scare out ghosts, a funny reason to have "Earth Day" around the house for days and an excuse for staying up a bit late "because-it-will-be-dark".
Now I would say it's a pride that we Vietnamese used to have. It represents what Vietnamese kids love, what's their dream and most of all, it's a part of the culture that are so embedded into kids' mind. Another cool thing is it's all Vietnamese-made. No sort of Made in China lantern that can have such decent hand-drawn decoration and react almost at the same time with the market trend (the Triển Chiêu lantern is a great example). Vietnamese lantern makers earned a lot those days and their business was thriving.
The fall of the traditional lanterns - Chinese invasion
Despite it's cool things, traditional lanterns has it's own weak points.
- Kids need to be smart enough. The lantern is candle-lit, which means it needs air. The design has to be air-opened. When exposed to strong wind, it will die out. How to have fun and pay attention to the wind is a real problem.
- It's dangerous somehow. What if the candle is not placed properly? Chances are it will fall aside and burn the wrapped paper up, which will make the whole thing burst in flame. There was a lot of cases where kids got burned and parents, of course, are not really happy with this. In fact, kids should not deal with fire at all cost.
- Lack of innovation. The lantern makers stick with an old design for years. A star-shaped lantern 20 years ago looks exactly the same as the current one. For kids, after say, 4 years, will probably have no other option than re-pick butterflies/ships/Triển Chiêu/Pikachu/stars again. You can't sell consumer goods with the same idea all the time.
- Supervision is a must. Parents need to look after their kids to prevent bad things from happening. And really, what sort of games you can play with a candle-lit lantern? If parents are not there to come up with some games, they will be like me, running around for 5 minutes, failed to lit it up and give up. The life of a lantern has ended.
Now let's talk Chinese. They are smart. They are tricky. That's why they can do business everywhere in the world. They are not those who are innovative but they learn real quick and produce real fast (of course, with some tricks as well). So they came up with a sort of lantern that is lit buy electric bulb, plastic made with ALL-SORT-OF-DECORATION you can think of and they could address all of the above problems.
- Electric bulb means it's not affected by wind (and it does shine). No fires to deal with and it's completely safe (theorically)
- It can make sound! Well, for a kid, it's a whole new world :)
- Plastic made mean it's really easy to produce. A mass production can be set up in a month and a whole year of production can outrun the amount of handmade traditional lanterns 10 by 1.
- No handmade. Again, for the purpose of mass production. Machine painted, machine crafted, machine decorated.
More and more Chinese lanterns are making ways to Vietnamese market. It's cheap. It's mind-free. It's safe (regarding the fire) and after all, it does not need supervision. Hey kiddo, here's your new lantern, have fun with it and that's it. End of story. Parents now have more choice and their choice is always to relieve themselves from stressful work rather than having fun WITH their kids. Who cares for a Made In Vietnam lantern anyway if you can just get a lantern that you don't have to pay attention to?
"I can get a traditional lantern in no time. It won't disappear anyway"
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. The traditional lantern makers are disappearing. Well, in a slower pace than what you might expect but yes, they are disappearing.
Driven by profit, smashed down with the tiny little plastic thing, the lantern makers switched to distribute Chinese lanterns for better income and less mind-bogging. Can we blame them? No. It's how they make their living. Do we need to care? Yes. If such things keep going (the poisonous Chinese lanterns), it's Vietnamese who will take the full blow.
The market is defined by supplies and demand. It is us, the consumer, to shape the demand curve. If we don't change our consuming behaviour, sooner or later, we will have no choice BUT Chinese lanterns. Then, I am sure that (a) my kid will play with Pepsi-can-made lantern and (b) more poisonous stories from Chinese made stuffs will be on the media. Unless we show sign of resistance, the Chinese will be flooded over this market.
The light at the end of the tunnel
I spotted this product - Kibudesign in Giant supermarket and I could not help myself from having a big grin. This lantern is designed to be assembled, decorated and lit by the consumer. It's Vietnamese-made and it's Vietnamese-idea. It's also different and somehow unique. It's a different approach. An answer to the plastic-made Chinese lanterns out there.
After the incident of the poisonous Chinese lanterns, more and more traditional lanterns have made their way to the street vendors.
I wish them all the best. Slowly but steadily, let's take back what's ours. And I'm sure my kid(s) will not touch any sort of plastic-made lantern. Ever.
