Ironically, free market reforms are largely responsible for creating the problematic situation many Vietnamese papermakers are now in. I visited Vietnam during October and November of 1994 and discovered traditional and modern methods of hand papermaking in three villages near Hanoi: Cau Giay, Boui, and Dong Cao. Most of the handmade paper produced today is used only for votive objects (paper representations of things such as money, shoes, tape players, and televisions, to be burned at Buddhist altars for deceased relatives) and cheap grades of toilet paper, for those who cannot afford the machine-made variety.  Vietnam was under Chinese rule on and off from 2 BCE to the 15th century, and paper was likely introduced at an early date. Most historical records come from Chinese sources, which is not surprising considering that all Vietnamese books were burned by retreating Chinese forces in the early part of the 15th century.! The earliest reference I found relating to paper was that Roman traders bought Vietnamese paper in 284 CE, but I have been unable verify this.2 Reportedly, a mission from Marcus Aurelius Antoninous visited Vietnam in 166 CE,3 and it is possible that the paper trade had even developed by that time.  From at least the 11 th century onward, Hanoi was a craft center, known as the "city of thirty-six streets," each bearing the name of a craft activity located on it. There was a paper street, a knife street, a shoe street, etc. The streets still carry the names of the crafts, although these names bear little relationship to the businesses now located there.  In 1077 the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university, was founded in Hanoi. This must have spurred the demand for paper, although no early specimens survive.  SUMMER 1995  13   Paper drying by the riverside in Cau Giay.   The first documentation of papermaking areas mention Cau Giay and Boui, located on Hanoi's West Lake, at the beginning of the Tran dynasty, in the 13th century.4 The production of exotic types of paper is also mentioned; perfumed paper, paper watermarked with dragons for the emperor, and paper made from marine algae, called trae ly.5  The most complete description of early papermaking is from Le Qui Do, a wellknown and respected 18th century Vietnamese scholar. Despite a confusing explanation of the sheet-forming and drying steps, his account deserves repeating:  Paper was originally made using the bark of a certain creeper (Rhamo neuron balansae) grown in the upland provinces of Yen Bai and Phu Tho. Barge convoys laden with this raw material would float down the Red River, unloading their cargo at papermaking villages. The bark was then soaked for several days in liquid lime then heated in a double boiler made of cast iron set over a brick kiln up to two meters in diameter. The process lasted several days and nights, during which time the whole village was in festive mood, with young boys and girls working and enjoying themselves far into the night in the bright light given out by the kilns. After boiling, the bark was again immersed in liquid lime, then pounded in a stone mortar. A white paste mixed with a size of glue or gelatine was spread over a sieve made of metal or woven bamboo, then the women would dip the sieves into barrels of water, lifting them up at just the right moment to ensure uniform thickness after dyeing [drying?). The substance was then placed in a press operated by means of a simple lever. The paper, still wet, was then dried leaf by leaf over a charcoal fire. The women then laid them out flat and smoothed them over by hand6  The bark of the do tree (Wikstroemia Indica, CA. Mey), was a common fiber for traditional papers. The do tree grows rapidly; after two years it can provide enough bark to be harvested. It was cultivated on the banks of the Lo and Thau rivers, then shipped to Boui and Cau Giay by junks.  In the 17th century, the Vietnamese were using characters based on Chinese, which \,'ere written with a brush. Late in the 18th century Catholic missionaries introduced a Latin stvle script, for which a pen was used. The difference in writing implements must ha\'e caused a change in the paper, although even today writing paper is excessi\'eh' thin bv Western standards.  Socialism and Papermaking  In 1945 Vietnam declared its independence from France, and is now a Socialist Republic. Ho Chi Minh led the independence movement and his popularity remains undiminished. After the revolution, there was much discussion about how to reorganize the traditional family craft businesses to fit the socialist agenda In 1958 craft operations were divided into a two-tier system. Small operations, including most papermakers, were kept private and production individual. The\ were called "production collectives," and the state brought workers together to purchase raw materials in bulk. Larger operations were called "production co-operatives" and were state owned? This arrangement wafairly stable, mostly because paper was not imported. and supplied Vietnam with paper for thirty years.  Oddly, it was the start of the free market reforms in the late 1980s that caused a crisis for papermakers Under the old socialist system, both wholesale and retail prices were set by the state.sSuddenly, inexpensive, machine-made Western papers appeared on the market, and the small collectives were no longer able to make paper from do tree bark due to the cost of materials and preparation time. Many collectives resorted to repulping waste material, such as cardboard boxes. I spoke with several papermakers who sail~ that through the 1980s business was good and the\ were still producing traditional fiber papers for even day usage, but that this was no longer economicalh viable. Today, although the nature of the paper has changed, at least three historic papermaking village" are still active in Vietnam.   Cau Giay  Cau Giay, traditionally known as Dich Vong, is located on the banks of the Red River, about eight kilometers from the center of Hanoi. Each family of papermakers has a nearly identical workspace: a bed with the futon rolled up to serve during the day as a work table; a cement vat located outdoors; an iron screw press; and bamboo drying racks constructed along the river. There are about thirty families in the area, but I saw little production of paper during my first visit. The younger people I talked with were not interested in anything as lowly as "craft," and could not fathom why a rich American (from their point of view) like myself would be. Perhaps as a result of the new economic system, one family was no longer making paper and had resorted to folding and embossing texture on machine-made napkins, using a hand-cranked roller.  For those who are still engaged in papermaking, equipment is simple and geared towards rapid production. Pulp is bought from a co-operative or a Hollander is shared by a group of families. Molds are approximately 10" x 20", and are made of metal wire. Usually one person performs the entire operation from beginning to end. Most papermakers are elderly and said it was not their main source of income. They make one or two hundred sheets a day, on average. Paper is quickly formed, pressed between a loosely woven fabric, then air-dried, hanging on bamboo sticks in the direct sunlight. This paper is used for wrapping packages, making votive objects, and toilet paper.  SUMMER 1995  Women forming sheets of paper at the Reseach Centre in Boui.  Boui  Near to Cau Giay is the village of Boui, where there are examples of a collecti\'e. a co-operative, and a joint venture shop, which is part state-owned and part pri\'ate The collective and joint venture shops produce a paper very similar to that made In Cau Giay and local people estimated that fifty to seventy families were still act! \'e Small alleys, scarcely a meter wide, separated the inner courtyards where familI e, hung drying racks. During my visit, people were extremely polite and guided fit' around, even though they kept telling me: "It's all the same. Why do you want to set' another place?" They even ignored my atrocious pronunciation of Vietnamese9 :\-lam people were also puzzled why a Westerner would be interested in "old fashioned paper" when the machines could make it so much faster.  An example of a joint venture shop is The Research Centre for Produce Cardboa[(i Packages. The owner, Mr. Nguyen Van Hop, was kind enough to let me tour his operations. In the interests of cultural sensitivity, I accepted his offer of a 10:00 a.m. drInk of rice wine. He proudly informed me he makes $500 monthly, an extremely considerable sum in a country where most people earn well under $50 monthly. He emplO\ , forty people, who work six days a week, eight hours a day.  One factory at the research center buys and sorts used cardboard; another makes the paper. The center buys cardboard from local recyclers and it is then sorted according tl' size. They soak small pieces in water, then pulp them in a large cement Hollander located in the second factory. Pay scales here are not divided according to the difficult\, of the job; instead they are determined according to the size of the machine being operated. Men operate the big machines. The man who runs the Hollander is paid $60 c1 month, compared to the vatwomen and separators who earn only half as much.lO  A pump transports the pulp from the Hollander to a bamboo trough which leads te' four vats. After the vatwoman forms the sheet in one quick motion, she couches it between a loosely woven fabric, and another worker presses it three times. For the first pressing, only the center of the pack receives direct pressure. At each subsequent pressing, crossbars are added on top of the pack. In this way, the center of the pack 15 initially pressed harder than the edges and the water is gradually forced out. An hour or two after pressing, two women separate the sheets and drape them over a stick 0: bamboo, then hang them in the sun.    Paper drying in a courtyard at the Research Centre in Boui.  The atmosphere when I visited seemed relaxed, with children running around and people talking while they worked. Once the paper was dry, they bundled it and shipped it to the warehouse on a threewheeled cart. Mr. Nguyen Van Hop said in the 1980s he produced papers that were made from traditional fibers but, since the resulting sheet cost ten times as much as machine-made paper, it had no market.  In Boui there is a large co-operative, the Truc Bach Paper mill. Their brochure states they specialize in the production of "printing paper, book-cover paper, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, cardboard, and flimsy paper." Since the mill is state owned, however, I was unable to secure the proper paperwork from the government to visit.  DongCao  The highest quality traditional fiber paper I was able to discover still being made in Vietnam was in Dong Cao, about fifty kilometers southeast of Hanoi. In Dong Cao, the head of the one family which still uses traditional fibers and methods, Mr. Nguyen, said his ancestors had been making paper in this village for hundreds of years. He employs six people and each performs a speciality. They dry the bark of the do tree, harvested from February to November, and hang it in a storage area; it can be stored for months before u e. When needed, the papermakers soak the fibers and separate them by hand, discarding the impurities. They soak the fibers for four to six days, then mix them with spoke shavings from the bo nhot tree (Litsea glutino a Rob.). The wood shavings secrete a resinous  ubstance when soaked in water, and they add this to the beaten do fibers. Mr. Nguyen said this allowed the  Man spokeshaving a branch from the Bo Nhot tree in Dong Cao.  sheets to be parted from the pack, since there was no interleaving when couching, as in the Japanese method,u Instead of a traditional wooden beater, the papermakers use a machine resembling an industrial paint mixer.  The papermakers form each sheet to the same thickness, then couch it onto the post. It is the number of layers that they pull off the post at a time that determines the thickness of the final sheet; they sell the paper in thicknesses of one, two, six, and eight layers. They use bamboo molds with a deckle and produce sizes up to 64 crn x 84 cm, as many as three hundred sheets of this size in a single day, and as many as five hundred smaller sheets. It was obvious that the woman I saw separating the sheets from the post had much experience: separated too soon and they tore, too late and they stuck together.  The papermakers export their paper to France and Holland, selling a small percentage to local artists for printing, painting, and making rubbings. But even this family is operating on a subsistence level. Once they sell the paper, they spend the profits for food, then put the rest back into materials for the next batch. I tried to determine where the fibers were grown, but "far away" was the only answer I received1 2 Although many people used to produce paper of similar quality, Mr. Nguyen was the only one left in Dong Cao and was understandably protective of his proprietary ecrets. After one visit I expressed my frustration to my translator, who wisely reminded me that it was probably his reluctance to disclose the secrets of his operation that enabled him to remain in operation now.  About ten kilometers away from Dong Cao is Dong Ho, a village where a coating made from shells is applied to the paper made in Dong Cao.13 The paper, called giay diep, is made from the shells of mollusks brought from Ha Long Bay, approximately one hundred kilometers to the east. Although shell white is used as a pigment in Japan and China,14 I have yet to hear of its use as a coating for paper outside Vietnam Local legends confirm this uniqueness. After they remove the shellfish, the village leave the shells to decompose, sometimes for years, in large piles, then they remove the mother of pearl and discard the outer shell. The mother of pearl is pulverized in a wooden mortar and pestle and mixed with a starch-based binder. The resulting diep paste is applied with a coarse pine bristle brush, giving the paper characteristic valleys and peaks. The coating prepares the surface for either painting or printing.  The prints produced on this type of paper are known as Hang Trong pictures. Living and working in Dong Ho, Mr. Nguyen Dang Che is a twentieth-generation block.  HAl'D P APERMAJll :c  printer. His family worked until 1944 making block prints that illustrate traditional moral tales. (The sale of moral texts may have subsequently been prevented by the emerging socialist regime.) He taught painting at the Hanoi College of Industrial Design until 1990, when a French television crew filmed a documentary about him that created enough demand for him to go into printing full time. Mr. Nguyen Dang Che is also a scholar of Hang Trong history and has been acquiring antique blocks from the rest of the village in order to preserve them. (The rest of the village now makes votive paper objects, mainly in the shape of shoes.) He executes the prints in five traditional colors and mixes the diep with them to render them more opaque. The market for Mr. Nguyen Dang Che's prints is virtually all foreigners, as the Vietnamese seem to prefer photographs of scantily clad young women standing in front of skyscrapers holding cellular telephones to old fashioned moral tales. It is always rewarding to meet an individual interested in preserving and researching a craft tradition.  The end of the 20th century marks a strange situation for the cultural status of handmade paper in Vietnam. Formerly, ".. .learning and research usually centered around moral and philosophical issues drawn from the writings of the saints and sages, an inscribed page was regarded as sacred."15 Now, however, the most common use for Vietnamese handmade paper is one of the most profane, toilet paper. The future of Vietnamese papermaking seems to depend on the ability to generate foreign markets, since there is virtually no interest within the country. At this point the facilities and knowledge are there, only the market is lacking. International relationships continue to im- SUMMER 1995  prove: the United States is constructing an embassy in Hanoi and low-level diplomatic officials have been exchanged. I am hopeful that the Vietnamese will contmut' the craft of papermaking for many centuries to corne.  Endnotes  Nguyen Khac Vien and Le Huy Van, Arts and Crafts of Vietnam (Hanoi: The GIOI [Foreigr. Languages Publishing Housel, 1992),44.  Viet Chung, "Some Traditional Handicrafts," Vietnamese Studies, 62 (no date): 70.  Keith Weller Taylor, The Birth of Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 60  Viet Chung, 71.  Ibid., 70.  Nguyen Khac Vien and Le Huy Van, 43.   7. Nguyen Xuan Lai, "The Craft Industries in the Present Period," Vietnamese Studies, 62 (no date): 44.  Ibid., 53.  Vietnamese is a five tonal language: that is, the same word when pronounced with a differen: pitch and intonation can mean five different things. One of the other pronunciations of the word for "paper" means "scrotum."  Curiously, in labor intensive jobs such as construction or farming, it appeared that the wome. performed the most physically demanding tasks; it was always a woman at the vat, plowtn2 behind the water buffalo, or hauling buckets of cement to the top of a building project, \-"hlit' the men smoked cigarettes and "supervised".  Timothy Barrett told me in a telephone conversation that the shavings added to the pulF probably also aid in sheet formation.  I was later told, by Mr. Nguyen Dang Che, that the do tree fibers come from the province ur Tuyen Quay, which is where Le Qui Don said they came from in the 18th century.  Apparently, it was common in the past for villages to specialize in one aspect of a final craft product. In the manufacture of silk garments, for instance, one village might raise the silkworms, another spin the thread and dye it, and still another weave the final product. (See Viet Chung, 67.)  Ashok Roy, editor, Artists' Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics (New York Oxford University Press, 1993),2:207.  Nguyen Khac Vien and Le Huy Van, 44.   I would to like to thank the Vietnamese papermakers who shared their knowledge, time, and tea with me; my sister, Kris Peachey, for her translation services and guidance; and the Mennonite Central Committee for providing partial funding for my research.