Minh Lang embroidery village: Where skilled hands weave soul into fabric

PANO - Nestling along the Red River, Minh Lang embroidery village in Thu Tri commune, Hung Yen province was once a “giant embroidery workshop” renowned across Eastern Europe. Despite historical upheavals and though the village is no longer as bustling as before, master artisans still silently craft exquisite works.

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Along the Red River, Minh Lang village appears serene, in contrast to the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

Few people know that this village was once a “giant embroidery workshop” in the North of Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s.

When historical upheavals caused the market to collapse, many families tearfully put away their frames, leaving unfinished dreams in threads and silk.

Though no longer vibrant as in the past, in peaceful houses, the trade is preserved through meticulous production process.

Embroidery in Minh Lang village is not merely about stitching and pulling threads. It is the art of “painting with a needle.”

Everything begins with sketches on paper, transferred onto silk, followed by careful selection of threads.

To create a perfect work, artisans must be accurate in their choice of materials and each multicolored silk thread.

Each work is a problem of aesthetic thinking, where artisans mix colors by their own through dedicatedly layered stitches.

Attached to the embroidery frame since she was 14, 49-year-old Pham Thi Ve exemplifies the perseverance of Minh Lang villagers.

For Ve, traditional hand embroidery is not only technique, but also the ability to “visualize” color gradations before placing the first stitch.

The finer the details are, the greater the concentration is required, as even a minor mistake in color coordination can strip the work of its “soul.”

In the quiet space, filled only with the soft sound of needles piercing fabric, local women diligently weave their passion into the Ao dai (traditional Vietnamese long dress) and Hanbok for export.

That patience reflects the value of handicrafts, where human hands continue a silent dialogue with every fiber of fabric.

In Minh Lang village, landscape embroidery is already challenging, but portrait embroidery (realistic likeness) is truly the pinnacle of the craft.

Artisan Nguyen Cao Binh shared that portrait embroidery requires both skillful hands and exceptional creativity to capture the spirit in the eyes and smile.

For this master artisan, a high-end work must be “timeless,” carrying memories and the essence of the old countryside.

Under the pressure of new technology that creates both beautiful and cheap products, the craft village is facing the problem of survival as young people gradually move away from embroidery to work for companies.