Phùng Thị Kim Phượng Dong Ho painting village artisans In the past, when the Tet festival came, Vietnamese people in the villages, especially in Bac Bo (Tonkin), usually hang the folk paintings to celebrate the new year These rustic and simple paintings are painted by ancient style and close to Vietnamese people and nature The authors of these pictures were the craftsmen in Dong Ho Village (Thuan Thanh Distric, Bac Ninh Province) Dong Ho Village with its famous paintings has become an aesthetic symbol in Vietnam culture Located to the left side of Duong River, Dong Ho stood for centuries making their unique art work From over 100 families in the 1950s, currently there are only a handful of families still making the traditional craft Most villagers have now turned to joss paper making, since the regulation has relaxed and again allowed for religious practices that were once deemed “unfit of the revolutionary” The families of Nguyen Dang Che and Nguyen Huu Sam both run their own galleries and employ a number of workers To everyone’s relief, the essence still remains and thrives Nguyen Dang Che’s art is among the best To preserve the traditional craft, artisan Nguyen Dang Che has spent several years holding on to the art and establishing the Dong Ho Folk Painting Cultural Centre Che himself is a small man filled with energy, working closely with his sons and daughter Each family member seems to have a task in producing the prints and paintings The technical skill in cutting the wood blocks for the prints is a delight to watch Che and his family have invested more than billion VND (141,690 USD) in building a centre to restore and preserve this art form on an area of over 5,000 square metres After many years of working hard, artisan Nguyen Dang Che is pleased with what he has obtained He and the Centre have made a great contribution to restoring and preserving the beauty and unique features of the Vietnamese folk painting genre