Recognizing Vietnamese talent
Nice short-sleeved shirt, neatly tucked in, artist Trinh Ngoc, at alley 50, Ly Chinh Thang street, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City works hard every day with the craft of making shoes. In his 90s, his smile is gentle, his eyes are still bright and always shine with joy when he talks about his life of many ups and downs.
Born in Bac Lieu, in 1946, when France was reborn. Occupying the Southern region, Mr. Ngoc’s family left their homeland. At that time he was only 15 years old. Coming to Nam Vang (old name of Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Reporter), Mr. Ngoc fell in love with the shoemaking profession.
At that time, Mr. Ngoc’s older brother went to school. suitcase making business, there was a shoe factory next door so he came to see how it was done. Having access to two jobs, Mr. Ngoc felt more interested in being a shoemaker. The suitcase is big and the shoe is small, requiring a lot of advanced techniques. I think shoemaking is an art” – he explained.
To have money to live in your land, Mr. Ngoc sells orange cakes and bird’s nest cakes every day. Whenever he has free time, he goes to the shoe factory to learn about this profession. With the ability to observe and keen diligence, after six years, the young man confidently opened a shoe store named Duc Phat, surprising all his friends and relatives.
The first phase of opening Customers come to repair shoes because they do not completely trust Mr. Ngoc’s skills. Because of this, Mr. Ngoc is even more determined.
He said: “There is a French proverb: Petit à petit L’oiseau fait son nid means: < em>The bird picks up a strand of straw and leaves every day… a little bit every day and over time it builds a nest”. I am like a bird who diligently builds a nest, learning a little bit every day.”
Thanks to knowing 3 languages: Chinese, English and French, Mr. Ngoc has the opportunity to meet many foreigners. Several times someone asked him to repair Western shoes, and he realized that these shoes had good quality and eye-catching designs. From then on, he began to learn more about the shoes that customers brought and learned more about shoes from books.
“Gradually my shoe making techniques improved. I think shoes I made about 90% of the quality that customers bought from Europe. When he made the best shoes, he displayed them in a glass cabinet and the product began to attract the attention of many Western customers.
So Mr. Ngoc’s shoe shop was visited by more and more foreign customers, intellectual politicians such as professors, doctors, engineers, etc. In the 1950s, he was honored to be chosen to play shoes for the Cambodian royal family. Of which he played the most for the current King Norodom Sihanouk, making him famous for his Vietnamese talent.
In 1992, Mr. Ngoc retired. He thought that after many years of wandering, the shoemaker would take time to rest and recover in old age, but he still decided to open Ngoc Chaussures shop, which until now is still full of customers coming back and forth to make shoes.
A special feature of the shop is that each pair of handmade shoes made by artisan Trinh Ngoc is not cheap, from a few million to several tens of millions of dong, but customers do not pay the price. Some customers even order several pairs at once.
Mr. Tan Phong, 32 years old in Ho Chi Minh City, a regular customer of the store, shared: “Uncle Ngoc makes very comfortable shoes. He is extremely careful in making shoes. Measuring feet. The shoes he makes are both beautiful and delicate. My grandfather and father were also his regular customers.”
Mrs. Thuy, 59 years old, who has been making shoes with Mr. Ngoc and his wife for nearly 30 years, said: “He has a cheerful and hospitable personality. He talks humorously even though he loves to tell stories.” But when I work, I’m very focused.”
It is only difficult to become an artisan and become a businessman.
First-time visitors often return and become close friends of the old artisan. Everyone came to him with respect and admiration. Looking at the way he takes care of each piece of leather and each shoe model with patterned seams… we can see how he has spent his entire life loving and appreciating the work he has pursued and stuck with.
In an old room on the third floor, only about 15 square meters wide, artist Trinh Ngoc alone does all the steps. “A professional shoemaker must know how to design and create beautiful shoe models, must be a carpenter to mold wooden molds according to foot size, and must also be an artist who pours his soul into each product,” he thought.
Knowing Mr. Ngoc’s skills and reputation, many foreigners approached him and offered to cooperate with a very high salary, but the old artisan refused.
“Worker business often runs after their profits I love my job. I don’t like it because when it comes to art, people don’t think about money. If they think about money, they will never create good work That’s why in my life I can only be an artist and not a businessman,” Mr. Ngoc confided.
Sitting in silence He told me that a son of a rich businessman in Saigon came to order shoes. He came holding the catalog and said: “Please make me this shoe shape, add this and attach that…”.
Let him finish, Mr. Ngoc slowly replied: ” Sorry, it’s up to you as a customer to order the model. But as a shoe maker, you also have the right to refuse to do the requests you put forward “It’s anti-art. Even if you pay 5 times more or more, I still can’t do it.”
With wrinkled hands holding a forme, artisan Trinh Ngoc emphasized that in this shoe profession, the first thing you must have is the form – the “soul” of the shoes.
Looking around the artist’s workshop, there are shoe forms everywhere, some he keeps on high shelves in the closet, others stacked in one corner and then packed neatly in boxes in the small workshop.
For the artist, each pair of cheesecloths is a story because he carefully crafted each pair. Beautiful shape creates beautiful shoes. More conscientiously, each phoenix that he preserves is engraved with his name.
There are phoenixes that are decades old, such as that of King Sihanouk, Mr. Domic Prices, General Director of JPMorgan Bank (UK), and artists. famous as Dam Vinh Hung Quang Linh Lam Truong…
For more than 70 years, not only has he been a shoemaker, Mr. Ngoc is also an artist and the ultimate keeper of handmade values. The art of a traditional profession is facing the risk of extinction.
Ngoc Khuyen
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