As one drives across the Dong Nai river valley on the highway Saigon-Bien Hoa, one can notice prosperous villages and ceramic kilns that seem to operate round the clock. These are the well-known ceramic villages of Binh Duong and Xuan An.

Bien Hoa ceramics has both artistic and usage value. Main products include elephant-shaped stands, round stands, flower-pots, statues and animals decorated with fine contemporary motifs, and using light-firing glazes, light and flowing, milky or ivory milk whites. Decorative motifs such as four seasons, four supernatural creatures, or calligraphy poems also reveal the influence Chinese art has exerted on Bien Hoa ceramics. 

Bien Hoa artistic pieces are also worthy of attention. Some 20 years ago, Bien Hoa artisans were successfully designing and carving folk pictures on ceramics which created a new style of ceramic-pictures. Artistic ceramics range from line imitated from the Cham culture such as statues of Vishnu or dancing Shiva, to folk themes drawn from the Vietnamese tradition such as pastors, beautiful girl, etc. Bien Hoa also produced terracotta (red ceramic) without glaze that added to the natural and special beauty of Bien Hoa ceramics.

Two important factors have contributed to the beauty of Bien Hoa ceramics: its skilful workers and the abundant availability of kaolin as well as of colourful clay. Bien Hoa artisans have revealed a great talent in being able to integrate and harmonize the quintessence of different cultures into their own production. Products are worked on turning tables as well as in moulds. They are decorated by incising, relief or a technique of hole making, and then glazed with colours before firing

Dong Nai ceramics craft is now mainly located in the southern part of Bien Hoa city, as well as in Hoa An, Vu Hoa, Tan Van, Tan Hanh, and Long Thanh communes where hundreds of businesses and workshops specialize in ceramics. Most of big manufacturers such as Thai Duong, Minh Duc, Viet Thanh, Dong Thanh, etc are now equipped with gas kilns in order to ensure stable quality and low production costs. Bien Hoa’s ceramic articles are exported to most countries in Asia, Europe and America and generate annual turnover of about USD9.6 million.

In the context of today’s general trends of development toward integration, besides foreign investment, traditional craft villages – especially ceramics craft - play an important role in boosting the economic development of Dong Nai province. Having the advantage of being close to Ho Chi Minh City, which is very convenient for transportation and import-export, Dong Nai ceramics craft has all the necessary conditions to establish strong economic relations with foreign customers.

(Nguồn: hrpc.com.vn)