In Vietnam kite flying has been a traditional pastime for farmers since feudal times. After toiling in the fields, the farmers would spend time with their kids by making then flying kites. There was a clear symbolism to the act of kite flying. When the farmers’ let the kites into the air, they dreamed of favourable weather for their crops and a brighter future for their children.
Today Vietnamese still show a keen and widespread interest in kites. People living in the city may not be farmers, but they still need to relax and spend time with their kids. Today in the big city flying a kite is a form of escapism – as the kite floats high into the sky your eyes are diverted from the urban jungle.
I needs the fresh air as kite need the immense sky. Kite flying is closely associated with most Southeast Asian nations, such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam as well as China.
In Khmer culture monks would fly several kites on the roofs of pagodas as a way of praying for peace and prosperity. If a kite fell down, the monks would perform certain rituals to scare evil spirits away. In Thailand, the kite represented the king’s power and so kite flying was a way to show loyalty to the royal throne as well as to pray for good weather and prosperity.
Kites in Thailand were also considered to be the incarnation of birds, which are believed to help stave off humidity. The custom of flying kites is still performed when the rainy season finishes and farmers need dry weather to harvest their crops and dry produce.
The tradition of kite flying in Vietnam most likely came from China. The image of a boy sitting on a buffalo, playing the flute and flying a kite symbolises the peace and tranquillity of the Vietnamese countryside. The image of the kite can also be found in the stylised images of the Lac birds on excavated bronze drums. Our dear city (Saigon) would organise kite flying contests when I was a child.
Children now don’t know how to make kites and flutes. They often buy kites from shops. But those kites are all the same size, colour and style because they are mass produced – not like us when I was a child, we made kites for ourselves. I want to teach my nephews and nieces to make kites like we did in the old days. With a lack of materials around, the kite-makers used whatever they could find.
We used bad quality paper most of the time because it was not easy to find the good stuff. We would pick up any piece of paper we came across and save it. Children in Saigon today have less free time and less space for kite-flying. After spending a day studying, plenty of the kids in this day and age sadly run straight to their computers. Dreams are now provided by online games.
Kite flying must seem a rather quaint and wistful form of entertainment in their 21st century eyes.
But Still, there are people who still fly the flag for kites.
