Book Review: Vietnamese Water Puppetry

One thing I love doing is learning about all the different types of puppetry, whether it be traditional or modern. Several years ago, I came across the Vietnamese water puppets, and was instantly fascinated. Never before had I seen puppetry done on water, and ever since, I’ve wanted to learn more about the style. So when I found a book on eBay about it, I immediately had to have it.

Vietnamese Water Puppetry, written by Pham Hoang Hai (published by VNA Publishing House; you won’t find this book on Amazon), is a short introductory text on the craft. Combined with plenty of colour pictures, the book offers small chapters on: Vietnam’s cultural heritage; the origins of water puppetry and the reasons behind the use of water; the stories, music, legends, and craftsmanship of the puppetry; a behind-the-scenes look at how the puppets work; and some information about current performing troupes and their locations in Vietnam.

Inside the book. Click on the image for a larger view.

Beginning with a short visual narrative on the art of water puppetry, the book moves onto discussing the historical records that mention water puppetry. Apparently, there really isn’t much of one; and the traditions have been passed down from generation to generation by oral history.

This makes the book - which seems more intent on giving the reader a lesson in Vietnamese culture than on the topic of puppetry - somewhat ambiguous at times, and I was greatly disappointed that the section on ‘behind the curtain’ did not include more information about how the puppets work.

Instead, we’re given a glimpse of behind the curtains: some photos and discussion on the puppets being laid under the water with the use of rods, pulleys and ropes; a few paragraphs on the puppeteers; and a little about the water pavillion, used to both hide the puppeteers and to house the puppets when not in use. And though there is a set of pictures of how the puppets are carved, it’s not clear, either from the photos or the book, how the puppets and ropes actually work. Additionally, it’s not really clear why Vietnamese farmers took to telling stories using puppets and water; one assumes that playing with floating wooden toys slowly evolved into the now-famous puppetry.

But then, this book is not aimed at revealling those details - it’s merely an enticement for tourism, and at times I felt the author may have been ‘glossing over’ aspects of Vietnamese culture in order to make the enticement more pleasing. Perhaps this book would be better accompanied with a video, which would allow the reader/viewer to see behind the scenes in a more comprehensive way.

Inside the book. Click on the image for a larger view.

I can’t complain too much though. Never having been to Vietnam (a 14 hour layover between Australia and South Korea doesn’t count), and never having seen or read anything about water puppetry before, I have now at least a basic understanding of the tradition, and used this book to base my water puppetry introduction on. The use of photos is extensive, would probably make up 50% of the actual book - which isn’t a bad thing, because the photos of the puppets, puppeteers and staging is fascinating, beautiful and informative. And if you’re heading to Vietnam and want to find some water puppet shows to watch, this book contains a useful map of troupes and places to visit. In particular, the book shows photos of the Museum of Ethnology, where visitors can have a go at using water puppets in a small manmade pond.

Despite the lack of really in-depth information about how the puppets work, and the minor grammatical issues due to bad translating, this book was an excellent introduction into Vietnamese water puppetry. Although clearly aimed at a tourist market, Vietnamese Water Puppetry is certainly a good book for those who want a very basic explanation of the tradition; though if you want to learn more, you’ll definitely need to extend your library with something else.

Buyer beware: I must add that I could not find this book listed on even the VNA Publishing House website, nor could I find it on Amazon. In the back of the book, it notes: "Print 3,000 copies". No ISBN is listed. So it’s very likely that Vietnamese Water Puppetry was a short print run, and therefore, rare…. Honestly, I couldn’t even find an image of the book on the net. UPDATE: I’ve just found an old online news article about the book; it sounds as if it might be sold in Hanoi… perhaps no more though?