Don’t be Fooled in Sapa: It’s Fake!
Posted Sunday, April 8th, 2007 · Permalink
I recently started reading Christopher Skinner’s travel updates on his travel weblog. His most recent entry talks about his experience is Sapa and more specifically details a point that I have given a lot of thought after my visit there almost a year ago: the minorities selling their wares to tourists.
The above picture displays this activity. The minority villagers make their way to Sapa with blankets and other such crafts and approach tourists with efforts to sell the items. This activity is not unique to Sapa or Vietnam. Such activities are as old as tourism itself and happen all over the world. But there is a very dishonest truth to these particular wares that most tourists are unaware of.
The truth is that most of these goods are factory produced. I first became aware of this fact in the central highlands region of Vietnam. The day before, I had purchased a beautiful silk bed cover from a minority who touted that it took two women two months to make it. I, not knowing much about anything, forked-over a hefty wad of cash to the lady, took my great find, and was on my way.
The next day I stopped at another such place and found exactly the same cover hanging from a wall. I asked the shopkeeper whether he could tell me more about the piece. He had a similar yet slightly less elaborate story. The more I looked at the piece, the more it became painfully clear that there was no way this was made by hand. Two months later my suspicions were confirmed when I was in Bangkok’s Chinatown and found my cloth in a large bag being sold for 12 dollars: Made in China.
This experience infuriated me. I was unhappy with the fact that minorities felt it was okay lie to trusting, well-mannered, polite, and good-willing foreigners. It made me hugely skeptical of the whole idea of ‘poor minorities selling goods’ thing. I was also mad at myself.
So when visiting a Sapa minority village, I asked to see where they made the huge amount of blankets they were selling in the village. They took me to all these houses where you could see old women making little decorations on clothing (something they’re famed for) and other such activities. But after two hours of walking around, nothing could be found.
I later asked my hotel manager about it. He reluctantly informed me that most of these things are in fact made just over the border in China.
I would have no problem if they just told the truth, or let everything be what they were. But they tell people that they make these items. That they spend hours making something. We, as Westerners, attribute value to their efforts and decide the item’s worth based on these false claims. It’s a shame.
The dillema, if you read this along with Chris’ story, is that these people need tourist money for their lives. They are dependant. So we can’t just stop buying. But this activity needs to stop. If you want something from Sapa, ask them to make you an armband. It takes them 15 minutes and it’s great fun to see it made.
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1TravMonkey // April 9th, 2007 at 1:47 am
I was in Sapa not long ago, the problem is that these people have left their village life in search of the tourist cash.
I mean who really wants to see locals dressed in so called traditional dress if they aren’t being traditional at all?
Sapa is a beautiful place but has the local’s culture is being eroded by the influx of tourists.
I have a policy of not buying anything from these people as if just feeds the habbit more and more…. but it seems to late from Sapa and many other places around the world.
There was a time when these people weren’t reliant on the tourists cash, they could live off the land.
2Timen // April 9th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Hey Paul,
That might indeed be the best policy. I remember leaving Sapa early because of my disgust. I felt betrayed and unhappy.
I took a bus to a place 100 kilometers away. Similar place as Sapa. Rice paddies carved into the mountains. Minorities in beautiful clothing. But this time, unspoiled.
3Christopher Skinner // April 10th, 2007 at 7:10 am
Great to hear another take on Sapa. I did find that Sapa, like many other hill tribe communities in SE Asia, had an artificial front for the sake of making money. The only people who wore traditional clothing were people selling blankets and silver plated bracelets. The local people, off the beaten path (in local neighbourhoods in the villages), look more like city people than hill tribe people. I was aware that most souvenirs were made in china, but I also know that many are made in factories in Sapa town. Other trinkets, in more remote areas, seemed very original. This was a typical tailored SE Asia experience.
On my blog you mentioned that the people can survive on $1 a day instead of the $20 that it takes for us to survive. I think that anyone can survive on a dollar a day but, in my opinion, all people deserve more. I gave a man some medicine from my backpack (cost of $3). On a budget of 1 dollar a day, this man would have only been able to buy food, and therefore his infection would have spread, leaving him in a poor state of survival. I do agree that many people in SE Asian countries are far less poor than they seem, as the make so much from tourists, but there is an obvious imbalance between us and the general population, which is just as obvious. I always assess someone’s level of need and how much I have to give before I do. For me, giving makes me feel better about being in a country and so it’s not entirely altruistic.
Great Blog! I’ll keep checking in.
TravelingChris
4Olivier // February 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Hello,
I am living in Sapa and the story you tell us about the blankets is, of course, totally wrong. Blankets are made with skirts, usually old ones. They break the skirts in order to get the most beautifuls parts of it and then put several of them together before dying them.
The originals skirts were made by hand. They made blankets by hand : cutting skirts then sewing them together and dying them.
The “crap” which isn’t made by hand is usually sold by the red zao : giant tapistry-like to put on the walls and some of the pillows.
Everything that lose color (you need to fix it) is made by hand.
Of course minorities need money to survive and most of the people that you can trust sell in the market rather than in the streets (except the ones selling near the big park.)
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