Preserving Hoi An Vietnam

It was once one of Japan’s and the world’s most important trade centers. A key port on the ancient silk route. Hoi An traded ceramics textiles, fragrant woods, copper coins, and ironware between merchants from as far as northern Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Written by Raymond Wilkinson for the March/April Heritage Magazine for Vietnam Airlines and published with permission to promote travel to Hoi An and Vietnam.

At the height of relations in the mid 17th century, as many as 1,000 Japanese traders built their homes, warehouses, and even cemeteries in a special treaty quarter in the Vietnamese port of Hoi An. They became advisors to Vietnamese emperors and married into the imperial family. But when the Tokugawa shogunate banned overseas maritime activities in 1635, the Japanese presence in Hoi An went into sharp decline. By the end of the century there were only four or five families living along the beautiful sweeping bays and inlets of central Vietnam. As trade patterns and global commerce shifted, Hoi An went into decline. By the time of the American War, Hoi An was a sleepy backwater town known only to a few cultural experts and intrepid travelers.

In recent years the town has enjoyed a renaissance and revived strong ties with Japan. In 1999 it was declared a World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding cultural and architectural importance. Increasing numbers of tourists from around the world explore the town’s cobblestone streets and indulge in nearby golden beaches. Japanese, Thai and Hollywood movies have used Hoi An’s beautiful wooden buildings as exotic backdrops, one of the latest films being “The Quiet American” starring Michael Caine.

The Shows Women’s University in Tokyo has been active for more than a decade in Hoi An and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has sent a series of experts to work with the town’s Center for Monuments Management and Preservation in restoring an estimated 1,107 listed structures. Much of the focus in Hoi An has been on the Japanese Bridge: a serene, curved structure of wood and tile with a covered roof and a small temple at its center. The bridge was once the entrance to the city’s Japanese Quarter in Hoi An.

As tourists from Germany and Australia clambered noisily across the Hoi An narrow walkway recently, Japanese architectural expert Chikako Suzuki ran her fingers across the ancient beams and noted that the joints in some areas were now several centimetres apart. The gnarled wooden planks inside the temple also sloped at a gradual angle. In its old age, the Hoi An bridge is shifting and slowly sinking.

“It is not an urgent crisis, but without proper attention, the bridge could eventually collapse,” Suzuki said. The government of Hoi An and city, as well as foreign experts, have been exploring ways to preserve this most important structure, and according to Suzuki “work could start next year, but it is very delicate.”

An architect by training, after doing research in Nepal and Tunisia, Suzuki joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) and arrived in Vietnam in January 2006. A native of Kikari, town in Yamahuchi Prefecture, she will stay in Hoi An until December 2007. In that same year JICA will send a second volunteer, a specialist in environmental education, to join her.

“The Japanese connection is very easy to understand,” says Nhugen Duc Minh, deputy director of the Hoi An Center for Monuments Management and Preservation. “We have had a strong bond since the 17th century and this is merely a continuation. We highly value both the Japanese expertise and financial support.”

In recent years, the most obvious impact on Hoi An has been tourism. With the arrival of thousands of tourists in Hoi An and the construction of modern resorts on the outskirts of town, Hoi An has changed dramatically. Old wooden Chinese and Japanese buildings and French colonial houses have transformed into restaurants, cafes, souvenier shops, and clothing boutiques. “Tourism in Hoi An itself is not a threat to the city,” Nguyen Duc Minh said, “but the overspill and side affects of tourism are potential hazards.”

Suzuki and her Vietnamese colleagues have distributed questionnaires to tourists and local citizens, lectured at schools, and scheduled seminars in Hoi An. Recently, she organized Japanese volunteers working in Vietnam and thirty some locals to collect rubbish from the local river, to clean up the waterway, to identify specific pollutants in Hoi An, and to brainstorm ways to combat that pollution. Suzuki also keeps a close eye on renovation work in Hoi An being done on some of the town’s oldest buildings.

“Workmen can sometimes by sloppy,” Suzuki explained. “They are not worried about preserving the wood in these buildings in Hoi An. They just want to get the work done as quickly as possible, open a shop or restaurant, and make money from the tourists. We have to emphasize that this work is to protect Vietnam’s precious cultural heritage for the entire world to enjoy for decades to come.”