Traditional bamboo basket weaving, once a hallmark of Ho Chi Minh City, is now disappearing. Understanding why this centuries‑old craft is vanishing helps us see how market and social changes affect cultural heritage.

Huynh Thi Tam, now 56, learned to weave bamboo baskets when she was 13 or 14. She runs a small workshop that produces 200‑250 baskets each day for fish wholesalers. Tam stopped using shaving machines after they scratched the bamboo, so she returns to fully manual production. She has been looking for a younger person to take over, but the craft is fading.

After 1975, the craft was organized into state‑managed cooperatives. During that period, demand grew strongly, and the baskets were sold locally as well as exported to Taiwan, China and Australia. Tam recalls this flourishing era as a time when many families depended on weaving for their livelihood.

Today plastic bags and styrofoam boxes dominate the market. Because fish vendors have limited storage space, they have stopped buying bamboo baskets, cutting a major source of income for weavers.

Weaving a basket still requires seven steps, and the shaving stage needs great skill. The work is physically demanding, pays little, and does not appeal to young people. All active artisans are now 50 or older, and Tam’s attempts to train younger apprentices have produced only a few workers in their 60s‑70s.