Phan Ngọc Hiếu (born 1989, Hue City) is a graduate of the University of Economics, Danang, with 8 years of experience in the banking industry. In 2020, he decided to quit his job and embark on an entrepreneurial journey, becoming the founder of Maypaperflower – a paper flower brand inspired by the 300-year-old traditional craft village.
Phan Ngọc Hiếu, Founder of Maypaperflower.
Thanh Tien (Phu Mau commune, Hue City) is a 300-year-old village famous for its traditional paper flower-making craft. As fate would have it, during a trip to Thanh Tien, bank employee Phan Ngọc Hiếu was captivated by the vibrant red and yellow flowers meticulously crafted by local artisans.
The art of making paper flowers is a laborious process. The transformation of stiff paper into delicate blooms involves numerous intricate and meticulous steps. Hiếu describes how, to create a single flower stem, craftsmen must select and split thin, high-quality bamboo canes, which are then sun-dried to form the flower’s stem. The stamen, meanwhile, is created by “hollowing out” the core of a cassava plant.
“What’s special about Thanh Tien paper flowers is their environmental friendliness and the long-standing tradition of flower-making. I asked myself how we could spread and develop this craft further,” Hiếu recounts his initial fascination with the village.
Hiếu also shares how the paper flower-making craft in Thanh Tien is intimately linked to the local tradition of worshipping the Kitchen God. Every year, in the tenth lunar month, the village’s “flower season” commences. Due to the unpredictable nature of this livelihood, many families in Thanh Tien once relied on this craft as a secondary source of income, in addition to their primary occupation of farming.
“After that first visit, I started experimenting with making paper flowers, inspired by the village’s craft but with a creative twist to make them more modern. Initially, it was just a curiosity and a desire to try something new, but my friends’ compliments led to my very first ‘customers.’ At that time, I was simply fulfilling my passion,” shares Phan Ngọc Hiếu.
Subsequently, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, prompting Hiếu to return to his hometown of Hue with his daughter to shelter from the outbreak. However, this unexpected turn of events presented him with an opportunity to delve deeper into the world of paper flowers.
“I decided to leave my banking job to focus entirely on paper flowers. It wasn’t an easy decision, as my parents disapproved, preferring me to stay in a stable career. Thankfully, my husband and sister supported my choice. So, I continued to explore the art of Thanh Tien paper flowers, striving to create products that appealed to modern tastes while preserving traditional elements,” Ngọc Hiếu recalls.
Maypaperflower became the commercial name for the artistic paper flower line inspired by the traditions of Thanh Tien. “May, the English word for the month of May, is also my daughter’s name. When I started making paper flowers and building the brand, I decided to name this flower line after my daughter.”
Maypaperflower products showcase exquisite attention to detail in every stem, leaf, and stamen, captivating customers with their creative fusion of traditional and contemporary art. This blend not only bridges the past and the present but also infuses ancient values with modern hues, romance, and artistry into a handcrafted product.
Hiếu recounts: “It may sound unbelievable, but I started this business with just a pair of scissors at home. With each sale, I reinvested the profits into buying more materials and creating new products. Maypaperflower’s creations draw inspiration from Thanh Tien but with a modern twist.”
In 2020, the two sisters, Phan Ngọc Hiếu and Phan Ngọc Hương, entered their artistic paper flower brand, Maypaperflower, into a startup competition for innovation and creativity in Thua Thien-Hue province and won the top prize. The following year, in 2021, INNODIR Trading and Services Co., Ltd. was established, specializing in the production and trading of traditional artistic paper flowers.
Following the company’s establishment, Ngọc Hiếu returned to Thanh Tien village to meet with local artisans. He sought their feedback to refine his products further and expressed his interest in collaborating on certain production steps and strategies for accessing larger markets.
Simultaneously, Ngọc Hiếu began hiring and training employees, providing them with social insurance and long-term employment contracts. He also invested in machinery to support semi-automatic production, ensuring efficiency and consistency in meeting order demands.
“I took my products to shops and fairs to introduce them to customers. Fortunately, Maypaperflower was well-received from the start. Several major shopping malls in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as hotels, offices, and businesses, placed orders for paper flowers as gifts or decorative items. This positive response motivated me to continue innovating and expanding my market reach. Surprisingly, my first international order also came from a customer I met at one of these fairs,” Hiếu reminisces.
The destination of that first international order was the United Kingdom. As Hiếu rejoiced at the prospect of his paper flowers blooming beyond Vietnam’s borders, he soon realized that exporting brought additional challenges and requirements.
“From the origin of raw materials to the working conditions of our artisans, everything had to meet stringent standards. Therefore, to meet the demands of the international market, Maypaperflower uses imported paper sourced from sustainably managed forests (FSC) and eco-friendly materials that reduce environmental waste.”
However, Maypaperflower’s first export shipment encountered a hurdle when it was flagged as “Red” during customs clearance.
Specifically, for import and export goods, the Customs Authority implements a channeling system for management and clearance. This system consists of three channels: Green, Yellow, and Red. The Green Channel exempts goods from detailed document and physical inspections; the Yellow Channel requires detailed document inspections but exempts physical examinations; and the Red Channel mandates both detailed document and physical inspections.
“I was truly terrified because it was our first export shipment, and we were unfamiliar with the process. The customs officials explained that due to the novelty of exporting paper flowers, they had to conduct a thorough inspection. Fortunately, after a day, our shipment was cleared,” Ngọc Hiếu recounts.
As of now, Maypaperflower has successfully exported its first orders to five countries: the USA, South Korea, the UK, Australia, and Italy. Hiếu shares that while these are initial steps, they represent significant milestones in his journey to promote Vietnamese talent and values, particularly those of his beloved Hue, on the global stage.
“Maypaperflower was officially established in 2021, starting from a small 4-square-meter room with just two members. After a long incubation period, May has grown into a 350-square-meter workshop with nearly 20 dedicated members,” proudly shares the founder of Maypaperflower.
In late September, Maypaperflower’s founder, Phan Ngọc Hiếu, organized a series of events titled “The Paper Flower Weaver: From Traditional Craft Village to Modern Times.”
At the opening seminar of this event series, artisan Tran Phu, with over 50 years of experience in the paper flower-making craft of Thanh Tien, shared: “The art of making paper flowers is a year-long arduous process, enduring sun and rain, only to sell during the half-month of the Kitchen God festival. The value of Thanh Tien paper flowers has been elevated, not only for traditional worship and spiritual purposes but also for creating exquisite art pieces for upscale spaces and export markets.”
Artisan Tran Phu (standing on the far left)
To date, Maypaperflower boasts 107 unique product codes, catering to a diverse range of customer preferences across ages and regions. Their offerings include roses, chrysanthemums, peonies, daffodils, sunflowers, lilies, African daisies, American chrysanthemums, safflowers, lavender, carnations, white and pink lotuses, and more. The Maypaperflower brand has received positive feedback from both domestic and international customers.
“There are still many aspects of my business model that I want to improve, as I’ve only been an entrepreneur for three years, and there’s so much to learn and refine. The key to Maypaperflower’s success lies in our respect for traditional values and our commitment to meticulousness, which are the fundamental principles that guide all our business activities,” affirms Phan Ngọc Hiếu.
