Tohe The Edible Toy

Xuan La Village, Phuong Duc Commune, PhuXuyen District of the Hanoi suburbs is considered the cradle of the starch figurine trade.Village elders say that in the past, due to the lack of toys, some people kneaded animal figurines for them with rice flour, mixed with a little sticky rice flour.

- Le Bich

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After having played with them enough, kids can steam the figurines and eat them. Also, the toys are taken to be sold to Hanoi and surrounding provinces. That’s how the trade was started.

So why the name ‘to he’? Surprisingly, it’s a mispronunciation of ‘to te’. Some artisans of Xuan La village say, in order to attract the kids’ attention, the peddlers attach a whistle to each figurine which sounds ‘to te’ when blown. So the product was given the name ‘to te’, which was later accidentally mistyped as ‘to he’ by a news reporter, and the name stuck, spread, and became commonly accepted.

It’s a fact that the starch figurines are among the very few traditional toys that can still attract kids. And it’s a fortunate thing that there are still some young, dynamic artisans who have updated the characters to include new figures from modern movies, cartoons and everyday life that are easier to recognize. I am talking about young artisan Dang Van Hau, grandson of 90-year-old artisan Dang Van Ha, one of the most famous figurine kneading masters of Phu Xuyen today.