Lacquer Painting ( ĐÁM CƯỚI CHUỘT )

The “Đám cưới chuột” (Rat Wedding) painting has consistently remained one of the cultural treasures preserved and cherished by people to this day. With just the setting of a simple rat wedding imbued with national identity, viewers can experience and contemplate countless profound hidden meanings behind the lively drawings.

Although the painting has no annotations, anyone who looks at it can perceive the folk artist’s underlying intentions. The cunning, mischievous, and suspicious rats, always wary of cats, their sworn enemies, humorously satirize the greedy cat who is bribed and forgets its duty to exterminate mice. The painting is divided into two sections featuring 12 mice and one cat.

The upper level depicts a scene of the rats offering gifts to the cat, with four mice present. The leading mouse offers a bird with both hands, bowing with its tail folded in, appearing fearful.

The second mouse carries a fish, following behind, its eyes looking at the cat with a similarly timid and fearful expression as the first. The two mice at the end are playing trumpets but are in a posture of vigilance, ready to “dart” away quickly if anything happens.

The lower level shows the welcoming of the bride with eight mice. Leading the procession is the male rat, wearing a mandarin hat, a green ceremonial robe, and boots, riding a pink horse. He looks back with a smug and self-satisfied expression, having passed his doctoral exams with honors and now marrying a beautiful wife. Following behind is a black rat carrying a parasol and a piebald rat (half black, half white) carrying a sign with the two characters “nghinh hôn” (welcoming the bride). The one carrying the parasol looks solemn, while the one with the sign mischievously keeps turning its head back to look at the bride’s palanquin.

Four other mice are carrying the palanquin. The two in front are looking straight ahead, while the two behind are looking back, perhaps intentionally showing us that the procession is long or keeping watch to see if the cat is chasing after them. The bride rat sitting in the palanquin is also wearing a headscarf and a green brocade robe, looking at her groom riding ahead with a proud and content expression.

In the painting, the image that strikes everyone is the cat. The cat is drawn in the upper right corner, very large and majestic, reaching out to receive the offerings.