Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [378]
Traditionally, the professions of artists or performers were hereditary, but the wars and political upheavals of the twentieth century have contributed to the loss of much of this largely oral tradition. While certain art forms continue to attract new talent, the younger generation is, on the whole, more interested in higher-paid professions and Vietnamese pop. As revolutionary (“red”) music has waned since 1986, so pre-1975 music from the South, previously outlawed as “decadent and reactionary”, is back with a vengeance, mixed with a sprinkling of artists from other Asian countries and the West.
Music and theatre |
The traditional strand
Vietnam’s traditional theatre, with its strong Chinese influence, is more akin to opera than pure spoken drama. A musical accompaniment and well-known repertoire of songs form an integral part of the performance, where the plots and characters are equally familiar to the audience. Nowadays, however, the two oldest forms, Cheo and Tuong, are struggling to survive, while even the more contemporary Cai Luong is losing out to television and video. However, other traditional arts have seen something of a revival, most notably water-puppetry and folk-song performances. The stimulus for this came largely from tourism, but renewed interest in the trance music of Chau Van and the complexities of Tai Tu chamber music has been very much home-grown.
Music and theatre | The traditional strand |
Theatre
Vietnam’s oldest surviving stage art, Hat Cheo, or “Popular Opera”, has its roots in the Red River Delta where it’s believed to have existed since at least the eleventh century. Performances consist of popular legends and everyday events, often with a biting satirical edge, accompanied by a selection of tunes drawn as appropriate from a common fund. Though the movements have become highly stylized over the centuries, Cheo’s free form allows the actors considerable room for interpretation; the audience demonstrates its approval, or otherwise, by beating a drum.
Cheo has the reputation of being anti-establishment, with its buffoon character who comments freely on the action, the audience and current events. So incensed were the kings of the fifteenth-century Later Le Dynasty that Cheo was banned from the court, while artists and their descendants were excluded from public office. Nevertheless, Cheo survived and received official recognition in 1964 with the establishment of the Vietnam Cheo Theatre, charged with reviving the ancient art form. It is now promoted as the country’s national theatre, although its local popularity continues to decline despite a body of new work dealing with contemporary issues which aims to introduce Cheo to a wider audience.
Hat Tuong (also known as Hat Boi or Hat Bo), probably introduced from China around the thirteenth century, evolved from classical Chinese opera, and was originally for royal entertainment before being adopted by travelling troupes. Its story lines are mostly historic events and epic tales dealing with such Confucian principles as filial piety and relations between the monarch and his subjects. Tuong, like Cheo, is governed by rigorous rules in which the characters are rendered instantly recognizable by their make-up and costume. Setting and atmosphere are conjured not by props and scenery but through nuances of gesture and musical conventions with which the audience is completely familiar – and which they won’t hesitate to criticize if badly executed. Of the clutch of Tuong troupes still in existence, Hanoi’s Vietnam Tuong Theatre is one of the most active.
While performances of Tuong are comparatively rare events these days, if you see a large building with peanut- and candy-sellers outside, the chances are that there’s a performance of Hat Cai Luong, or “Reformed Theatre”, going on inside. Cai Luong originated in southern Vietnam in the early twentieth century, showing a French theatrical