Khuoc Villagers are practicing a Cheo performance (Photo: www.danvietvn)

(VOVworld)  The northern province of Thai Binh is famous for high-yield rice fields and as the cradle of Cheo or traditional opera.  There are many Cheo villages in the province. Khuoc village is one of them. No one knows the exact origin of Khuoc Cheo, but villagers say it has been performed since ancient times. Despite years of rapid changes in Vietnam, the love of Thai Binh people for this traditional art has remained constant. On this week’s Sunday Show, we’ll visit Khuoc village’s Cheo theatre and examine local efforts there to preserve and develop Cheo.

Luong Than - a Khuoc villager and son of Folk Artisan Pham Van Dien: To mention Thai Binh is to refer to Vietnam’s granary and the home of Cheo opera. And when you mention Cheo, people immediately think of Khuoc village, where in 2005 two artists--Pham Van Dien and Cao Kim Trach—became the first Vietnamese artists to receive the honorary title Folk Artisan. Over the years Khuoc village has contributed many other talented Cheo singers and musicians to Vietnam’s Cheo theater.

Hồng Vân - Director of Thai Binh’s Culture and Information Department: To people all over Vietnam, Cheo is a specialty of Thai Binh province. It seems any village in the province has people who are able to sing Cheo. In some villages, there might be as many as three different troupes whose specialty is performing Cheo.

Vũ Cải - Deputy Director of Thai Binh's Cheo Opera Theater: I should point out that the style of Cheo performed throughout Thai Binh province is based primarily on the example and teaching of Khuoc village’s Cheo artists.

Hồng Vui - Meritorous artist: As a person working in the media field, I’ve observed that most of the artists in the province who are 60 or older have a performance style typical of Khuoc village. When they compete at a national folk singing festival, this is readily apparent. The Khuoc Cheo style really stands out.

A Cheo song with classical lyrics - Đò đưa – performed by artists of Thai Binh Cheo Opera Theater

The Thai Binh people’s love of Cheo and the support of provincial leaders at all levels are the keys to making Cheo a sustainable folk art. But Vietnam’s rapid development in recent years has threatened this art with extinction. People in the Cheo region are groping for the best way to preserve and strengthen the art. Vũ Cải, Deputy Director of Thai Binh province’s Cheo Opera Theater says 'Over the past 50 years, generations of artists and staff at the Theater have consistently sought to master the performance techniques and skills of classical Cheo, and on that foundation to develop new ones. This orientation has governed the theater’s training and hands-on teaching and, as a result, our province’s Cheo has acquired a unique identity'. 

The music of Thai Binh’s Cheo is said to have a perfectly square shape—referring to the singing, castanets, percussive rhythms, and humming that characterize standard Cheo songs.  Meritorious artist Hồng Vui - head of the Art Section of the Thai Binh Radio and Television Station - stresses ''Audiences are full of praise for the orchestra of very fine musicians that always accompanies the performance of the actors''.

Song - Tuyết dạ sông Thương – Hồng Cậy from a Cheo Club in Kuoc Village.

That was Hồng Cậy, a member of a Cheo Club in Kuoc Village, doing Tuyết dạ sông Thương. This tune has always been considered impossible to sing unless a drummer beats the very intricate rhythm correctly.

Young members of Khuoc Village’s Cheo Club (Photo: www.cand.com.vn)

In the current market economy, the preservation and development of any intangible cultural art is difficult. Hồng Vân, Director of Thai Binh’s Culture and Information Department, talks about the biggest obstacle in this process 'Although Thai Binh people love Cheo very much, there are fewer and fewer Cheo artists. Fewer young people gravitate to the traditional arts. It’s partly because they never have the opportunity to listen to Cheo or try to perform it that would help them appreciate its beauty. To be able to perfom a Cheo drama, amateur actors need costumes and musical instruments which they can seldom afford to buy. I’m saying that there hasn’t been any policy to provide financial support to budding young Cheo artists in the communes and villages'.

Meanwhile Deputy Director Vũ Cải of the Cheo Opera Theater raises another issue: 'What’s causing headaches for us now is figuring out how to help the professional Cheo artists who are trying to focus on preservation and innovation. We know current economic and social stresses are affecting the artists, especially the young ones, eroding their confidence in the profession.  

Various measures have been proposed to solve these difficulties, such as boosting the public’s involvement in preserving the art. Culture and Information Department Director Hong Van has this to say: 'Cheo is one of the province’s major strengths, so we have to preserve it as part of Thai Binh’s development strategy. In addition to encouraging district culture centers to organize public art programs, we’re also setting up training courses to teach Cheo singing, dancing, and acting, and sponsoring village Cheo singing contests. We particularly encourage the performance of original new Cheo plays.

And Meritorous artist Hong Vui told VOV 'I propose to teach traditional Cheo singing on the province’s television station. In this way, I think we can spread the art to more people. Every time we organize a communal program of Cheo songs, the program enjoys an easy success'.

This is obviously a positive sign. It proves that where there’s unanimity and cooperation between people from different walks of life, between the Government and the public, and between professional artists and amateur artists, the preservation and advancement of Cheo art is possible to achieve.

 
A Cheo song with lyrics set in praise of Thai Binh province