Preserving the flame

A group of elderly people in Bac Giang keep the art of quan ho alive
Now I stay here but you leave
Please say we won’t forget each other
We like each other, so please don’t forget what we said.
The sweet voice of Hoac Cong Cho resounds from within the Trung Dong village communal house in Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province, as he sings one of the village’s quan ho (love duets) songs, Dan Ban Luc Ra Ve (What Friends Say to Each Other before Leaving).
With a snow-white head of hair, he is typically like any other old man of his age. But when he wears the khan xep and ao the (the traditional costumes of quan ho singers) and sings beautiful melodies, the 74-year-old man feels as if he has recovered his youth.
But he is not alone. Twelve other elderly people between the ages of 74 to 88 in his village share his passion, including his two brothers Hoac Cong Tao, 88 and Hoac Thi Chuong, 79. Together they set up a group of singers who only sing old quan ho melodies. Cho is the group’s leader.
"My village is surrounded by rice fields and the inhabitants are very poor, but for 100 years, the sounds of quan ho have never been absent," says Vu Van Dai, the leader of the hamlet.
"In our little village of 400 inhabitants, we can always get 20-30 old people together to sing old quan ho songs that can only be heard in this region along the Cau river."
Cho is honoured as the village’s lead artisan. Despite his old age, he still appears young and agile.
"More than 100 years ago, people from Trung Dong village began to sing quan ho songs they had composed themselves. My grandparents and my parents were members of the village’s quan ho group at this time. They taught me to sing the songs from a young age," he recalled.
Over the last 50 years, Cho has been the motivating force for the quan ho singing movement in his village. He has collected the lyrics of more than 100 quan ho songs and has been teaching a group of 50- to 60-year-olds how to sing for free.
Never any funding
The passion to sing and perform is always present in the hearts of the old singers even though they have never received any funding or support from provincial authorities. They have to pay for their costumes out of their own pockets.
Whenever they have to travel a long way to perform they must ask their families for financial help.
"Even with no money and no sponsors, we still sing. The love for quan ho is in our blood," Cho said.
"We set up our voluntary group to preserve the traditional cultural values of our village. We are already very old and close to death, and we would be very sad if one day quan ho sinks into oblivion.
Without funding, the younger generation will not want to follow the passion of their parents and grandparents," he said.
According to Bui Quang Thanh from the Viet Nam Culture and Arts Institute, research has not shown profound value in the quan ho of Trung Dong Village due to its remote location and the country’s limited economic conditions.
"Trung Dong is one of the country’s rare villages that is home to a large number of old people who still love to sing quan ho. Their voices are still very good," Thanh said.
"Many things must be done to preserve the value of old quan ho in this village," he added.