Preserve two traditional Vietnamese performing arts

Various intensive solutions will be implemented within the next five years to preserve two traditional Vietnamese performing arts that have been recently recognised as cultural heritage by UNESCO.
Quan ho
(love duet) has been recognised as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and ca tru (ceremonial singing) has been inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
Speaking at a meeting held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism yesterday in Ha Noi, deputy head of the ministry’s Culture Heritage Department Le Thi Minh Ly stressed the necessity to continuously preserve these arts.
The ministry will ask the concerned authorities to inventory and organize all the documents concerning ceremonial singing in order to build up a proper database at the National Music Academy.
A research project about ceremonial singing will also be implemented. A textbook on ca tru for students in music academies nationwide will be among the key project tasks. Two additional books featuring ca tru lyrics and ancient documents will be released, as well.
In order to continuously restore and spread ca tru, a project is being organised to create advanced classes on ca tru in the 14 cities and provinces where the art form still remains. Young people joining the classes will inherit this valuable cultural treasure, and will later be able to spread this art form in their communities.
The ministry also promised to pay more attention to organising ceremonial singing festivals and will also restore the places where the ancestral art form was created and worshipped.
Spreading and popularising the ceremonial singing in schools and universities is one of the key tasks that will be implemented in order to preserve the art form.
The ministry has also revealed solutions to be enacted to protect the love duet form, which includes creating unions for performers and working with the tourism sector to promote quan ho.
At the meeting, Ly called on all of the concerned authorities, as well as the whole community to join together to protect these cultural gems.
The decision to recognise these two art forms was announced at the fourth section of UNESCO’s inter-governmental committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.