Bac Ninh (VNA) –Dozens of Quan ho (love duets) artists in the northern province ofBac Ninh – the cradle of the traditional art form – are coming together everySaturday night to entertain audiences in a very special performance.

Instead of performing in the yard of a communal house, which is the typicalvenue, the singers perform on boats on the Nguyen Phi Y Lan Lake in Bac Ninh city.

The boat performances are among activities aiming to preserve values of thetraditional art form that was recognised by UNESCO as an intangible culturalheritage of humanity in 2009.  

Tran Quang Nam, Director of the province’s Culture, Sports and TourismDepartment, said Quan ho has different sub-genres, including hatchuc, hat mung (literally means greeting singing); hat tho (ritualsinging); hat canh – a kind of singing competition between avillage’s Quan họ group with another group from another village,which takes place at night during every spring festival; and hat hoi orfestival singing.

“In hat hoi, the singers perform on a boat,” he said, explaining whythe Quan ho boat performance has been a significant part of anytraditional festival in Bac Ninh province for centuries.

“We expect that the Quan ho boat performance every Saturday nightwill be a meaningful cultural activity, helping introduce and further promote theunique art form to residents within and outside the province,” Nam said.

The one-hour performance on Saturday night gathers artists and singers from theBac Ninh Quan Ho Theatre and the Bac Ninh Provincial College of Culture andArt.

Nguyen Thi Can of the province’s Que Vo district said: “Like everyone born inthe homeland of Quan ho, I was attached to the songs and the singing sinceI was a little girl. I feel the performances every Saturday will meet thedemand for Quan ho among the people.”

Even those who do not know this art form will find it easy to enjoy theperformance because “the singers always say something about the song they are aboutto perform”.

Nguyen Xuan Trung, Deputy Director of the culture department, said thatdespite Quan ho having hundreds of songs and tunes, it is not easy tocreate an interesting and different repertoire for every Saturday performance.

“From among an abundant list of hundreds of songs and tunes, we have selectedcarefully about 60 songs which are suitable for performing on the boat,” hesaid.

Quan ho is an art form that combines various elements, including music,lyrics and costumes, and features the distinctive culture of people in theregion, formerly called Kinh Bac.

After its recognition as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, theprovincial authorities have paid more attention to preserving the art form.These include preferential treatment for Quan ho artists, openclasses where artists can teach younger generations, and initiatives tocollect, record and compile more than 500 Quan ho folk songs.-VNA