VietNamNet Bridge – The World Heritage site and ancient town of Hoi An has been implementing a number of measures to preserve bai choi singing in an effort to promote the heritage site’s cultural value.

A performance of bai choi singing (Photo: VNA)

On the night of the 15th day of every lunar month, bai choi singers converged in open-air stages installed along the Hoai River to resemble the singing game.

The effort created a memorable tourist product unique to Hoi An, turning the town into a “living museum” of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Since 2010, bai choi singing performances were made a centerpiece of the town’s “ancient street night” programme.

To promote the folk songs, performance styles were held in an audience-friendly way that facilitates the participation of tourists, especially international guests, in the traditional games.

An audience-friendly stage for bai choi performances enables participants to really feel the cultural wealth of the town, foreign guests agreed.

Hoi An receives more than 1.5 million tourists a year, including 900,000 international visitors.

According to Director of Hoi An’s Centre for Culture and Sports Vo Phung, bai choi singers from his centre have also joined international tours to Asian and European countries to introduce the cultural practice to the world.

The centre has worked with the local Office for Education and Training since 2013 to organise events at local primary and secondary schools, as well as games on Hoi An’s ancient streets with the involvement of artists and local children to ensure the singing’s continued existence.

Since its recognition as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, Hoi An has reinvigorated a number of cultural traditions and festivities, which has strengthened the town’s tourism industry.

Unique to the coastal central region, bai choi singing is often seen at local spring festivals and resembles a game, using playing cards and village huts.

The stage for bai choi performances encompasses nine cottages, each containing five or six ‘players’. One of the cottages, the central house, contains a troupe of musicians and instruments. A deck of playing cards is split in half, with one stack distributed amongst the players, and the other placed in the central house. The cards are stuck onto bamboo poles and erected outside the cottages.

The game singer delivers a flag to each cottage, all the while singing bai choi, and then draws a card from the central house. Whoever holds the card closest in value to the game singer’s card wins.

The bai choi songs are about festivals, daily life and work, and are accompanied by musical instruments.

The game and songs were developed by Mandarin Dao Duy Tu (1572-1634) to help locals protect their crops, according to Hoang Chuong, Director of the Centre for Preservation and Promotion of National Culture.

Vietnam currently has eight cultural practices on the UNESCO intangible heritage list, namely Hue's royal court music, the space of Gong culture in the Central Highlands, Quan ho (love duet) singing, the Giong festival, Ca Tru ceremonial singing, Xoan singing, Worshipping the Hung Kings, and Don ca tai tu (amateur singing).

VNA/VNN