Work hard to “nourish” Tuong
In 1991, Mr. Nguyen Cong Khanh (born in An Nhon District, Binh Dinh Province) and his wife (born in Tuy Phuoc District, Binh Dinh Province) decided to establish Tien Thanh amateur Tuong troop. All artists of the troop were born in Binh Dinh Province and have been living in KrongPac District, Dac Lac Province. After many ups and downs, Tien Thanh Tuong troop, the only troop of its type in Dac Lac, can now operate quite smoothly and stably with 18 artists and instrumentalists. The troop mainly goes on tour in Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan Provinces. Its tours usually last within 6 months. In the rest of the year, the peasant artists return to their farming work.
Life of the troop head is not better than other artists’. Mr. Khanh not only performs but also takes responsibilities of arranging tours. His family mainly lives on street vending of his wife, Ms. Hanh. The couple sold out their two-tenth-of-a-gold-tael worth saving to cover food and accommodation expenses for the troop during the 2nd national festival of amateur Tuong. “My father, an amateur artist, loves Tuong very much. He died when he was still on the stage. Since his death, I have considered Tuong not only a fervour but also respect for his dedication to art” said Mr. Khanh.
Amateur Tuong troop of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province also participates the festival. Its 27 artists and instrumentalists at the age of around 30 are recruited from a local Classical Tuong club. “Every year, besides the co-performances with local Mobile Information Group, the troop has 40 more performances of its own. Most of the performances are to serve the need of local people on occasions such as festivals, holidays at temples, or communal houses of the localities”- said Mr. Truong Cong Ly, Vice-Director of Culture-Information Centre of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. While they are on the tours, the artists and instrumentalists have to resort to extra earnings to support themselves by working as bricklayers, construction workers, mob-taxi drivers, instrumentalists in funerals… . “Although we live a hard life, all of us are always ready to put our personal affairs aside to enthusiatically participate in tours”, said Minh Sen artist, Chief of the Classical Tuong Club.
Passing the “fire” of passion
Bac Ninh Province in the North Region, now has strong activities of Tuong. The locality has 10 on-going amateur Tuong troops. Out of the Tuong villages in Bac Ninh, Dong Ki Tuong village (at Dong Quang Commune, Tu Son District) is the most famous. This is the only Tuong village in town that has two active amateur Tuong troops. The most unique characteristic of this Tuong village is training of followers. According to village’s rule, if one village artist leaves Tuong stage, at least one of their descendants must follow their course. If the descendant can’t sing, the person can work as a logistics servant in the troop.
The Classical Tuong Club of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province also keeps high awareness of preserving Tuong through hereditary training approach. Nearly half of the artists in the troop has descendants as participants in the 2nd national festival of Tuong. Minh Sen artist and his daughter won two Gold Medals for the troop. Family of Mr. Nguyen Cong Khanh was awarded the title “Family of perserving classical art” with three Gold Medals for the couple and their son. “I’m so happy that my father’s love of performing art was passed to me. The passion still now lives in two children of mine. Both of them are determined to follow their parent’s career” said Mr. Khanh.
Success of art families in this festival is an obvious evidence to affirm the effectiveness of the heredity training approach.
Inmost sentiments
How to maintain and push up activities of amateur Tuong troops is still a big concern of those who love this kind of Vietnamese classical art. “In fact, the amateur Tuong troops have popularized the classical art for a long time. However, up until today, they still have not received much attention from the State, particularly in realm of training Tuong followers, whose numbers are diminishing” said Mr. Nguyen Xuan Tu, from Tuong troop of BacNinh Province. “In near future, Ministry of Culture-Information needs to carry out a project of preserving and developing amateur Tuong art. Simutaneously, talented artirsts of professional troops should be assigned to train young artists of amateur troops” suggested Mr. Nguyen Van Su, Chief of Office of Vietnamese Performing Artist Association, at the closing ceremony of the festival. At hearing his statement, the amateur troops were about to leap for joy, but their spirit was quickly dampened when the speaker admits: “That is the dream of mine only”.
