Students bring Vietnamese culture and architecture into folk games, win national prizes

From left to right: To Nguyen, Hai My, Anh Thu, Hoang My and Hien Long

Every move, a story

"O con giap" is an expanded version of the o an quan game that a group of 11th grade students including Nguyen Xuan Hoang My, Nguyen Do Anh Thu, Tran Hai My, Ha To Nguyen, and Ho Hien Long planned to implement from July 2023. The product won first prize in the national final round, in the field of social impact business at the Student Startup Ideas Contest organized by the Ministry of Education and Training on May 13.

This is also an "unprecedented" achievement when for the first time the school has a student winning the highest prize in a startup competition in particular, and at the national level in general, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Ba, Vice Principal of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School.

Hoang My, the team leader, shared that the reason they chose to innovate was because the traditional game of O An Quan is sometimes "quite easy to win", when there are a number of fixed moves that help players gain an early advantage. This is also the feature that makes O An Quan easily boring if played for a long time, even though the game emphasizes logical thinking. "Therefore, in the new version, we added function cards to make the game more unpredictable than before," My shared.

Not stopping there, the design and content of the "zodiac" game are also inspired by the legend of the 12 zodiac animals, which are familiar to many children and adults. In the functional cards, the group of students incorporated many famous idioms, with content closely related to the image of the zodiac animals such as "young horse eager to kick", "dog relying on being close to home", "playing the lute to the buffalo's ear", or allegorical such as "opening the mouth waiting for the plum", "sharing the sweet and the bitter"...

Eye-catching illustrations of the zodiac animals made by students themselves, inspired by Vietnamese culture and architecture.

"We also integrated cultural features related to the zodiac animals such as tam hop and tu hanh xung. Overall, the group spent a lot of time researching and collecting materials before deciding which cultural elements to bring into the game to convey the correct content, be easy to understand and interesting enough. It was a long process of doing and learning at the same time," said the group representative.

Not to mention, the group of students also designed their own chessboards and functional cards inspired by Vietnamese culture. For example, on the zodiac card, the group drew a picture of a dragon from the Ly Dynasty, a typical symbol of Vietnam. Or on the chessboard, they did not leave the squares blank but designed patterns inspired by the patterns on floor tiles in ancient architecture. "We also designed the chess pieces in 3D in the image of the 12 zodiac animals," My added.

Expanding the rules of the game

The highlight of "Zodiac Square" is that depending on the number of players, the game will have 3 corresponding types of chessboards, from rectangle (2 players), triangle (3) to square (4). In addition, "Zodiac Square" has 125 chess pieces, including 5 Jade Emperor pieces (officials) and 120 Zodiac pieces (civilians). Besides, there are 116 function cards, including 12 Zodiac cards used to choose the first player and 60 turn cards, 40 hit cards, 4 Jade Emperor cards for players to interact with the chessboard.

Regarding the rules of the "zodiac square", the group still maintains the traditional way of playing, that is, the player will use all the pieces in one of the squares on their side, spread them counterclockwise or clockwise into the adjacent squares and "capture" the pieces if possible. However, the game also expands the rules, requiring the player to pick up 1 card before each turn and follow the instructions written on the card.

The rules of the game "zoo con giap" are almost similar to the traditional game of "o an quan", requiring players to calculate the placement of the chess pieces to "eat" as many pieces as possible.

However, the "zodiac box" also integrates function cards, making the game more dramatic.

Similarly, if the player "eats" the animal or "eats" the Jade Emperor, he must also pick up the corresponding card and follow the request. According to My, the function cards are divided into two directions, which are beneficial and disadvantageous for the player to "increase the difficulty and the ability to turn the tide". "The game ends when all the Jade Emperor pieces are "eaten". At this point, the player counts the points of the pieces to find out who wins", My shared.

"In fact, many young people are hesitant to mention Chinese checkers or other folk games because they think they are not as attractive as many popular board games today such as Exploding Cats, Werewolf... Therefore, through innovation, we hope to reach them. In addition, we also translate the game rules and function cards into English to spread to foreign tourists, thereby further spreading Vietnamese culture," said a representative of the student group.

Ms. Nguyen Hai Nhi, an English teacher at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School and guide for the group of students throughout the journey, said she was surprised by the initiative when "the students knew what they wanted and knew how to ask for help."

"Every time I give suggestions, you guys listen but still keep your own opinions, thereby 'solving' the requirements in the most effective and impressive way. You guys have become much 'stronger', both in terms of thinking and skills," Ms. Nhi commented.

A group of students from Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School (middle) at the award ceremony of the 2024 Student Startup Ideas Contest

According to the group of students, the "zodiac board" has sold about 60 products, mainly targeting young people and families with small children. At that time, they had to constantly change and update the board material and the content of the function cards after receiving feedback from friends and teachers. In the distant future, the group also hopes to further improve the product when they have solid experience and expertise.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hoc-sinh-dua-van-hoa-kien-truc-viet-vao-tro-choi-dan-gian-giang-giai-quoc-gia-185240529211751079.htm