On an April afternoon, the scorching heat of the blazing summer sun seemed not as "hot" as the atmosphere at the Diplomatic Academy (Hanoi), where the workshop "Media Students x Tuong: The Road to the Heart" took place. After directly "touching" the play with the excerpt "Ngu bien" performed by actors from the Vietnam Tuong Theater, hundreds of young people in the hall learned about the characteristics of historical and northern plays through the exchange and sharing with experienced artists. The sounds of "oh", "ah" in surprise, the applause resounded continuously, especially when the artists used simple props to demonstrate the typical elements of Tuong such as convention, stylization, symbolism...
The event was organized quite professionally, making everyone surprised to know that the "hosts" behind it were only Ngo Nguyen Thanh Thuy and Ha Thi Thanh Huyen - two students studying in their 4th year at the Faculty of Communication and Foreign Culture, Diplomatic Academy. It was even more surprising to know that the above workshop was just part of a long-term project called "Tuong Date" that the two friends had the idea to carry out since the end of 2023. Thuy and Huyen shared that they both met in their love of traditional art as well as the desire to spread the beauty of their ancestors' heritage, especially the art of Tuong to their peers, so they started researching many related documents and many previously operated projects on Tuong to find their own direction.
Realizing that young people are not motivated to watch Tuong because they do not really understand Tuong and have not been aroused in their curiosity to explore Tuong, Thuy and Huyen have painstakingly launched "Tuong Date" with a series of articles on the fanpage called "Tuong tich luu nien". The articles provide a lot of interesting knowledge about the differences between Vietnamese Tuong and Chinese opera; about the unique characteristics of Tuong from the three regions of North-Central-South; about popular tunes in Tuong; and also typical Tuong artists... Next, the two friends created a "dating" space with Tuong through the workshop "Media Students x Tuong: Road to the Heart", helping young people interact with Tuong, so that from knowing it turns into liking, loving it and, more importantly, wanting to contribute to promoting the beauty and value of traditional Tuong art. To realize this, "Tuong Date" has boldly implemented a special program to recruit media interns for the Vietnam Tuong Theater. This is an extremely meaningful connection, not only providing opportunities for students of the Diplomatic Academy to have a "real-life" space, accumulating experience and knowledge in cultural communication in a professional art unit; but also helping the Vietnam Tuong Theater improve communication effectiveness through the perspective and skills of well-trained young people.
Thanh Thuy said that as soon as the information about recruiting interns was available, “Tuong Date” received registrations from more than 70 students and selected nearly 20 students to intern at the Theater in media-related fields such as: writing news, articles; design; filming; external relations... Through this project, “Tuong Date” commits to providing a long-term team of media interns for the Vietnam Tuong Theater. And this is also a way for “Tuong Date” to form a network of human resources capable of helping the project go the long way, with the capacity to create larger-scale traditional art promotion activities.
Thanh Huyen confided: “Although we encountered many challenges during the implementation process, our ideas and activities received enthusiastic support from the Faculty as well as the Vietnam Tuong Theater. This is a great source of motivation for young people like us to continue to stick together and spread our love for national art and culture.”
Along with “Tuong Date”, the project “36 Features of Mr. Ngai - Decoding the costumes of the Hau Dong performance” recently carried out by a group of students from the Faculty of Writing and Journalism (Hanoi University of Culture) also left a strong impression on the participants. Not only were the audience sublimated with the brilliant colors in the performance of the beauty of the 36 Gia Dong costumes, they were also engrossed in the Chau Van singing, and interacted with experts in the talk show to better understand the beauty of the Mother Goddess worship culture, especially the diversity, richness and meaning of the patterns and motifs on the Chau scarves and royal dresses. The project also provided suggestions for creating Hau Dong costumes following the trend of both preserving traditional characteristics and integrating contemporary elements, contributing to bringing national culture closer to young people.
As a speaker in the program, and also the first person to bring the royal scarf and ao dai to the international fashion stage, Dr. and artisan Nguyen Duc Hien shared that when accompanying young people in projects to promote the beauty of traditional culture, he always felt the fresh energy and love they have for the national heritage. Young people always know how to find the "key" to spread the knowledge that has been approached in a very unique way, so the problem is to give them many opportunities to acquire knowledge about traditional culture and art, awakening their desire to protect and preserve the precious heritage of their ancestors.
That is also the reason why recently, Tien Huong Palace (Phu Cat Commune, Quoc Oai District, Hanoi) of artisan Nguyen Duc Hien has become a destination for domestic and international lecturers and students from VinUni University. With his fluent foreign language skills, the artisan shared in English with special guests about the beauty of the heritage, the personalities and achievements of the typical saints in the Mother Goddess worship belief..., and directly performed some typical offerings so that young people could better understand the value and beauty of the artistic elements in the Hau Dong ritual. He said that recently, many domestic and international students have come to him and Tien Huong Palace to conduct in-depth research on the Mother Goddess worship belief. This is a positive signal affirming the spreading power of the value of Vietnamese cultural heritage, as well as the interest of young people in traditional culture and art.
Recently, a series of projects carried out by and for young people to create connections with traditional culture and art have been activated. In addition to “Tuong Date”, “36 Features of Ngai - Decoding the costumes of the Hau Dong performance”, there are also “Vong Khuc Ca Tru”, “Bac Dieu Tan Thoi”, “Tuong Ke”, “Di Han Trong Long Pho”, “Cheo 48h”..., contributing to the formation of a community of young people who love national culture. Openness, creativity, but still sticking to traditional values is the common direction that young people are applying to “paint” a new face for traditional culture and art.
In particular, events are increasingly invested in and organized in a more systematic and creative manner. Not only stopping at the scale of being a playground for young people, many projects also mobilize the participation of experienced artists and artisans. The resonance from the experiences of experts and the creative and fresh approaches of young people helps traditional culture and art find many ways to reach the community and promote its value.
As music researcher Nguyen Quang Long said, whether expectations have been met or not, whether the approach has been in the right direction or not, the participation of young people in preserving and creating new values based on traditional foundations is extremely valuable, contributing to affirming the longevity of national art and culture as well as the responsibility and awareness of today's youth. In the context of integration and globalization, as digital technology develops, the need for cultural exchange increases, the need for national cultural identification becomes more and more important.
Therefore, the trend of finding and recreating traditional art and culture from the perspective of young people is the way for past values to continue to be alive, and is also the way to sustainably promote the values of our ancestors' heritage in today's life.
Source
Comment (0)