The singing expresses love, the love with life, the love among human beings, the relationship between people and nature has become “hanoi traditional food” of many people in Hanoi.
Cheo village after ups and downs
Trung Lap Village is a tranquil village, nestled among the plain fields of Tri Trung Commune, Phu Xuyen District, Hanoi. At this destination, from the beginning of the village, you can hear the soft sound of the erhu, the melodious sound of cheo singing.
In the daily life, when the farmer’s work become temporarily less busy, the farmers in the village gathered together, learned to sing the melody praising the loyalty, kindness and patriotism. They sing enthusiastically. There are people who have “promoted”, become the grandparents but the atmosphere in their singing concert is as if they was only eighteen. The cheo group of Trung Lap village has old people devoting their life to this form of the art performance. Although they are getting older and older, the love for art is not reduced.
If there is a question whether people in the village have benefits when singing cheo, the answer will be not. They participate in cheo singing group because of fun, because of the love for life and art. They not only have not benefited, they but also spend their time, spend their money, but they are still passionate about the happy memories of Cheo performances.
Trung Lap cheo village is famous in the art area of Hanoi. They used to have improved oxcarts to carry stage, costume in performances, go to everywhere to perform; At the same time, they helped the people in other areas to set up a cheo group to push up the public art.
Cheo club of the village was officially established in 1999, only because of passion. On the one hand, they only would like to preserve the ancient cheo singing which was lost gradually. They realized that market economy made young people be gradually less interested in cheo, except for some ones still was fascinated by this form of the art performance.
Cheo singing in the heart of Hanoians today
Today, even when doing the farm’s work, villagers also often sing. They sing about the love for the life, love of couples, the love between people and nature.
Although the group had only more than 30 official people, Trung Lap village also become a cheo village. Many couples sing for each other in their daily lives. Innocent children confidently sing out loud the tune that adults teach them.
Many old people have lost their voice, but they also eager to return to their youth with their performances, so there is a saying: “If I was to be human one more time I would choose to be a cheo singer. “
Cheo singing has become a familiar art form of the Vietnamese people and has been cultivated for centuries by the lyrical words. Cheo is a kind of dramatic opera with a combination of elements: singing, dancing, music, drama. The central and northern delta is the cradle of cheo. After many ups and downs of the history, of the art form increasingly develops and affirms its importance in folk culture.
Cheo singing today plays an important role in folk culture. Visitors on hanoi street food tours can enjoy the beautiful lyrics of cheo at some theaters in Hanoi. Tourist of food walking tour Can also learn cheo singing at festivals in the Red River Delta. In those festivals, in addition to offering incense and folk games, people also often have cheo singing part. Typical festivals in the North of Vietnam associated with the historical relics in Dinh, Le, Ly, Tran Dynasties, so cheo singing becomes the soul of festivals.
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