From "hat boi down the boat"

In the days after the recent Lunar New Year, tourists visiting Ho Chi Minh City had the opportunity to board a double-decker boat, newly named "river bus", to both enjoy the charming beauty of both banks of the Saigon River at dusk and watch with their own eyes the opera actors (hat boi) performing right on the boat, whom they had previously only seen on... TV.

PHOTO: MOC KHAI

Notably, not only Vietnamese but also foreign tourists got on the boat to watch the opera. They watched with curiosity because they were so unfamiliar with the actors wearing "unique" shoes and hats, but also enjoyed the gestures in each song, sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes urgent like a galloping horse, sometimes leisurely as if about to shake off all worldly troubles.

Perhaps the organizers of this "hat boi on the boat" were really surprised because the price of each ticket on the second floor is 499,000 VND but must be booked in advance, if you are late, you have to wait for the next time. Such a "high" price and only lasting 45 minutes, then having to take another round, but the "river bus" is always packed with audiences. From an art form only performed in the royal court to serve kings and nobles in feudal times, hat boi has escaped the constraints of that "narrow" space to step onto the stage to serve the masses without distinction of class, young or old. And now, hat boi "steps down the boat" to serve domestic and foreign tourists.

Hat boi is an art form that is not too picky about its audience because the content of the plays is mostly taken from ancient stories. Unlike drama, the audience knows the ending of the play in advance, but why are people so fascinated by it: "Hat boi is a crime against people/ Men abandon their wives, women abandon their children"! (South Central folk song). People go to see Hat boi not to know its content but mainly to see how the actors perform, how the musicians play the musical instruments, especially the drum beats, whether they are skillful and "cool" or not. Because the appeal of Hat boi does not only lie in the content, foreign visitors are always excited about each movement of the actors.

From the royal court to the outdoor stage and then down to the boat, hát bội has found its own way to maintain and preserve a unique art form of our ancestors. Moreover, hát bội today also plays the role of a bridge to the world through organizing performances in a new space, as organizers in Ho Chi Minh City have been doing on the Saigon River since after the Lunar New Year.

Come to "B-52 shooting water puppet show"

In Dao Thuc village, Dong Anh district, about 30 km from the center of Hanoi, there is a purely agricultural village but has preserved a treasure of its ancestors for the past 300 years: Water puppetry. The people of Dao Thuc village not only specialize in making props for puppetry but also perform directly for tourists. For the past 3 centuries, this lovely village has always been bustling every spring or every festival with water puppetry performances right in front of the village communal house yard.

PHOTO: THE VAN

Also performing for each other, but for the past 20 years, Dao Thuc village has had a "new dish". The general director of this "new dish" is none other than Mr. Dinh The Van, former battalion commander of a missile battalion, who together with his crew shot down 4 B-52 planes in the victory of "Dien Bien Phu in the air" in the winter of 1972 in the sky of Hanoi.

After retiring in 1989, Mr. Dinh The Van continued his father's work of producing puppets. When the country opened up, many foreign tourists visited Dao Thuc village to watch water puppetry, including former American pilots. Mr. Van suddenly thought, why not re-enact the play "B-52 attack in the sky of Hanoi" for these former American pilots to see. Then he started writing the script and preparing props for the play. Originally a battalion commander who had commanded the shooting down of 4 B-52 planes in the sky of Hanoi in 1972, Mr. Dinh The Van was like a fish in water when he started staging this water puppet show.

The water puppet show "B-52 Attack in Hanoi Sky" immediately attracted the attention of foreign tourists. Through the media, many American veterans, including pilots who fought in Vietnam, came to watch and were extremely impressed by the creativity of the elderly colonel. Just a few puppets alone made "waves on the lake" and also "waves" in the hearts of many American veterans after watching the show directly at the crescent lake in the communal house yard of Dao Thuc village.

"By staging this water puppet show, I want to remind today's young generation not to forget the creative tradition of fighting the enemy of their ancestors," said Mr. Dinh The Van when we asked him about the story of water puppetry in Dao Thuc village 13 years ago.

It should also be added that, after a series of articles published by Thanh Nien in December 2012 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the "Dien Bien Phu in the air" battle, which mentioned the oblivion of this creative B-52-attack battalion commander, the following year, 2013, the State awarded the title of Hero of the Armed Forces to Mr. Dinh The Van.

Every year, our country welcomes over 13 million international visitors. Art forms such as Tuong singing, Bai Choi singing, water puppetry, etc. have contributed significantly to the role of bridging the gap between tourists and us. While attracting tourists, while preserving the nation's soul through intangible cultural forms, artists and folk artisans are worthy of being the "ambassadors" of today's culture.