In order to raise the public's awareness of preserving and upholding the cultural value of bai choi, a traditional art form originated in the south-central region of Vietnam, Khanh Hoa Provincial Cultural Center has recently carried out a program to introduce and promote the art of bai choi in the schools across the province. Through the program, the teachers and pupils learned more about the formation and development of bai choi, way of playing bai choi, etc.
In order to raise the public's awareness of preserving and upholding the cultural value of bai choi, a traditional art form originated in the south-central region of Vietnam, Khanh Hoa Provincial Cultural Center has recently carried out a program to introduce and promote the art of bai choi in the schools across the province. Through the program, the teachers and pupils learned more about the formation and development of bai choi, way of playing bai choi, etc.
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| Artists of the Khanh Hoa’s Cultural Center teaching pupils of Tran Nhan Tong Junior High School to play bai choi. |
The program of promoting bai choi in schools was implemented since October. Accordingly, the program was held in eight junior high schools in Van Ninh, Ninh Hoa, Dien Khanh and Cam Lam. Each program, lasting 60 minutes, consisted of three parts: introducing the formation and development of bai choi; singing famous excerpts of bai choi; teaching pupils to play bai choi.
Reportedly, this program was held according to a long-term preservative plan of Khanh Hoa Province. Nguyen Phuong Dong, Director of the provincial Center of Culture said “The province has been preparing the documents for bai choi to be recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO. In the scheme to preserve bai choi in the 2016-2020 period, the province’s cultural industry put forward a proposal for incorporating bai choi into the public’s musical festivals and organizing bai choi festival. Additionally, the cultural industry will associate with the educational industry to promote bai choi in schools.”
In the program held at Tran Nhan Tong Junior High School (Dien Khanh District), 450 pupils of the 8th and 9th grade were given knowledge of bai choi as well as offered opportunity to play bai choi right at the school. “This is the first time I has listened to and played bai choi. I am very excited,” said Le Minh Quan, pupil of Tran Nhan Tong Junior High School. At the program, the artists of the provincial Cultural Center sang an excerpt from the well-known work named “Luu Binh – Duong Le”.
According to researcher Nguyen Tu Hai, the incorporation of bai choi into the extracurricular activities of schools has a great importance for the preservation and upholding of this national cultural heritage. The schools are encouraged to form bai choi clubs. Beside organizing bai choi activities in the localities, teaching pupils to play bai choi is expected to build up stable audience for this traditional art form.
Xuan Thanh
Translated by H.N
