Local Name |
HÁT XOAN PHÚ THỌ, VIET NAM |
Safeguarding Policy |
In Viet Nam, a national law for the safeguarding of cultural heritage (including tangible and intangible cultural heritage) entitled ‘Law on Cultural Heritage’ was promulgated by the National Assembly in 2001. Since its entry into force on January 1st, 2002, the Law has set a strong legal foundation for the safeguarding of cultural heritage of the nation. However, after eight years of implementation in the context of globalization and modernization, this Law has also revealed several gaps and inefficiency in practice, particularly in response to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (e.g. limitation in conceptions of intangible cultural heritage and inventory; responsibilities of state bodies were not yet assigned concretely, the roles of culture bearers and communities were not appropriately appreciated, etc.). Therefore, the 2001 Cultural Heritage Law has recently supplemented and amended. The Amended Law on Cultural Heritage was passed through on June 18, 2009 and entered into force on the 1st of January, 2010.
The newly amended Law is titled: ‘Law of Amending and supplementing certain Articles of the Law on Cultural Heritage’ |
Location (Address) |
Xoan singing of Phú Thọ province presently includes:
Four original Xoan guilds in An Thái, Thét, Phù Đức, and Kim Đái in Phượng Lâu and Kim Đức communes, 80 kilometers far from Hanoi.
Three Xoan teams established in 2006: one in Lâm Thao town, one in Tiên Du commune and one in Phù Ninh commune, Phú Thọ province.
Twelve Xoan clubs have been established since 2010 with 298 practitioners from various districts, communes and town of Phú Thọ province. |
Section/Division in Charge |
The Department of Cultural Heritage, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism |
Name of National List |
Inventory list of Vietnamese musical heritage and performing arts |
Management Organization of National List |
Vietnamese Institute for Musicology |
Name of National List |
Inventory list of intangible cultural heritage |
Management Organization of National List |
Viet Nam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies |
Summary |
Xoan singing is practiced in the first two months of lunar year. It is a kind of performing art relating to rituals and beliefs linked with love-alternative singing between male and female. Besides the function of singing for worshipping Hùng kings, Xoan singing also expresses dreams about happiness and prays for good crops, good health and luck, etc. Xoan folk artists are organized into different music guilds known as Phường. Each music guild is headed by a leader, who is referred to as trùm. Male instrumentalists are called kép and female singers are called đào. There are three phrases in Xoan singing procedure: worship singing and ritual singing performed by Xoan guilds and festive singing including the participation of villagers in love-exchange singing. Xoan singing is accompanied by dancing and musical instrument. Up to now, teaching and learning Xoan singing have based on oral transmission.
Xoan singing used to be in danger of suffering loss but for recent twenty years, it has been gradually restored according to the wish and active participation of Xoan bearers in Phú Thọ province. |
Information source |
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