(VOVWORLD)-Bac Ninh's Quan Ho folk songs were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. These days Quan Ho folk songs are being performed at the Lim Festival, a popular spring festival in northern Vietnam. In recent years Bac Ninh province has worked creatively to preserve and promote this cultural heritage.
 Bac Ninh preserves and promotes Quan Ho folk songs (Photo: baochinhphu.vn) |
Many Quan Ho folk singing classes and clubs have been set up in the province to keep the genre alive.
The cultural house of Lo Bao village, Noi Due commune, has become a regular meeting place every Thursday and Saturday for local children, many of them only 5 years old, who come to learn how to perform Quan Ho. The club’s senior performers are enthusiastic teachers.
Nguyen Phuong Uyen, a young learner in the Quan Ho club in Lo Bao village, said: “At the club, I’m learning vocal techniques and other aspects of Quan Ho folk singing. I sing better day by day.”
 A practice session at Quan Ho club in Lo Bao village (Photo: dantocmiennui.vn) |
The club enthusiastic male and female Quan Ho singers keep recruiting more young learners.
“Learning to sing Quan Ho folk songs is fun. When I was little, I listened to my grandparents sing Quan Ho and I really wanted to be able to perform like them.”
“I didn’t like Quan Ho folk songs at first, but I gradually became more interested in them as I learned how to perform them.”
Bac Ninh is the first locality in Vietnam to provide monthly support to artisans and annual financial support to the original Quan Ho villages.
Nghiem Thi Tinh, a Quan Ho club member, said: “Since Quan Ho folk songs were recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, we have been aware of our responsibility to preserve them. We have collected many old songs and taught them to the younger generations.”
Learning to sing Quan Ho folk songs is now part of school curriculum and there are now more than 600 Quan Ho clubs at schools in Bac Ninh. Nguyen Xuan Trung, deputy director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said, “Quan Ho clubs play an important role and have done a lot to preserve and promote Quan Ho folk songs. We will continue to support these clubs.”
After the 2021 National Cultural Conference, Bac Ninh became one of the first localities to organize a provincial Cultural Conference to promote cultural resources like Quan Ho folk singing.