The illustration on Google's homepage on September 28, 2020 depicts a cai luong performance. Photo courtesy of Google.

The search engine has chosen an illustration depicting a cai luong performance with two singers in the spotlight along with several musicians who are playing a flute, the traditional 16-string dan tranh, the Vietnamese monochord dan bau, and other instruments.

Vietnam Stage Day is celebrated on the 12th day of the eighth lunar month, which falls on September 28 this year. A Google statement said cai luong is a blend of traditional and contemporary features, and "combines opera with spoken drama to create a vibrant expression of Vietnamese culture and identity." The search engine also introduces The Drum Sound of Me Linh, a classic cai luong performance that debuted in 1977 and depicts the story of the Trung Sisters, who led the fight against the Chinese in the first century.
Other Vietnamese subjects depicted by Google Doodle include the musical storytelling genre ca tru; the Lunar New Year sticky rice cake banh chung; Khue Van Cac, the pavilion of the Constellation of Literature at Vietnam’s first university in Hanoi; the traditional tunic, the ao dai; the Hung Kings Temple Festival commemorating the mythical founders of Vietnam; and UNESCO heritage site Hoi An town.
Three Vietnamese people have also been featured: poet Xuan Quynh, painter Bui Xuan Phai and lyricist and composer Trinh Cong Son.