Given the vigourous development of the mass media, forms of leisure, the traditional arts like traditional operetta, calssic drama, reformed play, love duet.. ect were once facing the risk of falling into oblivion, with the plays having almost no audience. Eventhough, in Hoang Duong hamlet, Son Cong commune, Ung Hoa district, the traditional arts are still maintaining a resilient, strong vitality, which is spreading among the community and enriching the spiritual cultural life of the villagers.
Son cong is a hemlet situated to the north of the district, adjacent Cao Thanh commune to the east and Dong Tien commune to the south; the rest two directions close to Day river, and on the other bank are the commune of An My, Le thanh, Bot Xuyen (My Duc district). The commune has 4 hemlets including Hoang Duong, Nghi Loc, Vinh thuong, Vinh Ha.
A drill of the Club (photot taken before COVID-19 pandemic)
Photo: Dinh Thuy
Born and grown up in the countryside whereabouts it is rich in revolutionary, cultural traditions. People living in Hoang Duong are honest, hard-working, sentimental attached, studious. Besides their focus on economic development, People in Hoang Duong are also placing much emphasis on the spiritual cultural values. This is the reason why the artistic, cultural and sports movement wherein has been srongly developed, attracting lots of participation. The birth of the hemlet’s traditional arts club has become a meeting point for the local people after hard working days, whereby it helps nurture many people’s soul through passionate and lyrical folksongs. The man who has credits to set up and operate the club is Nguyen Gia Khe, an arts lover, devoted to community’s affairs.
People in Hoang Duong love musics, urging one another to join the club, sharing budgets to buy musical instruments, costumes, spending their own time to practize together. Presently, there are always 25 to 30 members at an avergae age of form 40 to 60, especially a 80-year-old musician. Not only has the club contributed high-quality artistic performances to conferences, events held in the commune and hemlet, it has also achieved many high prizes at the competitions, festivals of the district and city, and it has become a spotlight in the cause of building cultural life in the locality.
For the past 11 years now, the traditional arts club of Hoang Duong has regularly gathered in the evenings of Thursday and Sunday. When the COVID-19 pandemic came, it has strictly abided by the rules and regulations of the city on the Covid-19 protection and prevention released by the Ministry of Health and Ha Noi People’s Committee, and temporarily stopped operating. However, the lyrics of traditional operetta keeps resounding from the club member’s family. All of them are longing for the day with no more pandemic, so that they would come to practice together, spreading the musics far away.
Thanh Ha