Water puppetry is a traditional Vietnamese art form that developed with wet rice cultivation. Performances feature puppet figures interacting on water and tell stories through music and dance. Chèo is a popular Northern Vietnamese folk opera that originated in the 10th century and features singing, dancing, and acting. Xam singing is a folk music tradition of blind musicians in Northern Vietnam that uses string instruments to accompany poetic stories and legends. Chat vu van is a form of ritual folk singing that accompanies spirit mediumship ceremonies honoring Vietnamese goddesses. It uses instruments like moon-shaped lutes and drums and follows a structure of inviting spirits, telling their legends, praying, and seeing them off.

2. 1. Water puppetry

3. Water puppetry is a unique, long – standing
traditional art form of Vietnam. It was established
and developed with the wet rice civilization.
Inscriptions on Sung Thien Dien Linh Stone Stele at
Doi Pagoda, Duy Tien district, Ha Nam province in
1121 say: “Water puppet show was once staged
during celebrations of the King’s longevity”.

4. Water puppet shows have become food in the spiritual life and
pride of the Vietnamese. Water puppetry is closely related to
the working life and reflects the spiritual and cultural features
of Vietnam through different items such as Teu Introducing
the Show; Dragon Dance, Phoenix Dance, Fairy Dance,
Unicorns Fighting for a Ball, Agriculture, Fishing, Fox
Chasing Ducks, etc…

6. When did Cheo appear?
Hoa Lu – Ninh Binh is considered as the original land of the Chèo,
and its founder, (Mrs) Pham Thi Tran, was a talented dancer in the
royal palace – Dinh's dynasty in the 10th century. However, Chèo
officially appears from the Ly dynasty (around the 11th century),
flourished in the Tran dynasty (13th century). The development of
Chèo has its milestone when a Mongolian military soldier was
captured in Vietnam in the 14th century. Chèo's performance only
included speak and recite folk songs prior to this period but influenced
by the art of the soldier as an actor in his country, Chèo now also has
the parts of singing. In the 15th century, King Le Thanh Tong did not
allow Chèo to be shown in the royal court, from when Chèo came
back to the peasants as a usual musical entertainment activity til now
in the villages.
Chèo has been expanded to the North Delta and the North Central Coast (to Nghe An province) and the Red River delta is the
cradle of Vietnamese rice civilization. Whenever the crop is harvested, they organize festivals to entertain and thank the Gods for
the harvest. From the first millennium BC, ancestors performed the first Chèo in the communal house yard in their village.

7. Performance
Chèo stage is an integrated art form of folk songs, folk dance and
others folk art forms in the Northern Delta. It is a form of
storytelling, taking the stage and actors as a means of
communication with the public, and can be impromptu. Chèo
depicts the simple life of rural people, praises the noble qualities of
man. Lyrical content is always attached to Chèo, expressing
human emotions, reflecting the common interests of humanity
such as love, friendship and love.
Stories of plays is from fairy tales, Nôm stories rise to theatrical art
of real value and deep thought. In Chèo, the good usually wins the
evil; the warm-hearted, gentle students always promoted to the
mandarin and his faithful wife finally reunite with her husband.
The plays often show off funny things, the bad habits of life such
as in "Thầy mù", "Hương câm", "Đồ điếc", "Quan Âm Thị Kính",
and also express humanity, as in "Trương Viên".

8. Beside the stories, the characters are the soul of a play.
Characters in Chèo are usually normative, standardized and
stereotyped. The personality of the character does not change in
different plays. Cheo's surrogate characters can be swapped and
reassembled in any play so they almost have no name. They can
be called teachers, rich people, the prime minister, students,
clowns, etc. However, there also have some characters such as
Thiệt Thê, Thị Kính, Thị Mầu, Súy Vân becoming a character of
its own personality by being out of general conception.
"Hề chèo" ( Parody guy) is a character often seen in Chèo
performances. Hề is allowed to freely ridicule people the clowns
in the palace of the king of Europe. Clown scenes hide meanings
which helps people to attack the bad habits of feudal society,
including the king, mandarin, anyone who have rights and
property in the village.

9. There is a saying "without drum, without
Chèo" indicates the important position of
the drum in Chèo. The percussion consist of
there are big drum, small drum, cylindrical
drum, gong, bamboo tocsin. The small drum
is used to keep the pace of singing, for the
dances and for the notable sings.

10. Xẩm or Hát xẩm (Xẩm singing) is a type of Vietnamese folk music
which was popular in the Northern region of Vietnam.

11. When did Xẩm appear?
The legend has it that King Tran Thanh Tong had two princes
named Tran Quoc Toan and Tran Quoc Dinh. In order to choose
one in two princes to be the next king, King Tran Thanh Tong
asked his sons to go deep into the forest and find rare jewel.
Prince Tran Quoc Dinh found the jewel first but unfortunately,
he was harmed by his brother. He was blinded both eyes and left
in the middle of deep forest. Without anyone by his side, Prince
Tran Quoc Dinh used his voice to call birds to bring fruits to
him. Thanks to kind birds, he survived and found the way out of
forest. After that, he spent time to teach the blind how to play
string instruments and sing “xam”.

12. Singing “xam” at first is for fun and then is a way for blind
people earn money themselves. Prince Tran Quoc Dinh was
very well-known as his talent of singing “xam”. Once, the
King invited Tran Quoc Dinh to performance in the palace
and found the son. King Tran Thanh Tong knew the truth and
punished Prince Tran Quoc Toan. Although Prince Tran Quoc
Dinh came back the palace, people has still maintained “xam”
singing and honored him as the ancestor of “xam” singing. In
fact, there is no historical document recorded that King Tran
Thanh Tong had two sons named above. Therefore, the story
is only a legend and “xam” singing completely is a creative
product of Vietnamese people.

13. Traditionally, Xẩm was performed by blind artists who
wandered from town to town and earned their living by
singing in common places such as markets or communal
temples. At the beginning of the 20th century, xẩm artists
performed on the trams of the public transport system of
Hanoi, so this type of folk music was sometimes called xẩm
tàu điện.

14. The melodies of xẩm are borrowed from different types of Vietnamese folk music such as “trống quân”, “quan họ”,
“chèo” or lullabies. Themes of xẩm songs are often drawn from popular stories, poems and legends in Vietnam like
Truyện Kiều, Lục Vân Tiên, Thạch Sanh or Nhị độ mai. Through the content of the songs and the style of
performance, xẩm artists told about their tragic lives or the misery of the poor people and thus evoked pity from their
audience. Today, there are about 400 xẩm songs which are still preserved. They are mainly handed down orally from
generation to generation.

15. In singing xẩm, the artists often play đàn bầu or đàn nhị to self-
accompany, and sometimes they form a band in which one artist
sings while others play traditional instruments such as the drum
or phách.
There are several efforts to preserve and propagate xẩm, such as
the introduction of xẩm performance in the Đồng Xuân night
market, and encouraging young artists to learn xẩm from old
artisans.

17. Chầu văn or Hát văn, also known as Hát bóng
originated in the Northern Delta region of Vietnam.
This is considered as a form of ritual singing in the Viet
beliefs of Mother Goddesses Of Three – Four Realms,
which often accompanies “hầu đồng” or mediumship
during rituals in pagodas or temples to honor the
Mother Goddesses or connect people to Gods.
Lyrics of Chầu văn songs were usually written in verses
and sounded poetic for the purpose of rousing rites and
inviting saints or divinities to descend on earth.

18. People who are usually on one side of rites and
perform Hát Văn or Chầu văn , are called Cung
văn. Singers are often elderly artisans. They play
instruments and take turn singing or singing in
parts in a reincarnation for 4 – 8 hours.
The main instrument in Hát Văn performance is
đàn nguyệt (moon-shaped lute), phách (a piece
of wood or bamboo mark the rhythm by striking,
Xeng (clappers), trống ban (drum) and Chiêng
(small gong), đàn tranh (the 16-stringed zither)
and sáo (flute). Sometimes people also use đàn bát
tranh (eight-sound band) and some other folklore
instruments.

19. Some various forms of Hát chầu văn are: worship singing,
contest singing, ritual singing and singing in temples.
● Worship singing: Before start time of mediumship
rites on ceremonies of descending or incarnating on
earth of Saints or divinities
● Hát Văn in temples: is often performed in front of
temples in festivals or first dates of spring. Cung văn
(ritual musicians and singers) will perform Chầu văn
or Hát Văn to make fun for sightseers or tourists and
the faithful. Cung văn will sing about saints who are
located and worshipped at the temples or songs on
request which lyrics sometimes show the pray and
wishes of visitors.

20. ● Ritual Singing: Ritual singing in the beliefs in
Mother Goddesses of Four Realms and ritual singing in
the Thánh Trần worshipping.
● Ritual Singing in the beliefs of Mother Goddesses of
Four Realms needs to perform 3 incarnations of Three
Holy Mothers (Tam Tòa Thánh Mẫu). One of the
representatives of this is “Cô đôi thượng ngàn” song
(Song of Second Princess of Forest)
● To ritual singing in the Thánh Trần
Worshipping, people can separate or combine with
this one in Mother Goddess of Four Realms. In case of
combining, it’s necessary to invite Three Holy Mothers
first, otherwise, Thánh Trần will be first.

21. Hát Chầu Văn follows up a reincarnation of mediumship and includes 4 parts:
• Invite saints or divinities to incarnate
• Tell about history or legends and merits of saints or divinities
• Pray for luke and succeed or health and peace
• Show saints or divinities out.
Songs are usually put an end at the sentence of “Xe loan thánh giá hồi cung!”, which means saints or divinities leave
by their carriages back to heaven.
Today, it is often performed on art stages, as a way to reach out to more people, to promote good traditional values.