"Keeping the fire" of Vietnamese folk art alive through 0-dong puppetry classes

From his love for the profession and his concern for a cultural playground for children, artist Tran Duoc opened a free puppetry class, creating a cultural playground and nurturing the love of folk art for children - a place to nurture the love of Vietnamese folk art for young people.

Sow love of national culture

No signboard, no fees, puppeteer Tran Duoc's string puppetry class has been operating regularly for over a year at Thai Son apartment building (Tan Tao ward, Ho Chi Minh City). For him, the decision to open the class started from his concerns after many years of performing for children all over the city. "I see that children really like puppetry but there is no playground or puppetry class to learn" - Mr. Duoc expressed.

The puppets are shaped in a variety of ways, especially impressive are the Vietnamese costumes.

From that feeling, he decided to invest in props, prepare lessons and open a free string puppetry class right where he lives. The puppets are hung neatly, each with different costumes, faces and personalities, creating a "miniature stage" that any child who enters will enjoy.

For the class, Mr. Duoc does not follow a rigid teaching pattern for each lesson but lets the students freely explore . The first lesson is usually how to "get acquainted" with the puppet. He lets the students hold the strings themselves, try to control the character's arms, legs and head, and encourages them to learn how to control the puppet.

While adults need a lot of time to get used to the rhythm and control the strings, children absorb it very instinctively, have high imagination, and easily immerse themselves in the character.

Although puppetry is a form of art suitable for many ages, the children's ability to concentrate and be creative surprised him: "I only need to instruct them for about 1-2 hours and they can understand and control the puppets to move to the music very vividly."

The atmosphere of each class is always filled with laughter, attentive eyes and enthusiasm of the students practicing. When the music plays, the puppets with colorful costumes immediately "come to life" in funny movements.

Doan Nguyen Phuong Uyen - 16 years old (Tan Tao ward, Ho Chi Minh City) shared her love for the class: "Through a puppetry video that Mr. Duoc posted on Facebook, my father registered me to join the class. And when I held the puppet in my hand and controlled it, I was attracted to it and enthusiastically learned and practiced it for more than 3 months now."

Thanks to the comfortable learning atmosphere, open teaching methods and Vietnamese cultural capital passed on through each puppet, this free string puppetry class has become a place to nurture the "seeds" of passion for Vietnamese folk art. "I dream of becoming a puppetry teacher like Teacher Duoc in the future and spreading the beauty of Vietnamese culture and art" - Le Vu An Nhien - 11 years old (Tan Tao ward, Ho Chi Minh City) excitedly shared.

"Keeping the fire" of Vietnamese folk art alive through 0-dong puppetry classes

"Germinating" passion for Vietnamese puppetry

With more than 15 years of experience, including more than 7 years of special attachment to string puppetry, he clearly understands the value that puppetry brings, not only the technique of controlling characters but also the way of telling Vietnamese stories using Vietnamese materials.

For him, each puppet - whether string puppet or water puppet - carries within itself a cultural "soul". In particular, water puppetry is considered a cultural feature of the Northern Delta, often associated with communal houses, village ponds and folk tales. String puppetry - the type that Mr. Duoc is teaching - has the advantage of soft movements, familiar shapes and the ability to tell stories with rustic characters.

Artist Tran Duoc always enthusiastically guides each student on how to get acquainted with and control puppets.

Since then, the artist has re-edited the entire puppet design to suit Vietnamese culture: ao dai, ao ba ba, ao the khan dong, khan mo qua... Even the folk music in each play aims to help children perceive Vietnamese culture in the most intuitive way. "I want children to form a mindset about Vietnamese culture, the beauty of Vietnamese folk art so that later on, wherever they go, they will be proud to be Vietnamese" - Mr. Duoc emphasized.

Although the current classes are only held on a small scale, Mr. Duoc believes that the spread of art will go beyond the limits of space if children are exposed to it regularly. He hopes that in the future, folk art forms such as string puppetry or water puppetry will appear more in extracurricular activities, cultural events and school environments.

"Artists like us are willing to pass on our skills to younger generations so that Vietnamese puppetry can always be preserved and developed" - puppeteer Tran Duoc believes that what makes the value of puppetry art lies in the story behind each character. Traditional puppetry performances often revolve around familiar life activities such as village festivals, harvest seasons, folk tales, or images of workers. Thanks to that, children will be able to visualize Vietnamese culture through a colorful artistic lens, not simply through books.

Comment (0)