Part 3: Traditional rowing art creates momentum for community tourism (Continued and end)

Exploiting traditional Cheo art from the tourism perspective to promote the quintessence of intangible cultural heritage while generating revenue for the community to continue to preserve and conserve the heritage is the goal of the Cheo performance model serving tourism that has just been launched by the Provincial Cultural Center in Khuoc village, Phong Chau commune (Dong Hung). This is the product of a provincial-level scientific research project with the hope that Cheo art will create momentum for the "smokeless industry".

Cheo village artists participate in performances for tourism .

Efforts to build new products

Still the familiar performances of the Cheo artists at the hometown stage, but with the model of Cheo performances serving tourism, interwoven with the lyrics, singing, and excerpts of ancient Cheo is an interesting exchange between the artists and tourists right on the stage. The cheerful laughter of tourists, artists, and audiences in the competitions of dancing, singing Cheo, and practicing using traditional musical instruments has brought the distance between strangers closer in the traditional art space.

Participating in the experience of playing the Cheo drum, Ms. Ta Thi Hien, an excited tourist, said: Before, I had heard the saying "phi trong bat thanh cheo" and also knew that, for modern Cheo, in addition to drums, there are other musical instruments to enrich the accompaniment such as the zither, the flute... I also have some knowledge about Cheo, but when I was able to stand on the same stage with the artists, memorize how to play the drum to practice again and listen to the artists' sharing, I understood more about the sound of the Cheo drum, the especially important role of the drum in the art of Cheo in Khuoc village. I find the sound of the Cheo drum very beautiful, a unique feature of Cheo art.

As for Do Van Nhan, a tourist who volunteered to try his hand at the Cheo dance exchange, he shared: I have watched Cheo performances many times, and often see women using fans in most dances, so I thought this prop was light and easy to use. However, when the artist showed me how to hold the fan and turn my body gracefully, I realized that in order to perform, the artists must have had a very elaborate training process to memorize so many movements. I really admire my ancestors for creating dances in the art of Cheo.

Not only tourists but also the villagers of Khuoc who watched the performance and even directly practiced Cheo singing and dancing felt like they understood, loved and were more passionate about the traditional Cheo art after experiencing the Cheo performance for tourism.

Mr. Ha Quang Cuong, Secretary of Phong Chau Commune Party Committee, shared: Phong Chau is a rural, purely agricultural commune with many difficulties in economic development, but the wish of Phong Chau people is that the art of Khuoc village cheo is always preserved, reaching art lovers at home and abroad. At the same time, they hope that Khuoc village will be an address in tours, a stopover for tourists when coming to Thai Binh rice land. To achieve this, Phong Chau people hope that authorities at all levels and functional sectors will make efforts to coordinate with the locality to preserve and develop Khuoc cheo, thereby contributing to socio-economic development.

Towards professionalism

According to the artists of Khuoc Cheo village, the Cheo Club regularly welcomes and performs for tourists at the Cheo hall and the Cheo ancestral temple of the village. Most of these are performances according to the specific needs of the visiting group.

People's Committee of Dong Hung district shared: In 2023, with the attention of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the People's Committee of Dong Hung district, the artisans of the Cheo village were trained in community tourism, learned how to handle situations when welcoming tourists, and were informed about some characteristics of tourist psychology according to the market, gender, age... However, welcoming tourists is mostly based on the experience of each artisan, some have a lot of experience in introducing the ancient Cheo village, others share about their own heritage practice process. The performances also depend on the requests of tourists, it can be an excerpt, a few Cheo dance songs, sometimes an entire ancient Cheo play...

Aiming for professionalism in the reception activities of artists and enhancing the experience for tourists, the model of cheo performance serving tourism is edited, staged, and prepared for the participating force according to a specific schedule with performance time suitable for the series of activities in the tourist experience tour.

Cheo village artisans guide young tourists to experience how to hold a fan and dance with cheo.

Mr. Le Tien Luong, Director of the Provincial Cultural Center, head of the project "Research and promotion of the value of Cheo art to contribute to the development of tourism in Thai Binh province" shared: The model of performing Cheo art for tourism is one of the products of the project; in addition, there are also community tourism guide scripts, Cheo songs for tourism, CDs and DVDs introducing the province's unique Cheo art works, and columns introducing Cheo art on digital platforms including accurate, scientific information and attractive art performances.

According to Mr. Le Tien Luong, in the current trend of integration and development, many countries in the world and many provinces and cities in the country have focused on developing cultural tourism in addition to developing natural tourism. Practice has proven that exploiting the values of cultural heritage to create tourism products contributes to promoting strong tourism development, bringing economic, political and social benefits, while contributing to preserving and promoting cultural values. In recent years, although Thai Binh tourism has made progress, it is still limited, has not exploited and promoted many potentials and advantages, including the potential of cultural values. Therefore, exploiting and promoting the value of Cheo art in particular and cultural tourism resources in general to build attractive tourism products, competitive enough in the domestic and foreign tourism markets is extremely necessary. On the contrary, when tourism develops, it will contribute to preserving and strongly promoting the value of Cheo art and other cultural heritage values of the homeland.

Clearly identifying the potential for tourism development from promoting traditional Cheo art, many resolutions and decisions of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee have been issued with specific goals and solutions. In particular, Resolution No. 04-NQ/TU, dated January 30, 2019 of the Provincial Party Committee determined the task of "Focusing on building product brands bearing the cultural imprint of Thai Binh to serve tourism and socio-economic development"; Decision No. 3562/QD-UBND, dated December 29, 2017 of the Provincial People's Committee stated the viewpoint of "Developing diversified tourism products, with focus and key points; focusing on typical products, exploiting the advantages of cultural traditions and local ecological characteristics"; Decision No. 1878/QD-UBND, dated August 24, 2022 of the Provincial People's Committee sets out the task of "Developing agriculture and rural areas associated with tourism along the road from Uncle Ho Temple (Thai Binh city) to Khuoc village's Cheo (Dong Hung), from Khuoc village's Cheo to the special national relic of Tran Temple, Tien La Temple area, Linh Tu Temple of National Mother Tran Thi Dung (Hung Ha), Dong Bang Temple, A Sao Temple (Quynh Phu)..."; Decision No. 484/QD-UBND, dated March 4, 2022 of the Provincial People's Committee proposes the solution of "Restoring the ancient Cheo of Khuoc village (Phong Chau commune, Dong Hung), ancient Cheo of Ha Xa (Tan Le commune, Hung Ha) and ancient Cheo of Sao Den (Song An commune, Vu Thu) to become cultural experience tourism destinations serving the province's tourism development". We believe that when traditional Cheo art is researched and exploited in the right direction for tourism development, it will create a strong breakthrough, contributing to promoting the land and people of Thai Binh to domestic and international tourists.