Meritorious Artisan Nguyen Thanh Hong: Nearly 40 years of dedication to folk art

QTO - Meritorious artist Nguyen Thanh Hong (born in 1970), in Vinh Hoang commune, is one of the young artists and one of the few people who currently have formal knowledge of folk art. For nearly 40 years, he has quietly contributed with generations to preserve and promote the nation's intangible cultural heritage.

Homeland nurtures passion

Artist Thanh Hong was born and raised in Vinh Hoang, a land famous for preserving the art form of Bài Chòi in Central Vietnam. His childhood was spent immersed in folk songs, folk songs, and melodies. Early exposure, love, and artistic talent, while still in school, he was an outstanding artist. That love grew over the years, gradually growing and becoming his passion.

Not having the opportunity to attend art school, he spent many years visiting artisans in Quang Tri and Hue provinces to learn about folk songs. Then he spent another 3 years attending many training courses organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Since then, he has mastered the knowledge and skills of folk performing arts, and can skillfully use many musical instruments, participate in performances, compose new lyrics, develop scripts, edit and stage programs. With his extensive knowledge, he has returned to actively serve the cultural movement at the grassroots level, especially teaching and spreading the love of folk arts.

Meritorious artist Thanh Hong shared: “Folk songs were formed from the life and production of our ancestors, and are a cultural beauty with important meaning in the lives of Vietnamese people. Lullabies, folk songs, and simple folk songs add love for the homeland, the country, and optimism to many generations, including us. Proud to be a child of a homeland that preserves a traditional art form recognized by UNESCO as a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity, and fortunate to meet the previous artists who taught me, I always keep in mind not only to bring songs and musical instruments to serve the people, but also to do something to contribute a small part to the work of preserving and conserving folk arts in the locality.”

Meritorious artist Nguyen Thanh Hong spends a lot of time cultivating and developing the precious heritage of folk songs - Photo: D.V

Founder of Song Hien Folk Song Club

In 2017, with the support of authorities at all levels and specialized departments, artisan Thanh Hong proposed and connected folk art lovers to establish the Song Hien Folk Song Club and has been the club's chairman until now.

Recalling the time when the Song Hien Folk Song Club was founded, Meritorious Artist Nguyen Thanh Hong confided: “Initially, the Club attracted over 50 members of many ages and backgrounds. Despite the difficulties due to lack of facilities and operating resources, with passion and responsibility, everyone always united and made efforts to build the Club stronger and stronger...”.

Over the past 8 years, under the leadership of artist Thanh Hong, Song Hien Folk Song Club has promoted the collection of ancient lyrics, composed new lyrics, practiced musical instruments, organized performances combined with popularizing and teaching folk songs, and enthusiastically responded to programs and mass art competitions on holidays, Tet, anniversaries of the homeland, country, and cultural festivals in each locality.

On the other hand, the Club regularly participates in major programs, festivals, and competitions of the province, cluster, and region. Thereby, effectively propagating and promoting the value of folk art to the public. From here, many departments, agencies, units, and localities in the province have contacted the Club to contract performances and stage folk art performances. Many of these performances have achieved high results at festivals, competitions, and performances.

In particular, the Song Hien Folk Song Club cooperates with schools and youth unions to popularize folk songs in schools through performances at folk culture festivals, extracurricular programs, school culture competitions, etc. The flame of love for folk art from the Club continues to spread, inspiring the next generation, attracting many promising factors. Many young people, from their initial interest and research, have felt the unique appeal of this folk art form.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang, a teacher at Vinh Lam Kindergarten in Vinh Thuy Commune, said: “Being taught folk songs by the ladies and gentlemen in the Song Hien Folk Song Club, especially by artist Thanh Hong, the young generation like us feels passionate about it. We want to learn more and then be able to teach it to everyone, especially students and the community where we live, to serve cultural and artistic activities at the grassroots level…”.

Desire to contribute more

With his passion for folk art, artisan Thanh Hong has received many awards, certificates of merit, and certificates of merit. From these recognitions, in 2020, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism awarded him the Commemorative Medal for the cause of culture, sports and tourism. In 2022, he was awarded the title of Meritorious Artisan in the genre of folk performing arts by the State. Artisan Thanh Hong is one of the youngest outstanding artisans of Quang Tri province (old).

He said that as an artist and while he is still healthy and can contribute to society, he will strive to realize many cherished plans. In the near future, for the Song Hien Folk Song Club, we will continue to focus on improving the quality of artistic activities, attracting members, expanding the scale in the direction of rejuvenating the team, focusing on long-term training to build the next generation of artists. At the same time, we will organize many useful art programs and playgrounds, connect and encourage people who love folk art to constantly create, nurture their love for folk art, and develop the movement of collecting, composing and performing more and more deeply.

"We are also proposing to the education sector at all levels to consider incorporating folk songs into teaching in gifted classes at schools with the aim of helping the younger generation learn about and love them more, thereby arousing awareness of preserving the traditional cultural values ​​of their homeland and nation," artisan Thanh Hong added.

Duc Viet - Nguyen Trang

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/van-hoa/202512/nghe-nhan-uu-tu-nguyen-thanh-hong-gan-40-nam-tam-huyet-voi-nghe-thuat-dan-gian-1a026c5/