Preserving intangible cultural heritage requires specific policies.

(Baonghean) - Along with the restoration and preservation of tangible cultural heritage, the conservation of intangible cultural heritage in our province has achieved certain results in recent years. However, there are still difficulties and concerns that require long-term, specific policies...

Plowing fields at the Nine-Compartment Temple Festival. Photo: Tran Hai

Currently, Nghe An has more than 20 different festivals of varying sizes, along with intangible cultural heritage such as folk songs, folk dances, folk music, and unique folk games. These forms mainly take place during spring festivals and village festivals. Not only are they valuable for education and character development, many of the province's tangible and intangible cultural heritages have been and are continuing to play their role, potential, and strengths in promoting the image of Nghe An, developing tourism, and attracting tourists and investors to explore and choose investment opportunities in the province.

One of the intangible cultural heritages that our province has been grappling with in recent years is the folk songs, chants, and melodies of Nghe An province. Evidence of this is the fact that from 2011 to the present, two scientific conferences have been held: the "Preservation and Promotion of the Values ​​of Folk Songs, Chants, and Melodies of Nghe An" in March 2011, and the international scientific conference "Preservation and Promotion of Folk Song Values ​​in Contemporary Society (the case of Nghe Tinh folk songs)" held in May 2014. Both conferences attracted the attention of domestic and international folk researchers to find appropriate solutions for preservation, and policies to attract, motivate, and encourage folk artists. In 2009, our province established the Center for Preservation and Promotion of Nghe An Folk Song Heritage to strengthen research, identification, promotion, and teaching of Vi and Dam folk songs, including introducing folk songs into schools and establishing folk song clubs in localities… Particularly from 2012 to the present, in May, localities have organized the Nghe An Vi and Dam Folk Song Festival throughout the province to rekindle the love of folk songs among all segments of the population, creating a meaningful playground for working people.

However, the current state of preserving intangible cultural heritage is far more difficult than preserving tangible cultural heritage. This is because the artisans are getting older, and the younger generation is not very interested. There are too few dedicated and passionate staff working on collection. Furthermore, investment in preserving this type of heritage is still too meager and inadequate: there are no organized events to honor artisans; there are no truly engaging and widely disseminated projects about intangible cultural heritage… Intangible cultural heritage is a symbol of traditional culture, of each locality and each nation. When interacting in the international community, what sets us apart from others is our age-old identity. How can today's youth avoid indifference to traditional values ​​when they only have a vague understanding of traditional culture? Mr. Doan Nam – former head of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism – believes that Nghe An is gradually losing its intangible cultural heritage because very few people are taking the initiative to do this work. Furthermore, once a particular art form has been collected, it is often only preserved in books and documents without finding ways to promote it. The gong music of the Central Highlands, Quan Ho folk singing of Bac Ninh, and Xoan singing of Phu Tho resonate across the globe because the people there are able to make a living from their own art forms. Only when people can truly live with their regional cultural identity can these intangible cultural heritages be seriously preserved.

For many years, artisan Chu Van Ty – of the Cat Van Folk Song Club in Thanh Chuong – has remained deeply committed to Nghe An folk songs and has always been concerned about the future survival of these folk songs. Born in 1950 in Cat Van, he was nurtured from a young age by lullabies and folk melodies sung by his grandmother and mother. Therefore, he was known for his singing talent and ability to sing folk songs well since childhood. He confided: "In my hometown, young people nowadays rarely sing or listen to folk songs. How to rekindle those songs in the younger generation is something that always weighs heavily on my mind." Being a talented singer and composer of new melodies, when the Cat Van Folk Song Club was established in 2010, he was the pioneer in mobilizing members to contribute to purchasing props for practice. Without funding, the members themselves contributed to the fund, hoping that besides the joy, they could also contribute to preserving the cultural essence of the locality. In his role as a composer and teacher of folk songs to the younger generation, he has composed over 20 new folk songs to date. However, training young people to sing folk songs well and correctly is very difficult. The current generation of folk song artisans is very small, only a handful remain. Therefore, what he hopes is that relevant authorities will have mechanisms to encourage, train, discover, and nurture folk song singing talent from the grassroots level.

In an interview with People's Artist Hong Luu – Deputy Director of the Center for Preservation and Promotion of Nghe An Folk Song Heritage, she stated: Similar to other localities nationwide, the issue of preserving and promoting intangible cultural heritage in Nghe An was raised late. The collection, preservation, and promotion of intangible cultural heritage have not been commensurate with the existing potential; research and collection work is still scattered and one-sided, and many intangible cultural heritages have been collected but not yet put into exploitation and use in daily life. Many cultural practices are no longer suitable for current life. To preserve and safeguard them, we need specific solutions such as: Strengthening propaganda work so that people understand the great value of intangible cultural heritage; conducting collection, research, and preservation through books, discs, photographs, audio recordings, and films… to create documentation. Just like tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage must be returned to the community; it must be alive and survive in today's modern life. For example, from folk songs, we have developed new songs that reflect modern life through the creativity of composers and through performances by the Center for Preservation and Promotion of Folk Song Heritage of Nghe An Province. We need to strengthen the understanding of the younger generation about the precious heritage left by our ancestors. To achieve this, localities need to incorporate this heritage into school curricula, as folk songs have done in the past. Organize competitions for creating new lyrics and melodies among the people and students, creating a mass-based creative movement. Further develop folk song, folk music, and folk dance clubs, and localities need policies to encourage and support their activities. Each locality must identify its most distinctive intangible cultural heritage in order to have a specific direction for preservation, conservation, and promotion, rather than a broad and general approach. Localities with tourism potential can link the preservation and promotion of intangible cultural heritage to serve tourists. For example, tourists visiting Nam Dan can listen to the folk songs of Phuong Vai, those visiting Hang Bua - Quy Chau can hear Thai folk songs, and those visiting Yen Thanh can enjoy the Ke Gam opera…

The most crucial factor remains the mechanisms and policies aimed at maintaining the activities of intangible cultural heritage. Unlike tangible cultural heritage, which, once restored, renovated, or preserved, can sustain itself, folk song, folk music, and folk dance clubs are different. Preserving and promoting them is not simple at all. For example, the journey to submitting folk songs for UNESCO recognition has been a long one. However, the concern is how, after being recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, we should promote and preserve them so that the title returns to its true meaning and folk songs endure forever in the lives of working people.

Thanh Thuy