Online Travel Vietnam: The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Wednesday cast a unanimous vote to recognize Vietnam’s Xoan Singing as a new World’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent protection in Bali.

Xoan Singing, or Hat Xoan as it is known in Vietnamese, is a festive music performed during spring festivals and for worshiping genies in Phu Tho Province for the past hundreds of years. It boasts a number of different performing forms including duet and group singing accompanied by several kinds of dances.

The dossier of the Northern traditional singing, submitted to the Intergovernmental Committee for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage this April, was also considered the best among 33 national files applying for recognition this time.

The certain success of the tradition music was predicted earlier this month in a press conference in Paris held by Cecile Duvelle, the committee's secretary, who said its dossier was outstanding, and the genre was highly valued by the committee as a valuable heritage.

Awarded the same status with Xoan Singing this time are eight traditional art genres including Saman Dance from Indonesia, Mongolian flute Limbe and others from China, Mauritania, Brazil, Mali and Iran.

However, many are wondering why Xoan Singing could make such an impression on UNESCO when it is relatively little known in Vietnam compared to other local traditional art forms that already won the same UNESCO status such as Bac Ninh Folk Music or Hue's Royal Court Music.

Le Van Toan, head of the Vietnam Music Academy said Xoan Singing had its own distinct features from the Bac Ninh Folk Music and Hue's Royal Court Music.

"It is one of the oldest art forms in our country, judging by its ceremonies, clothes, performance spaces, lyrics and its melodies. Many legends and folktales also have it that Xoan Singing dated back from the Hung King era 4000 years ago," he said.

As a folk music genre, that the art requires no professional performing techniques and no special training and practice makes it popular and accessible in its local communities.

These features have added to the advantages of Xoan Singing in getting the vote to qualify for the recognition: a heritage has to be traditional but still alive, inclusive, representative, and community-based.

Nguyen Manh Thang, deputy head of Vietnam's UNESCO Committee said that the most important attributes a national heritage dossier had to emphasize are its credibility and vulnerability, and Hat Xoan had both.

The Committee had detailed the risks the traditional art had to face as the old generations who mastered the art have gradually passed away.

According to the dossier, only 69 Xoan artists more than 70 years old still live, 8 of whom are still able to teach and instruct the younger generations.

Besides, only 13 out of 30 temples originally used as performing venues for Xoan Singing have survived and only 2 communes out of 18 in Phu Tho province can still maintain the art in its local communities.

The dossier on Xoan Singing was submitted to the intergovernmental agency for recognition last April.

Vietnam now has five world intangible heritages - Hue's Royal Court Music, Space of Gong Culture in the Central Highlands, Bac Ninh Folk Music, Giong Festival, and Chamber Music.

Source: Tuoitrenews