Minh Man, one of Vietnam’s most prominent traditional singers

Doyens of two traditional art forms in Hue city work against the odds to preserve their authenticity.

He disapproved of her choice to be an artist, but she endured the beatings and kept practicing anyway.

Twenty years later, Man’s father had an epiphany:“You’re voice is really beautiful.”

Her voice is still so clear, elegant, vibrant and distinctive, you would hardly know the traditional songs of Hue were coming out of an 84-year-old woman.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are when you sing Hue songs. All that matters is that you still want to sing,” said Man, a native of present-day Quang Phuoc Commune in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue.

The intelligence Man displayed at an early age led her parents to nurture dreams of their child becoming a successful businesswoman.

However when the renowned Huong Khanh theater troupe performed tuong – classical Vietnamese opera – at her rural village in 1936, Man fell in love with singing.

She said that most people in her neighborhood thought “singing was worthless.”

Minh Man, as she called herself to hide her career from her family, is now considered one of Vietnam’s greatest traditional singers.

A secret

“I knew that my parents opposed my singing, so the only way I could practice was in secret,” Man recalled.

Man’s parents didn’t change their mind even when one of her teachers, Ung Thieu, visited their home to persuade them.

Man said her mother and father only tightened their control over her after the visit.

Man’s first teacher, Vo Thuyen, taught her basic tunes like Luu Thuy, which was often sung at traditional ceremonies.

She then studied with Cuu Song, a singer from the royal court at Hue, to learn more complicated songs like Nam Ai and Nam Binh.

She would sneak out of her house every day after serving her father tea and pay her teacher by cleaning his house.

Song taught her how to deliver every word clearly and fully. He also taught her how to use ligature.

At 21, Man was accepted into the Huong Khanh troupe, one of the groups she most admired as a child. She also began teaching at the provincial music school and was singing on Hue Radio by 1955, when she was 30.

Her voice soon spread to radio stations across southern Vietnam.

It was then that her father told her he recognized the voice and approved of her choice.

Success, generation gap

Man said the old idiom – “practice makes perfect” – holds true for her.

“Hue songs are difficult to handle because the singers have to ensure not to break their voice, not to lower it and never to produce any high pitch tone. And if you want to sing well, you have to study.”

She uses techniques taught to her by more than 10 teachers but has also worked hard to develop her own style and voice.

Every Saturday, Man visits the Hue Song Lovers Club, hosted by Buu Y, a teacher at the Hue Arts University.

The club often attracts visitors from across the country, as well as foreign tourists, who want to hear Hue songs performed by folk singers like Man.

Buu Y and his wife have also opened a class at the Xuan Phu Center for Orphans to teach those less fortunate to sing.

But Man said she doubted the youth would maintain the authentic values of Hue songs.

Man has taught many students and says: “I cannot understand what they’re singing, but it’s surely not Hue songs.

“But they’re not to blame. It’s us, the adults, who have failed to teach them properly.”

Dying paintings

Ky Huu Phuoc is one of the last masters of Hue folk painting.

Phuoc is a member of the ninth generation in a family that has been creating woodblock paintings in Sinh Village, Phu Vang District, since the locality became famous for the art centuries ago.

Like Dong Ho painters in the northern region, Sinh artists first carve their images into wood blocks before dabbing them in black ink. The wet blocks are then pressed on to do paper, made from the roots and bark of trees like the cay heo, to create the outline of the painting.

The artists then decorate the paintings using colors made from the shells of crustaceans and also the trees’ roots and bark.

Sinh paintings are special because of their simple layout, yet no Sinh artist ever duplicates a design and they all mix their own unique colors.

Still, the royal colors of the court of Hue - yellow with indigo or red with emerald - are the most frequently used hues.

Sinh Village, also known as Lai An Village, is now home to 32 painting families who sell their products during the Lunar New Year festival or other traditional holidays. Forests, trees and crustaceans are the most popular images.

Phuoc said each artist earns VND70,000 (US$4) on a good day. But to cut costs, they sometimes use industrial colors and normal paper instead.

No market

In 1995, researcher Pham Lan Huong from Switzerland cooperated with the Hue Royal Court Fine Arts Museum to revive the village’s paintings.

Phuoc, then 51 years old, was an integral part of the project, liaising between coordinators and locals.

He also selected all the project’s raw materials: shells from the sea for paints and wood from the forest for paper.

The museum’s former director Tran Duc Anh Son said the project helped produce dozens of authentic Sinh Village paintings.

“But we couldn’t find a market for them,” he said.

The only thing keeping the paintings alive is the traditional holiday season, he said.

Reported by Bui Ngoc Long – Minh Phuong