HA NOI (VNS) – Studies of folk culture and arts received awards yesterday at the Viet Nam Folk Literature and Arts Association's annual congress.

The six research projects to win awards were: The Traditional Festival of the Black Thai in the Northern Province of Dien Bien; Funeral Rituals of the Cham in the Southern Central Province of Ninh Thuan; the Raglai Epics and Folk Tales Tellers; Problems for Vietnamese Epics; Syntax and Semantics of Vietnamese Proverbs; Folk Literature of the Southern Province of Ben Tre.

This year the association received 73 studies on philology, customs, performing arts and folk knowledge, said association chairman To Ngoc Thanh.

"Many of them were profound and showed a great deal of effort by the authors," Thanh said.

However some had included terms which were not relevant to the subject or they perpetuated stereotypes and cliches.

"I read some entries trite and hollow remarks like the composition of a high school student, not the study of a scholar," Thanh said. "As expected, these entries were not successful."

The congress was also held to honour veteran folk artists who devoted themselves to promoting cultural quintessence and preserving traditional arts in their regions. Many artists were granted the title Viet Nam's Master of Folk Art on the occasion.

"The traditional arts are often transferred orally from generation to generation," Thanh said. "When an old artists passes away, he or she takes a library of knowledge with them.

"We need to learn from the old artists and preserve their knowledge and experiences as soon as possible."

Tran Ngoc Thu, a unicorn dancer in the northern province of Quang Ninh, was among the credited artists.

"When I taught unicorn dance to the younger generation and organised dance troupes in the region, I didn't think of receiving certification or even to let anyone know of my work," he said. "I just feel the need to preserve the dance as part of our culture." — VNS