Folk in the road: Young people perform hat xoan (spring singing) at a temple in the northern province of Phu Tho. Local authorities are making additional efforts to protect the folk art. — Photo tasteofvietnam.vn

PHU THO (VNS) — Authorities of the northern Phu Tho Province are exerting additional efforts to protect hat xoan (spring singing), which has been designated part of UNESCO's intangible heritage sites.

Ha Ke San, deputy chairman of Phu Tho People's Committee, said that the province would promote research, teaching, training and collection, as well as compiling information about the area's heritage.

"Activities of the hat xoan performance and popularisation will be promoted in the country. Simultaneously, a project to restore and preserve xoan relics will be started. In addition, an inventory of the xoan singing troupes in the province will be created," said San.

He further said that Phu Tho had financially supported the xoan singing troupes, including the art masters, to train staff and organise activities for the preservation of the heritage.

The provincial department of culture has been assigned to co-ordinate with the Viet Nam Music Academy and the Centre for Preservation and Development of Culture Heritage to research and collect ancient xoan songs. These will be recorded and publicised to serve as training and research materials, he said.

Other agencies will refer to these works in creating a plan involving the restoration, preservation and practice of the singing in four original xoan communities in Phu Duc, Kim Doi, Thet and An Thai, said San.

More than 60 veteran singers have taken part in teaching young artists, including 100 teenagers in those xoan communities, said renowned singer Nguyen Thi Lich.

San said that hat xoan would be protected if the young artists were well trained.

He noted that the promotion of the xoan heritage of the Hung Vuong worship religion, which was recognised as one of the world's intangible heritages in 2012, should be connected to the development of tourism through performances of xoan singing troupes.

This should be done from 2016 to 2020.

"We will try to share the hat xoan in international exchanges. We aim to fully restore the traditional xoan festivities by 2020," San added.

Xoan singing, or hat xoan, is a genre of Vietnamese folk music performed in the spring, during the first two months of the Lunar New Year or Tet in the northern province of Phu Tho. — VNS