“It happens in one minute but the artists have to practise in one week. The interesting act provokes and attracts any audience. The fox swims to catch a duck and then he hides behind the bush, climbs up a tree, until he catches the duck and carries up to the tree. “This act is one of the most special techniques in water puppet show,” Luong explained. Suddenly, a mischievous fox appears and catches their ducks. A couple of peasants appear when they are raising ducks peacefully. During the show, they just see the puppets on the water surface acting out various scenarios, including the dragon dance, unicorn fighting for a ball, farming and fishing.Ī piece like fighting fox catching duck is exciting enough to gain claps from audience. Audiences learn the trick at the end of the show when artists come out from behind the rattan curtain. This apparatus extends behind the stage curtain to the hidden puppeteers who stand in waist-deep water," researcher Nguyen Huy Hong wrote in his book Vietnamese Traditional Water Puppetry.Ĭurrently, tourists are offered performances of puppets controlled by poles. "During performances, puppeteers control their puppets through a stick-and-string apparatus concealed by the pond water. After the 45-minute-long show, many tourists buy the little puppets as souvenirs. The puppets are covered with red lacquer trimmed with gold. Puppets range in height from 30 to 100cm. Puppeteers carve their puppets from fig tree and waterproof them with resin from the lacquer tree. In the water puppet play, artists use firecrackers and fireworks to create a special effect and attraction. The performance is often organised on the occasion of the local festival which gathers all of the villagers, especially children.Ī water puppetry show is accompanied by musical instruments such as drum, two-stringed fiddle, flute, drum kit, 16-chord zither or monochord. Water puppet theatre is called thuy dinh, set up in communal ponds. Water puppetry has its origins since the 11th century in the Red River Delta of northern Viet Nam where the wet-rice civilisation took shape, according to Chu Luong, vice director of the Thang Long Theatre. The water puppet performances are various and touch on everyday life activities of Vietnamese people, entertainment and plays that set examples of national heroes, and traditional opera plays like cheo and tuong. In addition, there is Lotus Theatre on Hang Trong Street, the Central Water Puppet Theatre on Truong Chinh Street and several private venues. Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, located on Dinh Tien Hoang Street near Hoan Kiem Lake, is the most popular theatre for water puppetry. While Indonesia has shadow puppets, Japan has bunraku theatre with black-clad ninja puppeteers and in the US, people know Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and all the other members of the madcap Muppet gang, Viet Nam has an 800-year-old art form called traditional water puppetry, remarked Things Asian Press. Water puppetry is a special treat for tourists in Ha Noi - a must-see show for all foreign visitors. The show officially begins and wows spectators. The unique feat is always a curious thing for audiences. In the beginning, he raises the festival flag from the water without it making a splash. He serves as narrator of the water puppet performance. A puppet called Teu comes out and introduces himself: “I was born from the heavens/Gone into exile for picking fairy’s peaches/As the world is complicated and treacherous/I’m wandering to see to troubles.” The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.VietNamNet Bridge – The curtain is raised. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it.
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