Chèo - A Vietnamese Traditional Stage Art in Ninh Bình Province’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65150/EP-jsshrs/V2E8/2026-32Keywords:
traditional Chèo art, Ninh Bình province, intangible cultural heritage, folklore performanceAbstract
Chèo is a form of traditional stage art that is made up of a skillful combination of poetry and music, dance and sculpture. Ancient Chèo (also known as Hát Trò) - a special art imbued with lyrical and narrative characteristics - has been very popular in the daily life of the people in the North of Vietnam since the Đinh Dynasty in 10th century. The art is closely associated with features of farmers in the Northern Delta in the past, who were attached to wet rice agriculture that led them to a closed life with little interaction. In that context, a natural formation of Chèo zones operating with a same purpose of “praising the good and fighting against the evil”, has come into being, and thereby forming artistic styles of Chèo zones having their own characteristics that are diverse and rich in genres.
References
1) An, V. D. (1960). Chèo Singing [Hát Chèo]. Ninh Binh Department of Culture and Information.
2) An, V. D. (1962). Chèo Singing [Hát Chèo]. Ninh Binh Department of Culture and Information.
3) Fieldwork and Interview Data. (2023). Local Chèo tunes of Ninh Binh province [Các điệu chèo quê hương tỉnh Ninh Bình].
4) Hoàng, K. & Hà, H. (2007). Selected ancient Chèo tunes [Những làn điệu Chèo cổ chọn lọc]. Culture and Information Publishing House. Hanoi.
5) Lê, T. H. (1996). Overview of Chèo art in the second half of the 20th century (Vol 1) [Tổng luận nghệ thuật chèo nửa sau thế kỷ XX (Tập 1)]. Culture and Information Publishing House & Vietnam Chèo Theatre. Hanoi.
6) Nguồn Việt Group. (1974). Chèo Singing of the Vietnamese people [Hát Chèo của dân tộc Việt Nam]. Đường Sáng Publishing House. Saigon.
7) Nguyễn, V. M. (1970). How to sing Chèo well [Làm thế nào để hát Chèo hay].
8) Ninh Bình Department of Culture. (1958). Guidelines for composing and performing ancient Chèo [Hướng dẫn sáng tác và biểu diễn Chèo cổ].
9) Ninh Bình Department of Culture. (1970). Some of Chèo tunes [Một số làn điệu Chèo].
10) Thanh, P. (2002). The appearance of music through the study of 500 newly composed Chèo tunes. Printed in the Proceedings of the Conference entitled Discussion on newly composed Chèo tunes. Published by the Institute of Theatre. Hanoi. 63-80.
11) Tran, B. Chèo: A form of Vietnamese folk theatre [Chèo một hình thức sân khấu dân gian Việt Nam]. Vietnam Chèo Theatre.
12) Tuấn, H. (1970). Some opinions on using tunes in Chèo scripts [Vài ý kiến về dùng làn điệu trong kịch bản Chèo].
13) Vũ, K. K. (1974). Understanding Chèo theatre [Tìm hiểu sân khấu chèo]. Lửa Thiêng Publishing House. Saigon.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Vu Dieu Trung (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
