Developing community tourism associated with preserving intangible cultural heritage

With pride in traditional art, localities are making efforts to preserve the ancient capital of intangible cultural heritage, while implementing many solutions to raise people's awareness in developing community tourism, creating a spillover effect to make cultural heritages become unmissable destinations in Thai Binh homeland.

People's Artist Bui Van Ro performs with members of the Khuoc village cheo club.

Community tourism in the ancient rowing village
When visiting the Khuoc Cheo village, it is not difficult to listen to the smooth and soulful Cheo singing, watch the performance of ancient Cheo excerpts right at the Cheo ancestral temple. People's Artist Bui Van Ro is one of the oldest artists in the Khuoc Cheo village. His whole life has been devoted to the art of Cheo, directly teaching Cheo singing and dancing, and now he actively spreads the art of Cheo to everyone. Regardless of time, he is always ready to welcome and perform Cheo, introducing Cheo to interested people. His body is thin, his face is somewhat austere, but whenever Cheo is mentioned, his eyes sparkle with joy. People's Artist Bui Van Ro excitedly said that recently, he and the members of the village's Cheo Club have had the opportunity to welcome a large number of tourists, including photographers and reporters from central and local press agencies who want to capture beautiful images of the Cheo village. The most impressive thing for People's Artist Bui Van Ro is a set of photos of him taken by photographer Thai Binh at the Cheo village that just won the Red River Delta Art Photography Festival. That is a great source of encouragement and motivation for the artists because through many information channels, Cheo Khuoc is getting closer and closer to the public nationwide.

The ancestral temple of Khuoc village is where the village's artisans teach the art to the younger generation.

Sharing the same pride with People's Artist Bui Van Ro and Meritorious Artist Pham Thi Cay, Khuoc Cheo Village hopes that the village's Cheo Club will regularly perform to serve the needs of tourist groups when they come to experience the locality, which will contribute to motivating the young generation of the Cheo Village in particular and Phong Chau Commune in general to make efforts to preserve traditional art. Meritorious Artist Pham Thi Cay confided: "Welcoming guests is like welcoming spring, welcoming guests is like welcoming family members", so Khuoc Village Cheo is very honored to welcome many groups of visitors. The village's Cheo Club currently has 35 members, including 1 People's Artist and 3 Meritorious Artists. When groups come to visit and want to listen to Cheo singing, watch some special excerpts such as "The Fishing Couple", "The Old Man"..., not only the artists but all members of the Club, including the children, are ready to participate in the performance. In addition, the artists are also the ones who directly talk and share with tourists about the beauty in each song and dialogue, from which tourists can better understand the art of Cheo.

Young people with "village work"
As one of the two puppet troupes currently operating in Dong Hung district, Dong Cac water puppet troupe has 22 artisans, including 2 People's Artists and 2 Meritorious Artists. The age of the artisans ranges from 35 to over 80 years old, which is a great advantage in preserving traditional art as well as developing community tourism. Artisan Nguyen Van Thanh, head of Dong Cac water puppet troupe, shared: Since the art of water puppetry in Nguyen Xa and Dong Cac was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2018, there have been more young artisans actively participating in the activities of the troupe by learning from elderly artisans how to make puppets, perform, tour and introduce the art of water puppetry. The artisans of the troupe are currently making efforts in each performance program as well as spreading traditional art so that water puppetry in Dong village, Dong Cac commune can reach more and more domestic and international tourists. However, the puppets are made of wood and are performed underwater, so many of them are damaged and need to be replaced. The puppetry troupe's artisans hope that in the process of preserving and promoting traditional arts, they can mobilize funds to renew the puppet sets for the plays, thereby improving the performance for the audience.

Contributing to the preservation of the traditional art of his hometown, artisan Nguyen Dinh Hiep, deputy head of the Nguyen Xa water puppetry troupe (Dong Hung), shared: Although the water puppetry profession is very hard, having been in the troupe for more than 15 years, I always wish to join the artisans to preserve the traditional craft of the village and my hometown. In the troupe today, many elderly artisans are still passionate about the profession and enthusiastic in each performance. That is a great motivation for us young artisans to strive to follow, actively learn to preserve the identity of the troupe's famous plays and develop traditional art. In addition to the visiting groups, many schools have also coordinated to bring students to experience and learn about the art of water puppetry. Hopefully, from the pride of traditional art, there will be more successor artisans of the troupe.

Contributing to the development of community tourism in some localities with recognized intangible cultural heritage, recently, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinated with the People's Committee of Dong Hung district to organize training and foster tourism skills for 200 delegates who are people from Phong Chau, Dong Cac and Nguyen Xa communes. Hopefully, with the support of authorities at all levels as well as functional sectors, generations of artisans will promote the value of intangible cultural heritage, creating beautiful images, contributing to the desire for tourists to return to visit and experience the land of Thai Binh.