Rạch Village in Hồng Quang Commune, Nam Trực district, Nam Dinh Province was the place where water puppetry was established in the 10th century and had a traditional craft of making statues, lacquered paintings, wood carvings and puppets for water puppet shows.
At present, the water puppet art troupe of this village has 40 members. In the past years, these artists have organized training to hand down this art form to young talented children. During off-season periods, members of the Troupe often shared experiences and created new plays reflecting the life of the people during the process of renovation and in building a new cultural lifestyle in rural areas. Authorities at all levels and some non-governmental organizations working on cultural conservation from Sweden have provided the Troupe with some funding for the construction of a mobile water pool for its performance tours and attending village festivals in the region and rebuild its water pavilion in the village for rehearsals and water puppet shows.
The plays of the Water Puppet Art Troupe of Rach Village often reflect the daily activities of farmers in the wet rice cultivation region such as rice transplanting, water scooping, fishing, weaving, wrestling, and buffalo fighting and the struggles for national construction and defense of the country by Trưng Trắc, Trưng Nhị, and Trần Hưng Đạo who three times defeated the Yuan invaders.
So far, the traditional crafts of making statues, lacquered paintings and wood carving have somehow faded away, but the craft of making puppet is still maintained and developed. The family of Mr. Đặng Văn Đoàn is now the only workshop in Rạch village that manufactures puppets. Puppets made of fig wood are both light and supple and are painted with natural paint to protect them and make them last for a long time in water. Mr. Đoàn’s workshop does not only supply puppets to the village Water Puppet Troupe but also other water puppet troupes throughout the country at their order.
At present, Vietnam has 6 professional puppet art troupes at the central levels: Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Daklak and Quang Tri. In addition, there are dozens of local water puppet groups in the Red River Delta.
Over the past years, many Vietnam’s water puppet troupes have taken part in international puppet festivals and won many high prizes and attracted great interest from audiences in many countries.
Source: Thông tấn xã Việt Nam
