Límites del sistema y etapas del ciclo de vida a incluir 78 

Vietnam ese term dan toe is com plex as it also refers to ethnicity. For exam ple, the Vietnam ese p eop le can be collectively referred to as dan toe Vi§t and the ethnic

m inorities in Vietnam are referred to as dan toe/dan toe thieu so. In m usical contexts dan toe may also be used to m ean 'folk'/'traditional' as opposed to 'new'/'m odern' (see Arana 1 9 99 :7 4-75 ).

In the 1990s th e p ro m o tio n of 'traditional* (truyen thong) V ietnam ese c u ltu re 'ric h in n a tio n a l colour* has becom e an even m ore pressin g

c o n cern o f th e Party in th e face of increasing in te rn a tio n a l in flu en ces a n d th e knock-on effects of econom ic liberalisation. At th e F o urth P lenum o f th e C entral Com m ittee o f th e Party in 1993 the preservation, ra th e r th a n the refo rm a n d im provem ent, of tra d itio n a l arts was recognised fo r th e first tim e. It m ay also be the case th a t trad itio n al arts are being p ro m o ted because o f benefits to th e to u rist in d u stry . At the Fifth Plenum o n C ulture in July 1998 Hu’u Tho, the d irecto r of Party C entral Com m ittee's Ideology a n d C ulture Commission, a n d Le Kha Phieu, the Party G eneral Secretary,

expressed the n e ed to en su re the developm ent o f an "advanced V ietnam ese c u ltu re rich in n atio n al colour" (nen van hoa Viet Nam tien tien, dam da ban sac d§n toe) w hile still ab so rb in g in te rn a tio n a l in flu en ces.13

Official policy tow ard th e Phu Giay festival - an annually h e ld e v en t to com m em orate the d e a th day of the First M other spirit, Liiu Hanh, a t th e b eginning o f th e th ird lu n a r m o n th - provides a concrete exam ple of th e P arty's p rio ritisa tio n o f n atio n al c u ltu re a n d a distancing fro m th e a n ti­ su p erstitio n cam paign. The Phu Giay festival is the m ost ren o w n ed festival , for one of th e m ost rev ered spirits of th e Four Palace Religion a n d is fam ous for len dong. D uring th e a n ti-su p erstitio n cam paign th e Phu Giay festival was specifically re fe rre d to as 'su p erstitio u s' a n d in n eed o f e ra d ica tio n (T ru th Publishing House 1982:6), b u t it has recently b een described by one o f the research ers a t th e Folk C ulture In stitu te as "a rich, p ro fo u n d a n d u n iq u e folk c u ltu re activity ... [that] co n trib u tes to th e ab u n d an ce o f n a tio n a l cu ltu re (van hoa dbn toe)" (Thang Ngoc Pho 1992:62).

In 1998 th e Phu Giay festival was for the first time officially

acknow ledged a n d given perm ission to go ah ead by th e D ep artm en t o f C ulture a n d Inform ation. The acknow ledgem ent o f the festival is a

significant step th a t indicates a n increasing tolerance o f len dong o n b e h alf of th e a u th o ritie s because, alth o u g h len dong itself has n o t receiv ed official perm ission, len dbng rituals are rife a t Phu Giby. In th e previous th re e years, fro m 1995 to 1997, th e festival was given th e status o f a n ’e x p erim en t’ (the nghiem ) - a trial p e rio d before official en d o rsem en t was given. P rior to the ex p erim en tal period, official recognition was n o t g ra n te d to th e Phu Giay festival, and, according to m edium s a n d m usicians, only clan d estin e, small- scale len dong ritu als w ere held.

13 Reported in the newspapers: Vietnam News 18.7.98 and 20.7.98; Ngi/di Cao Tuoi

W hen I a tte n d e d the Phu Giay festival in 1995 a n d 1997, th e re w ere p ro m in e n t b a n n e rs proclaim in g th e P arty's an ti-su p erstitio n policy, d esp ite the fact th a t len dong w ere being h eld in virtually every tem ple. In 1998 these b an n ers h a d been rep laced by the slogan 'p ro m o te the cu ltu re colour of th e n a tio n ' (phat huy ban sac van hoa cua dan toe). This change m arks a clear sh ift in policy away from condem ning su p erstitio n in fav o u r o f an em phasis on ad o p tin g cu ltu ral activities as p a rt of building a n a tio n a l id e n tity .

The sam e tactic is ev id en t in the docum en tary m ade by V ietnam ese Television a b o u t th e 1998 Phu Giay festival. The d o cum entary m ade no referen ce to len dong because of restrictio n s of th e censors, n o r d id it m e n tio n s u p e rstitio n .14 Instead, it focused on o th e r aspects o f th e festival w hich w ere p re se n te d as 'o ld h eritag e' (von cu) an d 'tra d itio n a l c u ltu re ' (van hoa truyen thong). These included: lion dancing; 'arran g in g w ords' (xep chu’), involving th e fo rm atio n o f Chinese c h aracters th ro u g h th e a rra n g e m e n t of a large group o f people; a n d a chau van com petition, w hich was th e first to be h eld for m any years. Taken away from th e context o f Idn dong a n d

co n d u cted in th e controlled, form al setting of a com petition, chau van was p ra ised by th e film n a rra to r for its 'artistic value' (gfa tri nghe thuat) as a 'collective cu ltu ra l activity' (sinh hoat van hoa tong the) rich in 'folk colour' (ban sac dan gian). T h ro u g h o u t the docum entary, interview ees a n d the n a rra to r of the film d ep icted th e festival in term s of the p reserv atio n , re sto ra tio n an d d evelo p m en t of trad itio n al culture an d its c o n trib u tio n to build in g th e V ietnam ese nation.

REVOLUTIONARY

Chau van as it is p erfo rm ed durin g len dong has been subject to stric t p ro h ib itio n because o f its association with, a n d co n trib u tio n to, 'su p e rstitio n '. However, th e re w ere still a few occasions w hen it was

p erfo rm ed a t secret l§n dbng rituals, a n d the music played a t ritu als has n o t been affected by com m unist ideology. ^ In o rd e r for chau van to be

ideologically acceptable to th e Party, m em bers of the Nam Oinh Cheo T roupe devised a new form o f chau van, w hich I have glossed as 'rev o lu tio n ary chau

14 The restrictions o f the censors were conveyed to me by one o f the docum entary makers.

See Chapter 8 for discussion o f m usical changes to chau van as it is perform ed during len dong.

van' because o f its rev o lu tio n ary socialist content. R evolutionary chau van has b een p erfo rm ed on th e stage an d b ro ad cast on the rad io since its co n cep tion in th e early 1960s.

The P arty's vision o f the role of arts in society was th a t th e a rts sh o u ld serve th e ideological in terests o f th e Party, the n atio n a n d th e socialist re v o lu tio n .16 In the w ords of Ho Chf Minh: "The task o f all cu ltu ra l cadres is to use cu ltu re to tra n sm it the in d u strio u s an d th rifty w ork o f build in g th e co u n try , b u ild in g socialism in th e n o rth a n d fighting fo r th e u n ificatio n of o u r country" (Ho Chf Minh 1 9 7 6 [1 9 6 0 ] :1 0 2 ). O ther Party ideologues such as Le Duan, TrUbng Chinh a n d Pham Van Dong have expanded a t length o n th e

im p o rta n t role o f cu ltu re a n d the arts in building a socialist state (see Ho Chf Minh e t al. 1 9 7 6 ).

A pplying th e socialist ag end a to the a rts was vigorously c arrie d o u t by m any s ta te -ru n m usical org an isatio n s such as th e M usicians' A ssociation (Hoi Nhac ST) a n d n atio n al m usic troupes, a n d has h a d p ro fo u n d affects on th e teaching m eth o d a t th e music conservatoires (see Second C onference of th e M usicians' A ssociation 1964 a n d Academy of the Arts 1972). Trirbng Chinh, the G eneral Secretary to the Party, advised m usicians to exploit a n d m odify 'th e n atio n s h eritag e' according to th e following principles: "1. Use old form s to pro p ag ate new content. 2. Transform a n d im prove old form s. 3. Create new form s draw ing u p o n fu n d am en tal features o f tra d itio n a l music" (Ha Huy Giap 1972:17, cited in Le Tuan Hung 1998:98). The idea o f transform ing a n d im proving th e n a tio n a l h eritag e of m usical form s, of p u ttin g 'new wine' into an 'old bo ttle' (binh cu rifdu m6i) is th e m usical e q u iv alen t o f th e reform s o f 'backw ard' custom s a n d habits.

Such ideological reform s o f m usic gave rise to a new genre o f m usic usually re fe rre d to as 'm o d ern n atio n al m usic' (nhac dan toe hien dai)17 an d also to m odifications o f 'tra d itio n a l' music genres. Recent studies have p ro v id ed d etailed analysis of m o d ern natio n al music (Le Tuan Hung 1998 a n d A rana 1999) a n d th e conservatoire system (Arana 1999), y et th e re has been

16 The use o f music as a m eans for propagating revolutionary propaganda is com m on to