Hat+Boi,+The+Vietnamese+Classical+Theatre+inspired+by+Beijing+Opera+by+Arnab+Banerji

**//Hat Boi: The traditional theatre of Vietnam//**
The Vietnamese strongly resist this claim, saying that this art form has a very, strong independent identity. However, the slightest look at //hat boi// reveals the influence that Beijing Opera has had on this art form. The following sections will seek to investigate the areas in which the influences of the Beijing Opera are most strongly felt in //hat boi//, also known as //tuong//, celebrated as the national theatre of Vietnam. One must mention here, that although significantly popular, there is a surprising dearth of information on this performance genre. Very little has been done and even less is available.

1285: General Tran Huong Dao captured the Chinese actor Ly Nguyen Cat who brought some form of Chinese theatre to Vietnam. In his commentary on the //Dai Viet Su Ky (History of the Dai Viet)//, Cao Huy Diu claims the theatre form introduced by Ly Nguyen Cat is the forerunner of the present day //hat boi// style. It is impossible to verify this fact, since no concrete evidence is really available. However, what can be deduced from this is that he did start a regular performing troupe in the royal palace, Cat organized a troupe comprising twelve people who played the roles of //vai kep// (male), //vai tuong// (generals), //dao nuong// (female), and //he dong// (clown). The style he instructed them in was Chinese. In addition to performing, these twelve people also played drums, flutes, and kept rhythm by clapping their hands. The stories they presented were divided into scenes and they wore Chinese style brocaded costumes and painted their faces. The actors were said to be really good and capable of evoking the emotion that they portrayed on stage. The same volume also records that in 1350, during the reign of King Tran Du Tong (1341-1370), another Chinese actor came to the Tran court in Ha-noi to teach Vietnamese actors the Chinese style of play production. The actor called Dinh Ban Duc, brought his family along, and taught magic tricks and acrobatics to the performers. Unfortunately, //hat boi// is not mentioned in any of the writings of the Le dynasty and we don't hear anything about the art form for close to three hundred years.
 * //History//**

media type="youtube" key="Dcviv-tAiMo" height="344" width="425" //**Development**// The strongest influence on the performance style of //hat boi// during the nineteenth century was provided by King Minh Mang (1820-1841). King Minh was educated in Chinese literature and wanted //hat boi// to adapt the Chinese performance style at the court of Hue. To achieve this, he brought a Chinese actor, Cang Cung, from Canton to teach his court actors the Chinese performance style. He also decreed that all //hat boi// costumes must follow the patterns of their Chinese counterparts. During the reign of the King Tu-Duc (1848-1883) the literary construction of //hat boi// scripts became standardized. Before this, generations of actors had depended solely on oral transmission of the scripts of the plays. However, during this period, often classified as that of //hat boi's// highest literary achievement, standardized scripts were developed and distributed to the performing troupes for use. //Hat boi// troupes were regularly patronized by the royal household. A court performance troupe was also sent to perform at the Paris exposition of 1900.

media type="youtube" key="FjZHTM-xvT0" height="344" width="425" //The Romance of the Three Kingdoms//, one of the Chinese sources that //hat boi// uses

//**Types of Script and the Chinese influence**// The //hat boi// repertoire has two types of plays: the //toung thay// and //tuong do//. //Toung thay// literally means “plays of the masters,” and are about Vietnamese, Chinese and other fictitious imperial courts, the stories are usually concerned with the struggle of the king to remain in power. //Toung do//, literally “common stories.” are plays based on Vietnamese and Chinese legends, poems, and novels whose subject matter is domestic rather than royal. The Chinese culture it would then seem does exert a lot of significant influence on the Vietnamese //hat boi//. A number of exciting and popular //hat boi// plays concern Chinese history and have been adapted from the Chinese historical novel, //The Romance of the Three Kingdoms//. This novel contains a number of exciting situations and only short bits are adopted for the stage. //Phung Nghi Dinh// is one such play that introduces a Chinese character called Tao Thao (Ts'ao Ts'ao in Chinese). The theme of this particular play is the common //hat boi// theme of loyalty and a supposed usurpation which is thwarted at the end.

//**Themes**// The themes of these two categories of plays reflect the Confucian ethics which guide the behavior of the Vietnamese people. We know that Confucianism entered Vietnam with the Chinese annexation of North Vietnam in the third century BCE (Confucianism and Its Spread to Vietnam website). Although the Vietnamese sought to maintain their independent identity and resisted the Chinese aggression and control, the influence of Chinese culture was profound in Vietnamese every day life. The ethical structure of the //hat boi// plays echo the same ethical understanding. Thus the virtues of loyalty, faithfulness and sense of duty occupy positions of importance in //hat boi// plays. The same ethical concerns are also dominant, we may recall in several Beijing Opera plays.

The //hat boi// theatre, like the Chinese opera does not attempt to depict physical reality. A mere suggestion of the reality is provided. The rest is portrayed through symbolic, conventional gestures and minimal scenic pieces. A lot is left for the audience to imagine. Like the Chinese opera, the acting area is bare, and rectangular in shape. Traditionally, the back of the stage has a decorated cloth of gold and red, which has doorways cut into it for entrances and exits. The properties used on stage are minimal like that in Beijing Opera. A centerpiece comprising a table and a few chairs could serve as furnishings for a rich man's house as well as a poor man's. Just by placing chairs on top of each other or by changing the way they are arranged, a scene shift can be signaled. For example, by turning two side chairs so that they face the wings, and reversing the chair atop the table, the scene is shifted to indicate a mountain. Minimum symbols, similar to Chinese opera again, are used to enable the audience to visualize a scene. To depict characters in motion, //hat boi// employs the help of stage hands, like the ones we have seen in Beijing Opera. I would like to draw upon the portrayal of a scene where a raft is shown crossing the river. It is depicted using a long grey cloth stretched across a width of the stage. One end is held flush to the floor, and the other edge is raised vertically. Upstage of this flag, two men stand, holding rowing poles. The passenger steps between them. The two men make rowing motions while the three of them, in unison, slowly move across the stage. When the passenger steps off into the wings, the scene is ended and the raft has crossed the river. This reminds me immediately of the rowing scene that Dr. Lu demonstrated as part of his Beijing Opera lecture. //** Gestures**// As already mentioned, during several phases of the development of //hat boi//, Chinese actors were specially brought in to teach the actors the Chinese style of acting. Thus it is quite evident, that the gestures used in //hat boi//, draw quite heavily from those of the Beijing Opera. Although it might be difficult to draw exact parallels between the gestures, a glimpse at //hat boi// is bound to confuse an uninitiated person about which art form he is actually seeing. As Ding Quang (et al) mention “Movement and dance are other peculiarities of //Tuong// (another name for //hat boi// ) which, exaggerated, cannot be seen in people's daily life.... In fact, if the natural movements of human beings are applied, the character will become inept.”
 * //Staging//**

//**Makeup and Costume**// The makeup style of //hat boi// is very similar to that of the Chinese theatre. This similarity arises due to the fact, as already discussed, Chinese actors actually came to the court of the King Minh Manh in Hue to teach the Vietnamese actors the Chinese style of makeup. Since the influence of the Chinese style is strongest on the character types that are from Chinese stories, the Vietnamese actors modified the style to meet the requirements of the characters not found in Chinese plays. One of the main modifications that seems to have taken place is that of color symbolism. In the Chinese theatre, the color white symbolises cunning and treacherous whereas in Vietnam white stands for devotion and faithfulness. However, other colors like red, blue, black and green seem to symbolize the same traits in both the art forms. A comparative study of the make up between the two genres of performance indicates at the similarities and differences that the two styles have. A comparison between the characters Tao Thao and its Chinese equivalent Ts'ao Ts'ao reveal that the basic color for both the characters is white, but the symbolism is different in both the countries as already mentioned. Additionally, the Vietnamese style has stronger black lines and the black lines are more numerous, indicating the emphasis in Vietnam on the cunning nature of Tao Thao. The most striking difference between the two styles is revealed if we look at the makeup of the Truong Phi character and its Chinese equivalent the Chang Fei. The Vietnamese style uses a predominantly red face with broad white designs, whereas the Chinese style has a white face with heavy black lines and patterns. An uninitiated person would never be able to establish the fact that the two characters might be connected in some way. This shows the difference in character perception between the two styles as well. The character just discussed from the play //The Three Kingdom// is portrayed as extremely loyal and trustworthy in Vietnam, whereas the Chinese retain a hint of his evil nature. //Hat boi// costumes are also influenced by Chinese, although a major variation that is seen is the absence of 'rippling water sleeve' which is so characteristic of the Chinese theatre. Generally, Chinese characters and other foreign nationals appearing in the plays are dressed using this style of costumes. For Vietnamese characters, especially kings and courtiers the costumes generally resemble the clothing actually worn by Vietnamese kings and their court.

//**Musical Instruments**// Several instruments used in the hat boi orchestra are adaptations from original Chinese instruments, the following is a list of some of these instruments that have been borrowed from original Chinese: Don tranh (sixteen stringed guitar) – Fourteen stringed Tcheng played in China. Don gao (four stringed guitar) – exact copy of Yue k'in in China. Don gao (two stringed violin) – similar to hou k'in in China Dan ty ba (four stringed mandolin) – another Chinese import, although the Chinese name could not be located. Don co (two stringed violin) – k'i k'in in China Ong sao (flute) – possible copy of the Chinese ti. Previously, //hat boi// also used the falsetto style of singing like the Beijing Opera as well as Chinese words in the songs. However, the actor-scholar Doan Quan Tan in an attempt to modernize //hat boi// during the 1940's incorporated several changes. Important among them were the omission of the Chinese words from the songs, and the elimination of the falsetto style of singing, although he retained the same tunes for the songs.

This brief discussion is an attempt to highlight the influence that Chinese culture and more specifically Beijing Opera had on the traditional art form of another country. The Vietnamese //hat boi// indeed has a distinct Vietnamese flavor to it, but it is undeniable that it looks very similar to the better known Beijing Opera. Hat boi continues to be a popular form of entertainment in Vietnam. Although other forms of theatre that are more recent innovations have exerted some pressure on its popularity. It seems that there is a dearth of adequate research or study in this art form in the English language. It is also not very well known outside of Vietnam. The reason that immediately comes to mind, is the fact, that owing to its similarity to Beijing Opera, this art form is overshadowed by the bigger, brighter and grander Chinese opera.
 * //Conclusion//**

//**Further reading**// Although I don't cite it repeatedly within the text almost all the information contained in this brief study was gathered from the following principal source, which happens to be the only reliable English language source for studying //hat boi://

Hauch, Duane Ernie. //A descriptive study of Hat Boi, the classical theatre of Vietnam.// M.A. Thesis. Manoa: University of Hawai'i, 1970.

Other sources that I looked at:

Ði'nh Quang ... [et al.]. //Vietnamese theater//. Hanoi: Gioi Publications, 1999. Crawford, Ann Caddell. //Customs and Culture of Vietnam//. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. Ban, Song. //The Vietnamese Theater//. Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960. "Confucianism and its Spread to Vietnam." http://www.angelfire.com/ca/beekeeper/cf.html. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009.

//**Image sources**//

http://www.vietnamtuongtheatre.com/CmsImage/HatBoi1.jpg//**.**// Accessed on December, 16th, 2009. http://www.nhat-nam.ru/test/hat_boi.jpg//**.**// Accessed on December, 16th, 2009. http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh185/thang5vui/hattuong1.jpg. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1424/842442472_fb964d4afe.jpg?v=0. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009. http://www.xuvn.com/vnexhibit/folk%20opera/hatboi2.gif. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009. http://www.xuvn.com/vnexhibit/folk%20opera/hatboi1.gif. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009. http://www.xuvn.com/vnexhibit/folk%20opera/hatboi3.gif. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009.


 * //Video sources//**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjZHTM-xvT0&feature=related. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcviv-tAiMo&feature=related. Accessed on December, 16th, 2009.