World status gives 'ca tru' no respect at home

While the music is a Vietnamese tradition, the only proper event featuring it over the past years was organized in June last year by the French culture center L’Espace in Hanoi.

The program, with free entrance, gathered many music professors and teachers including Pho Thi Kim Duc, a ca tru icon who started performing the art when she was just 13.

Loan said Hanoi authorities organized many conferences after the music won its recognition, and officials stood up to make plans and promises about providing location and other support for the music to be practiced, but these were empty promises.

“Hanoi abandoned ca tru long time ago, though it used to be the music’s biggest center.”

Le Van Toan, director of Vietnam Institute of Musicology that drafted the ca tru application, said they have not received any response from Hanoi about training projects for the music since.

“There’s no such academic cooperation. We sent out statements, but Hanoi did not respond. Some provinces were active in cooperating, but not Hanoi,” Toan said.

Loan said ca tru is a music that belongs to too many localities to be really cared for by any, unlike quan ho, which has received attention and investment from Bac Ninh Province or nha nhac, which originates in the former feudal capital of Hue.

He said the culture ministry, known officially as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, should take some blame for not issuing any directives on preserving and protecting this national  treasure.