Vietnamese hát bội art, with its captivating character models and styles, has garnered attention from young artists across Asia.

From November 24 to 27, 2022, representatives from Cultura Fish, along with the Magik Theatre group, attended the Asian Youth Theatre Festival (AYTF) in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Under the theme “roots & routes,” Cultura Fish chose to introduce the character models of Vietnamese hát bội art to an international audience.

Representatives from Cultura Fish introduce the character models of Vietnamese hát bội.

During the limited time of the festival, Cultura Fish presented the origins of hát bội, common character types (such as kép, đào, lão, mụ, antagonist), and the unique conventions and techniques of this traditional performance art to international friends from 10 countries in Asia (Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar). The Vietnamese hát bội art, with its visually striking character models and forms, sparked considerable interest among the young artists and created a vibrant atmosphere during the presentation. Notably, some international youths even learned to call the character models by their names like “đào,” “kép,” and correctly guessed the characteristics of the characters when challenged.

One of the presentation slides by Cultura Fish.

It is hoped that in the future, more international friends will seek to learn about Vietnamese hát bội art.

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The Asian Youth Theatre Festival (AYTF) was first initiated in 2016 with the aspiration to bring about change within the Asian region. AYTF attracts the participation of arts organizations and young artists in the area. Each AYTF season is typically hosted in a different Asian city and lasts four days, featuring performances, dialogues, and workshops. Through these activities, young artists have the opportunity to discuss the artistic creative process with partners. Notably, each participating organization sends a representative to collaborate in creating a multicultural-multilingual performance that appears in the festival’s closing ceremony.
To learn more about the Asian Youth Theatre Festival (AYTF), you can visit: https://aytfest.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/AYTFest