Quan Ho Bac Ninh Folk Song | Origin & Features

Quan Ho Bac Ninh is a folk performing art, which has an origin from Kinh Bac area (present Bac Ninh Province). It is recognized as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO on September 30^th, 2009.

The Origin of Quan Ho Bac Ninh Folk Song

Quan ho is considered a cultural activity of Bac Ninh people for the purpose of sharing their passions and fascinating voices. Besides, they also performed Quan Ho folk songs so that they can make friends with other people from another village who have hobbies in common and exchange their love of traditional art as well.

Transmitted orally through many generations, Quan Ho songs are performed as alternating verses with similar lyrics but different melodies. Each song lyric concludes 2 parts with the main text covering the core song rooted from Vietnamese poems and the additional text comprising words like i, hi, a ha, u hu, etc to support the melodies.  With over 400 long lyrics sung with 213 various melodies, Quan Ho songs can express their emotion like sadness due to separation and the happiness of seeing the lovers. Especially, local people remain a custom which bans to get married to a singing partner.

The Features of Quan Ho Bac Ninh Folk Song

In the Quan Ho performance, there are 2 mains groups of male singers (lien anh) from one village and female singers (lien chi) from another village. Every group consists of 4-6 people whose names are based on their ages like “Second Sister”, “Third Sister”, “Second Brother”, “Third Brother”, etc.

When women sing Quan Ho, their costumes include “non thung quai thao” (a kind of traditional hat), camisole, tunic, skirt, scarves tied about the waist, slippers, and a scarf for wrapping their hair. Men need to wear the turban, shirt comprising undershirt and long tunics, trousers, slippers as well as bring the umbrella. Like professional singers, they move gestures flexibly and keep eye contact suitable during their staging performances. Nowadays, they can perform with anyone, not only their mates, which is regarded as the sign of eternal artistic relationship among Quan Ho singers.

Thanks to unique features of performing arts, lyrics, outfits, and cultural values, Quan Ho folk songs have become popular and significant among the Bac Ninh people in particular and Vietnamese people in general.