Studying Cheo


I arrived back in Vietnam, feeling like I'd come home, ready for the next challenge; to learn a second Vietnamese Art form- Cheo. Cheo is much lighter than tuong, the music is very 'pretty' and the most famous feature of Cheo is the way the sound 'iii' is sung as a sort of trill to flesh out the music. Compared with Tuong the singing is more operatic, more variations in notes, and it follows a constant beat, making it easy to follow.

My teacher was to be the very lady I had been living with the year before- Co Tuyet. She had seen the way I had studied Cheo and couldn't wait to show me what she knew. During my time the year before she had been like a mother away from home, this year we became even closer. Even though I was no longer living with her I saw her everyday. I would call her anytime I had the slightest worry.

I spent my time with Cheo in a more relaxed way, I had plenty of time to learn and the year before I had almost killed myself with study, so I decided to enjoy it. I studied for seven months with Cheo and learnt 3 major Pieces.


Thi Mau Len Chua (Thi Mau goes to the Temple)

This piece comes from the story of 'Lady Buddha'. Thi Mau is a flirtatious character and undoubtedly the favorite of most Vietnamese people. She comes from a rich but strict family that never allows her to leave the house, except on the 15th of every month where she is allows to go to the temple to pray. As this monthly trip is her only day of freedom, she takes the opportunity to flirt with as many boys as she can find (that is, all the monks). She comes across one particular monk and falls for him instantly. She tries everything to win the heart of this young monk, including throwing apples at him, but to no avail. What she does not realise is this monk is in fact a woman dressed up as a man.

Finally Thi Mau decides ' my buffalo eat in my own field, why throw grains for an other man's chicken to eat'. She will go home to the servant boy in her house, he wouldn't dare refuse her!

Thi Kinh Vu Quy (Thi Kinh Agrees to Marry)

ThI Kinh Vu Quy (Thi Kinh Agrees to Marry)
The story of Thi Kinh is that of Lady Budda, and tells of how she became so loved and honoured. The charcter Thi Kinh is the same charcter as the dress-crossing monk that falls prey to Thi Mau.

The story begins as Thi Kinh as a young woman who is true to her family and believes in honour. One day her father asks her if she would like to marry. She says no because if she marries there will be no one to look after her parents. But her father convinces her that the greatest service she could do for her father is to give him a grandchild.

Thi Kinh agrees to marry. One day whenhusband and wife are napping in the shade, she notices a long hair growing from his neck. She goes to cut the hair but her husband wakes to find a knife to his throat. Shocked, he believes his wife has tried to murder him and throws her out of the house.

Shamed, Thi Kinh must dress as a man to enter the temple. Then one day, as the story above tells, Thi Kinh comes to the temple and mistakes Thi Kinh for a man. When Thi Mau is refused she returns home to seduce the servant boy, and becomes pregnant. When Thi Mau's family demands to know the father Thi Mau accuses the monk, in the hope that he will marry her. Of course this cannot be so Thi Kinh denies Thi Mau. Shamed again Thi Kinh is thrown out of the temple and forced to live in the back of the temple alone.

When Thi Mau's baby is born she leaves the baby boy at the temple. Thi Kinh finds this baby and raises him as if he were her own. When Thi Kinh dies it is discovered that she is a woman and the people, making this realisation, revere her as the most honourable type of person. And so she becomes 'Lady Buddah'

Suy Van gia Dai (Suy Van pretends to be crazy)

(Suy Van pretends to be crazy) Suy Van's fate is the saddest of all. Suy Van, like Thi Kinh, is an honourable woman. But when her husband returns from study he tells her that he must take an other wife. Refusing to share her husband Suy Van decides to pretends to be crazy so that her husband will divorce her. That way she can marry a marry that already admires her. But Suy Van is tricked, the man she intends to marry is a folouderer and is only out to use Suy Van.
The result is the Suy Van's pretended madness becomes actual madness and finally, at of utter desperation she throws herselfs into the river.

Suy VAll photos from this page are by Trong Chinh and Cat Huy Cuong