We use cookies on this website. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy and for us to access our cookies on your device.
Transcript/ScriptTV Vietnam Tết Drums
HEAD: California’s Vietnamese to Greet New Year with Traditional Drumming
PUBLISHED AT: 01/28/2022: 12:30pm
BYLINE: Titi Mary Tran
DATELINE: Orange County, California
VIDEOGRAPHER: Titi Mary Tran
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original, Thien An Performing Arts
CONTRIBUTOR: Long Nguyen
SCRIPT WRITER: Titi Mary Tran
SCRIPT EDITORS: KE(1st); BR
SOURCE: VOA, Other (see courtesies)
PLATFORMS: TV, Web, Online
TRT: 03:49
VID APPROVED BY: KE
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((INTRO))
[[This year the Lunar New Year, or Tết begins on February 1st. The Vietnamese American community in Orange County, California is preparing to give the annual event a loud and earth-rattling welcome. Titi Tran has the story.]]
((NATSOUNDS))
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory cg: Thien An Performing Arts))
In the Little Saigon neighborhoods of Orange County, California, students are practicing their drumming to prepare for Tết, as the Lunar New Year is known in Vietnamese.
Khang Bao is a science teacher at Westminster High School and co-founder of the Thien An Performance Arts drumming group. For him, drums represent the essence of being Vietnamese.
((Khang Bao, Westminster High School Teacher)) (in English)
“The first time I heard it, I can feel my hand’s hair standing up, I can feel there is a soul in the performance. It’s not a dance with hands’ movements. There is a soul to it. It’s alive.”
((NARRATION))
For the students, drum practice connects them to their friends and community after more than a year of pandemic isolation.
((Jonathan Truong, Westminster High School Student)) (in English)
“I’m excited this year for the Tết festival. Last year, obviously I had to deal with COVID. We were really restricted on a lot of things we could do, but this year I’m excited to get back out there and perform for Vietnamese people.”
((Kimmy Ho, Westminster High School Student)) (in English)
“We have been stuck in our house without practicing, and now we’re finally back we get to showcase during Tết, but I’m also a little nervous, since we haven’t been performing a lot recently.”
((NARRATION))
These drums are unique not only in their sound but also in their importance to the rich story of Southeast Asia. Some of Vietnam’s earliest written history was inscribed on the Đông Sơn Bronze Drums, first made in Vietnam over two thousand years ago.
((Chan Kieu Quang, Collector)) (In Vietnamese))
These drums reveal the Vietnamese civilization, the language, tradition, the instruments. Vietnamese’s thoughts all recorded on the Bronze Drums.”
((NARRATION)) ((Mandatory picture credit: Chan Kieu Quang))
Kiều started collecting the Bronze Drums before 1975, when he was a doctor in South Vietnam’s Airborne Division. He’s now a recognized bronze drum scholar.
((Chan Kieu Quang, Collector)) (In Vietnamese))
“There is a star in the middle. This star could be the sun or a star. And around there is a circle of Lạc birds, always, Đông Sơn drums always has circles of Lạc birds, flying counterclockwise. We are people who have culture of wet-rice cultivation, meaning our ancestors paid attention to cultivation so much that they could have known the Earth is circling around the Sun. Therefore, everything turns counterclockwise.”
((NARRATION))
Many older Vietnamese Americans treasure the drums for their cultural importance.
((Quynh Kieu, Project Vietnam)) (in English)
“We need to give children roots and wings. The roots are the Bronze Drum of Vietnam culture, the link, the continuity of generations from our ancestors to us. As for the wings, those are hopes, goals for future, not only to better themselves but also benefit others.”
((NARRATION))
And this year, for all who attend Tết celebrations amid another year of pandemic precautions, the sound of drums will symbolize a culture that continues to survive.
((Titi Tran, VOA News, Orange County, California))
NewsML Media TopicsLifestyle and Leisure, Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Topic TagsVietnam
NetworkVOA
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
