Water puppetry has been around in Hanoi, and only in Hanoi for over 1000 years. The craft of making the puppets and how to work them using elaborate wodden levers was passed down from father to son. The art was never shared with the daughters because they might one day mary a man from outside of the villiage and leave, taking the secret with them to share with others.
I know these picture are terrible, but ther're all I got.
The lady in the front here is playing the Đàn bầu. Until only recently, the instument was allowed to be played only by men. In Vietnamese tradition, everyone but young women were allowed to listen to the instument. The reason being that, if the young women heard this instument being played, they would almost certainly fall in love with the musician. I sort of laughed when I heard this, then the band here played a peice where the Đàn bầu was featured and had some long solos. The sound is incredible; as was the music. It made me feal really emotional. One of the peices they played reminded me of pink floyd. If you can find a sound sample of this instument on the net, listen to it. It's sound is amazing!!!!
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