Musical Performances in Sapa

Went on a trip to Sapa with 3 of my friends, Stano, Jia Lun and Shu Jie

While at Sapa, we chanced upon this school, and it so happened that the school was having a singing concert titled, "Hội Thi, Tiếng hát ngành Giáo dục huyện Sa Pa" which is a singing competition for people in the education sector. Hence, we went in to take a look, and had a good surprise!

There were many performances on show that day, here are some of the highlights which we watched.

Based on these performances, we could see the many different functions and social spaces that music has. The first part of the video showed had people singing a military or nationalistic song. The 2nd part of the video has many ethnic groups sharing the stage to give a collective song, from what I can see, there are people wearing Ao Dai, the national costume of Vietnam, and I think could represent the majority ethnic Viet people. There are also people wearing the ethnic costumes of what I would presume, symbolizes the Black Hmong and Flower Hmong, two ethnic groups that are have their villages very near or within the Sapa - Lao Cai regions.In addition, the 3rd item in the video showcases music and dance in unison with each other, which creates another platform to showcase their different ethnic culture in this social space. Hence, music can be used as a cultural tool to represent and showcase different cultures and their music, as well as a nationalistic tool in the singing of nationalistic songs. Overall, It was a very good experience.

Cheers,
Daniel Foo