TL;DR: Cải lương took shape in the South of Vietnam in the early 20th century from đờn ca tài tử through the ca ra bộ style; many researchers take 1918 as the milestone for the birth of cải lương theatre. The piece Dạ cổ hoài lang, composed by Cao Văn Lầu on the night of the full moon of the 8th lunar month in 1919, is the root of the vọng cổ song, which later transformed from double time up through 4-beat, 8-beat, 16-beat, 32-beat and 64-beat time to become the pillar vọng cổ song of cải lương theatre. This is a process of transition from the ca ra bộ form to theatre with plots and stories, not a sudden invention by a single individual.
How did cải lương emerge, and why is it tied to đờn ca tài tử?
Cải lương took shape in Nam Bộ in the early 20th century. Báo Tin tức writes that in those years the tài tử music movement was growing strongly and the earliest forms of cải lương began to appear[1]. Đờn ca tài tử, the music on which cải lương is built, was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013[6].
The link between the two forms is ca ra bộ, singing with added gestures. According to Thanh Niên, when ca ra bộ was in vogue, Trương Duy Toản wrote many separate scenes for singers and then joined them into a play; some researchers regard Kim Vân Kiều, staged by thầy Năm Tú's troupe in Mỹ Tho in 1918, as the first cải lương play, while other material citing Vương Hồng Sển's memoir names Gia Long tẩu quốc, performed in Sài Gòn on 16 November 1918[4].
The name cải lương appeared around 1920 for plays that modernised hát bội and ca ra bộ, and is tied to a couplet still handed down: "Cải cách hát ca theo tiến bộ / Lương truyền tuồng tích sánh văn minh"[4]. The birth date of the cải lương stage is therefore not agreed: a 2018 Tuổi Trẻ article cites the views 1916, 1918 and 1919, and Vương Hồng Sển's remark that everyone is free to place the birth year of cải lương wherever they wish[5].
Why is Dạ cổ hoài lang regarded as the starting milestone?
Báo Tin tức calls Dạ cổ hoài lang by musician Cao Văn Lầu (known as Sáu Lầu) the milestone marking the beginning of the Nam Bộ cải lương stage[1]. He was born in 1892 in Cái Cui hamlet, Chí Mỹ village (later merged with Thuận Lễ village into Thuận Mỹ commune, Vàm Cỏ district, Long An province under pre-July 2025 names, now part of Tây Ninh province); before he was 4 he followed his parents to Bạc Liêu (now part of Cà Mau province), and later studied music with Lê Tài Khị, known as Nhạc Khị[1]. He died on 13 August 1976 in Ho Chi Minh City[1].
In the story as the newspaper tells it, he and his wife had lived together for three years without a child, and by the custom of "tam niên vô tử bất thành thê" they had to part. On a full-moon night of the eighth lunar month in 1919, hearing the mournful "công phu" drum from the nearby Vĩnh Phước pagoda, he wrote Dạ cổ hoài lang, 20 lines in two-beat rhythm, putting his longing for his wife into it[1]. The title means hearing the night drum and missing one's husband: the lyrics are the words of a wife waiting for her husband[1].
As for the place and date, the head of Bạc Liêu's culture department said in 2022: the full-moon night of the eighth lunar month in 1919, in Vĩnh Hương village, Thạnh Hòa tổng, Bạc Liêu province (glossed in the 2022 reports as Phường 2, Bạc Liêu city; now part of Cà Mau province)[2][3].
The four opening lines are widely known by heart: "Từ là từ phu tướng / Bảo kiếm sắc phong lên đàng / Vào ra luống trông tin nhạn / Năm canh mơ màng..."[1].
How did Dạ cổ hoài lang transform into vọng cổ?
Dạ cổ hoài lang began in two-beat rhythm. Báo Tin tức records the later steps: Cổ thi in four beats, then Vọng cổ in 8, 16, 32 and 64 beats, and calls this the shared work of tài tử musicians everywhere[1]. According to the Tuổi Trẻ article, from 1922 cải lương gained the song Vọng cổ hoài lang, written on the rhythm of Dạ cổ hoài lang[5].
| Name | Rhythm |
|---|---|
| Dạ cổ hoài lang (Cao Văn Lầu, 1919) | 2 beats, 20 lines |
| Cổ thi | 4 beats (nhịp tứ) |
| Vọng cổ | 8 beats |
| Vọng cổ | 16 beats |
| Vọng cổ | 32 beats |
| Vọng cổ | 64 beats |
Professor Trần Văn Khê observed that in Vietnamese traditional music no other piece has done what Dạ cổ hoài lang did in becoming vọng cổ: "Từ một sáng tác cá nhân đã biến thành sáng tác tập thể" (from one person's composition it became a collective one)[1].
How does cải lương differ from đờn ca tài tử?
Đờn ca tài tử is an art of playing and singing. The UNESCO file describes it as performed at festivals, death-anniversary rituals and celebrations; players and singers improvise and ornament on the "skeletal melody", with a repertoire based on 20 principal songs and 72 classical songs[6]. Cải lương, by contrast, is theatre: it has plays, spoken dialogue as in drama, and singing as in tài tử music with added gestures[5].
| Criterion | Đờn ca tài tử | Cải lương |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Playing and singing, improvising on the skeletal melody | Staged plays with dialogue and singing with gestures |
| Occasions | Festivals, death anniversaries, celebrations | Troupes performing in theatres |
| Repertoire | 20 principal songs and 72 classical songs | Adds the vọng cổ song, rooted in Dạ cổ hoài lang |
Why did cải lương develop strongly in Nam Bộ?
The Tuổi Trẻ article explains: audiences of the time wanted something newer than hát bội and tea-room tài tử singing, and more novel than Western drama; cải lương plays answered with stories close to Vietnamese life, dialogue close to everyday speech and a gentler orchestra[5]. Báo Tin tức adds that people then carried many unspoken feelings under colonial rule and were waiting for a song to speak for them[1].
Did Cao Văn Lầu alone create cải lương?
No. Two things must be clearly distinguished: the birth of the song Dạ cổ hoài lang, and the birth of the entire cải lương theatrical form. Dạ cổ hoài lang is a specific work, with a specific author, Cao Văn Lầu, created in 1919. Cải lương, by contrast, is a collective process, with many tài tử bands, many artists, and many troupes taking part over many years.
The statement "Dạ cổ hoài lang marks the beginning of the Nam Bộ cải lương stage" emphasizes the song's role as a milestone; it does not mean that nothing existed before and that everything afterwards was created by Cao Văn Lầu alone. This point needs to be stated clearly to avoid misreading history.
Looking back after more than a hundred years
Dạ cổ hoài lang is now more than a hundred years old. On the evening of 6 September 2022, in Bạc Liêu (now part of Cà Mau province), the provincial culture department marked 103 years since the song was created, together with the 13th Vietnamese Stage Day[2][3]. According to the organisers, the commemoration was to remember musician Cao Văn Lầu and the predecessors who helped shape the vọng cổ song, known as the "king song" of the cải lương stage[2][3].
At the ceremony, Mrs Trần Thị Lan Phương, then Director of the Bạc Liêu Department of Culture, Information, Sports and Tourism, recalled the song's path: from two beats to 4, 8, 16, 32 and then 64, becoming the pillar song of the Nam Bộ cải lương stage[2][3].
Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: understanding cải lương from its roots
To understand cải lương, one should start from đờn ca tài tử and Dạ cổ hoài lang, because those are its two direct roots. When listening to a vọng cổ song, paying attention to the beat, the pauses, and the artist's diction reveals traces of the process of raising the beat from double time to 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. That is a way of listening that both enjoys and learns art history.
And it should also be remembered that cải lương is not a fixed form. It was born from a music movement, grew through the stage, and continues to change through each generation of artists. Understanding this helps readers avoid confusing a specific song with an entire theatrical form.
