TL;DR: Tuồng, also called hát bội, is a traditional theatrical form of the Vietnamese people, using song, speech, dance and stylised face painting to stage historical plays. Bình Định hát bội has been recognised as national intangible cultural heritage since 2014, tied to the cultural figures Đào Duy Từ and Đào Tấn, who left behind nearly 40 tuồng plays. The colours and lines of the painted face (red, mould-white, black, indigo, striped) are conventions that help the audience guess a character's personality the moment the role steps on stage.
What is tuồng (hát bội)?
Tuồng, also called hát bội, is a traditional sung theatre form of the Vietnamese people, in which performers sing, speak and dance, and use stylised movement to tell a story. The performer does not try to reproduce everyday life but uses a system of conventions: carefully painted faces, costumes and headwear that mark the role, and footsteps and sleeves that carry meaning. Hát bội was once widespread in many regions, but Bình Định is regarded as the ancestral land of the form in central Vietnam, where many troupes, plays and artisans are still preserved.
According to press reports, hát bội (tuồng) of Bình Định has been recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage since 2014[1][2]. The form has a history reaching back to the Trần dynasty and developed strongly on the old land of Bình Định, now in the eastern part of Gia Lai province[1]. That land is linked to the cultural figure Đào Duy Từ, who laid the foundation for the art of hát bội, and to Đào Tấn, author of nearly 40 classic tuồng plays that many artistic units have restored and performed[1].
A distinction should be made between two words often used interchangeably. In the book Việt Nam phong tục, Phan Kế Bính writes: hát bội and hát tuồng differ only in degree of seriousness; in hát tuồng there are more performers, better costumes and props, less idle chatter, and the plays usually stage battles such as Tam Quốc, Bình Đông, Bình Tây[5]. In other words, "bội" and "tuồng" in folk usage generally refer to the same lineage, differing only in nuance and scale of staging.
How is the origin of tuồng recorded?
Old documents do not agree on when tuồng began. The book Vũ trung tùy bút by Phạm Đình Hổ records that the tuồng play of our country began in the Lý dynasty, when a Daoist from Song China came and taught the people of the country how to dance, sing and stage plays[6]. In the same book, the author also notes that later generations followed the style of hát vãn: on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, households in mourning invited troupes to come and sing at the tế ngu rite, the singing sounding mournful, and folk custom called them phường chèo bội; only around the Cảnh Hưng era did this phường chèo bội add the tuồng style, with performers taking roles, painting their faces and singing and dancing in jest[6]. The book goes on to say that the authorities strictly banned the practice for more than ten years, and that in the year Canh Tuất (1790) people were again seen staging this hát bội play[6].
This is the record of a contemporary who wrote down what he heard and saw, not a modern research work, so it should be read as a textual source rather than a historical verdict. Besides this, some documents say tuồng dates from the Trần dynasty[1], while Vũ trung tùy bút pushes the date further back to the Lý dynasty. Theatre researchers still debate the starting point and the degree of influence from Chinese theatre, so readers should take these dates as sourced hypotheses, not settled truth.
What does face-painting in tuồng mean?
Face-painting is one of the most recognisable signs of tuồng, and it is also how the audience knows at once what kind of character is on stage before hearing a single sung line. The painted face is not meant to beautify but to encode character: loyal, treacherous, hot-tempered, calm, humorous. Together with costume, headwear and gait, the face forms a visual code for the whole play.
Common face-painting styles
- Red face: a loyal, wise and brave, composed man, such as Quan Công[7].
- Chalk-white face (trắng mốc): a flatterer; a white face tinged with pink, however, also appears on the loyal side, as with Địch Thanh and Tiết Nhơn Quý[7].
- Black face: a simple, upright, quick-tempered man, such as Bao Công[7].
- Indigo face (màu chàm): forest dwellers or mountain generals[7].
- Striped face (mặt rằn): found on loyal roles such as Trương Phi and on treacherous roles such as Tạ Ôn Đình[7].
The table below lists some face types of Bình Định tuồng as described by researcher Nguyễn An Pha in Báo Gia Lai[7]:
| Face type | Character | Figure given as example |
|---|---|---|
| Mặt đen (black) | Upright, honest | Bao Công |
| Mặt đỏ (red) | Wise and brave, composed | Quan Công |
| Mặt tròng xéo xanh (slanted green eye sockets) | Loyal, valiant, hot-tempered | Khương Linh Tá |
| Mặt tròng xéo đỏ (slanted red eye sockets) | May be a loyal or a treacherous role | Hoàng Phi Hổ (loyal), Võ Tam Tư (treacherous) |
| Mặt lưỡi cày (ploughshare face) | Faithless, cowardly | Mao Ất |
How is Bình Định hát bội linked to Đào Tấn?
Đào Tấn is a cultural figure with a special role in Bình Định hát bội. According to press reports, he is the author of nearly 40 classic tuồng plays that many artistic units have restored and performed[1]. In 2015, Bình Định province (now part of Gia Lai province) held a ceremony marking the 170th anniversary of the birth of the cultural figure Đào Tấn and received the certificate "Hát bội Bình Định is a National Intangible Cultural Heritage"[2].
Đào Tấn's role is not only in the number of plays. According to Tuổi Trẻ, he passed on the acting skills of hát bội through a training school known as học bộ đình Vinh Thạnh, and Bình Định troupes still perform his plays in that style; the article also cites the assessments of many scholars at academic conferences on his work in renewing and reviving hát bội[3]. The year 2015 marked 170 years since Đào Tấn's birth (1845)[3].
Besides Đào Tấn, the land of Bình Định is also linked to Đào Duy Từ, regarded as laying the foundation for the art of hát bội[1]. People in Bình Định call Đào Duy Từ the Tiền tổ (earlier founder) and Đào Tấn the Hậu tổ (later founder) of the craft[1][2].
How is hát bội organised in community life?
Hát bội is not only performed on professional stages. In the life of coastal residents of Bình Định, hát bội appears at the cúng lễ ceremonies at the lăng Ông and lăng Cô Bác. A study by Nguyễn Thị Vân published in 2021 in Tạp chí Khoa học of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education states that the lăng Ông in the province all organise both hát bả trạo and hát bội; these two forms serve on the one hand to worship the deities, and on the other to meet the entertainment needs of local residents[4]. The article also observes that belief is the place where artistic and cultural values are preserved and transmitted; for the coastal residents of Bình Định, religious activities do not merely express faith in the deities but also serve as a collective spiritual support, giving them strength to overcome hardship when facing the sea to make a living[4].
Why is Bình Định hát bội being directed towards UNESCO?
According to báo Thanh Niên, the People's Committee of Gia Lai province (Bình Định province before July 2025) is carrying out a project to preserve hát bội and bài chòi for the period 2026 - 2030, aiming to build a dossier proposing UNESCO inscription for Bình Định hát bội, while also digitising the heritage, training a successor force and developing cultural tourism[1]. Gia Lai currently has the Đoàn tuồng Đào Tấn under the province's Nhà hát Nghệ thuật truyền thống, 8 non-public hát bội troupes and about 200 artisans involved in preserving the heritage[1].
The newspaper also notes the difficulties: performing space is narrowing, the successor force is lacking, and attracting young people and developing tourism from hát bội have not met expectations[1]. This is the two-sided picture common to traditional theatre heritages: recognised, given attention, yet still struggling for audiences and successors.
What should be kept in mind when learning about tuồng?
First, the historical dates remain disputed. Vũ trung tùy bút records that tuồng began in the Lý dynasty[6], while some documents say it dates from the Trần dynasty[1]. Readers should treat these as sourced records, not absolute dates.
Second, distinguish hát bội from related forms. Hát chèo, hát ả đầu and hát bả trạo are different forms, even if they sometimes appear in the same ceremony. Phan Kế Bính's Việt Nam phong tục lists hát bội and hát tuồng as two separate items among village festival entertainments, with hát tuồng being the more serious[5].
Third, tuồng face-painting is a stage convention, not a lookup table of character: the same colour may belong to the loyal side or the treacherous side, as with the white face and the striped face, so it must be read together with the role[7].
Fourth, when looking for information online, prefer official press sources, peer-reviewed studies and original documents over aggregator pages of unclear origin.
