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Bamboo Jacks (choi chuyen)

Bamboo Jacks (choi chuyen)

This girls' game (chơi chuyen) includes ten thin, well-sharpened, round bamboo sticks and a ball, which traditionally is a fig, a miniature variety of eggplant, a small rock or a clod of clay.


These days, tennis balls are becoming more popular as a substitute. The player tosses the ball into the air. While the ball is in the air, she must quickly pick up the sticks and then catch the ball. Players often recite a singsong nonsense rhyme: "Cai mot... Cai mai... Cai co… So mang... Thang chang... Con chit... Ngam nga... Ngam nguyt... Chuot chit... Sang ban doi…"

In the first round, the player picks up the slicks one by one. Next, she gathers two sticks at a time, and so forth up to ten. In these stages she plays with only one hand. The girl picks up sticks and catches the ball while reciting the rhyme. Meanwhile, her face reddens and her eyes become intense as she performs in front of her friends. The peak of the game is the last, most animated stage with all ten sticks in a bundle. During this stage, the player losses the ball and then transfers (chuyen) the pack of sticks from one hand to the other. She must successively switch the bundle, first once, then twice, then three or even more times before catching the ball. The hands of a girl playing chuyen open and close like small, nimble butterflies. If a player's hands are not swift or if her eyes are not sharp, or if she fails to coordinate the two, she will lose her turn. The game will pass to the next girl. Playing chuyen warms up the body and creates a lot of fun. During summer or autumn, small girls play it everywhere, from the shade of a village banyan tree to a deserted market stall.

See Also

Traditional Musical Instruments Introduction
Wedding Ceremony
Battle of the Chickens (choi ga)
Rija Festival Music
The Game of the Dragon-Snake (rong ran)
36 string zither
Language and Scripts
Folk Literature
Funeral Ceremony
Worship of Ancestor Custom
Cat and Mouse Game (meo duoi chuot)
Festival Rituals
Kites That Make Music (dieu sao)
Ly Folk Song or Ly Nam Bo
Ca Tru
Quan Ho
Lithophone or Dan Da
Cai Luong
Dan Day
Religious Belief Dance
K’ni
Dan Nhi
Classical Opera or Tuong
Spinning Tops
Human Chess
Gongs or Cong-Chieng
Releasing pigeons (tha chim)
Overview of traditional festivals
Modern Literature
Traditional Wedding Music of the Khmer
Throwing a sacred ball through the ring (nem con)
Rice cooking competitions (thi thoi com)
Customs of Chewing Betel and Areca Nuts and Smoking Thuoc Lao
The game of squares (O an quan)
Villages – Guilds
Cheo or Vietnamese Popular Theatre
Hue Music and Song
Hat Van
Then Song
Nha nhac, Vietnamese Court Music - An Intangible Cultural Heritage
T'rung
Modern Dancing
Water Puppets
Dan Bau
Moon-Shaped Lute or Dan Nguyet
Tay Son Military Music
Tranh Zither
 
 
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