I am personally interested in cải lương. This is "a form of modern folk opera…[that] blends southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, hát tuồng (a classical theater form based on Chinese opera), and modern spoken drama" (Wikipedia-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BA%A3i_l%C6%B0%C6%A1ng). It originated during early 20th century in Southern Vietnam and became popular as a theater form of the middle class in the 1930s (French colonial period). It is considered a national theatrical form and was popular with the general population until the 1980s. However, now it is usually only listened to by the older population.
Cải lương can both be performed live and filmed in the same way a movie is. Traditional story lines are usually from folklore or famous novels both from China and Vietnam. Genres also range from comedy to tragedy and the setting can range from historical to modern. Some examples of famous cải lương story lines are Chuyện Tình Lan Và Điệp (Lan and Diep's Love Story), Lương Sơn Bá Chúc Anh Đài (title is just the combination of the two main characters' names), and Lồng Đèn Đỏ (The Red Lantern).
Cải lương is a great medium for language learning as it encompasses various listening forms: singing, regular speech, and something in between the two. If the setting is modern, the spoken parts will imitate vernacular Vietnamese, allowing for the learning of more authentic speech.
If the setting is historical then a lot of Hán Việt (Sino-Vietnamese) vocabulary will be needed. Additionally, knowledge of proverbs will be necessary as cải lương usually carry some sort of moral message in them leading to the inclusion of at least one proverb usually. Currently, these two topics are not included in my learning plan, but they have occurred in the free-talk sessions as well as during dictation reading of news articles. I will discuss the inclusion of these as topics to study with my language partner after the midterm.
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