Google, the world’s most popular search engine has celebrated the Ca Tru Founders Commemoration Day by temporarily changing its doodles on the homepage on February 23, in a move to encourage the young generation to explore the Vietnamese traditional cultural art, Google’s representative affirmed.

Ca Trung singing was honored as a doodle on Google's homepage on February 23.

Besides, Google also wants to instill the national pride and spirit to the youngsters and excites the fondness among international communities for ca tru, the unique genre of traditional art.

The doodle was updated over Vietnam’s Google homepage as of 0h February 23 with an illustrative picture of a typical ensemble of ca tru comprising of one female singing intricate poetry while tapping a "phach" (a small bamboo box), two musicians playing traditional instruments.

This is the first time, ca tru is honored by a Google doodle, the search engine which has several times honored Vietnamese traditions, history and culture.

Although rejoicing in the honor, Bui Trong Hien, an expert who has devoted most of his life researching this type of traditional singing, also expressed his “pain” with the “absence” of true ca tru artisans nowadays.

There is only one singer who could be considered a professional artisan who is Pho Thi Kim Duc in Hanoi. She is the last pros of the yesteryear generation, who joined in the ca tru singing since her twelve and has continued to perform and pass down the profession to the youth now that she is 89 years old.

Taking into account the precious nature of an invaluable historical relic and the difficulty of its safeguarding, UNESCO is dedicated to protecting the practice and inscribed ca tru on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009. 

Google Doodle is a special temporary logo to commemorate holidays, special events, achievements, and people with great contributions to their country and the world. When the users click on the logo, they will access the page introducing the information on the celebrated subjects.