Chơi Chuyền - Bamboo Jacks, Game of Every Vietnamese Girl

I remember when I was still in elementary school, we did not have a lot of access to technology, so as video games or social networks like kids these days. Vietnamese traditional games were still popular back then, and they were our only choices for entertaining during the breaks. I hardly played the following game – Chơi Chuyền, because it was supposed for girls (please do not say I sexually discriminated, it was like it used to be though).

Chơi Chuyền is now a popular activity at some festivals, but not in daily lives. Source: internet

 Chơi Chuyền 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.

Nowadays, tennis balls are used instead. 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 sing along a 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 needs to gather 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.

The peak of the game is the last, the most animated stage with all ten sticks in a bundle. During this stage, the player losses the ball and then transfers 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.

A group of Vietnamese students playing chơi chuyền during a break.

The hands of a girl playing chơi chuyền 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 chơi chuyền 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.

Source: Sharing Vietnam Travel Experiences