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From: Diane Fox <DNFOX@holycross.edu>
Date: 2008/5/14
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
I recently gave my students an article on TCS and his songs found in "Not A War" (D. Duffy, ed) from the Yale SEA Center. They have quoted back to me that 1/3 of his songs are "still" banned in VN.
Now, that volume came out in 1997. Can anyone give me an update?
thanks truoc!
Diane
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From: Nguyen-Vo, Thu-Huong <nguyenvo@humnet.ucla.edu>
Date: 2008/5/14
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear Diane,
As of last summer, I was searching for TCS's old anti-war songs to bring back to the US for someone, and was told that those songs with anti-war content are still considered political and banned. I don't know if there was some formal decision or just verbal edict as usual in these kinds of things. Or may be they just never took them off the banned list.
best,
Huong
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From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Date: 2008/5/14
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
At the same time, last March, there was a TCS concert in HCMC headlined by famous singers.
Hue-Tam
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From: Lonán Ó Briain <lonanobriain@hotmail.com>
Date: 2008/5/14
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear Diane,
Last month I interviewed Le Ngoc Cuong, director of the Performing Arts Department of the Ministry for Culture, Sports and Tourism. He told me that as part of Vietnam's accession into the WTO it was necessary for censorship laws to be radically overhauled. Despite this he also said that pre-1975 songs in favour of the Saigon regime and songs whose content goes against the policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam are still banned. He didn't give specific examples and, as my current research is not related to music which falls into this category, I didn't follow-up on this line of questioning. However, I have a scheduled meeting with one of the deputy directors of this department on Friday and I'll ask about TCS's songs for you if I have time.
In the meantime I recommend reading "The Trinh Cong Son Phenomenon" by John C. Schafer (Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 66, No. 3, 2007:597-643) which, as far as I recall, contains some information on the censorship level of TCS's songs in 2003.
Best wishes,
Lonan O Briain
Graduate Student
University of Sheffield
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