The arts in Vietnam under the Southern Republic
From: Worthen, Helena Harlow <hworthen@illinois.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2023 9:48 AM
To: Cau Thai <cvthai75@gmail.com>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] The arts in Vietnam under the Southern Republic
This is a rich discussion here. I want to propose a path of discussion that runs parallel to Calvin’s "Humans cannot enter the future without knowledge of the past, IMHO.” Doesn’t the University of Texas have the largest collection of Vietnamese history materials outside of Viet Nam itself? Or at least a huge collection. And right now there are bills in the Texas Senate (SB16, 17, 18) that threaten to eliminate tenure, ban all kinds of “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, and penalize institutions that violate these new laws with snap-shut cuts in funding.
How are scholars of Vietnamese studies in Texas Universities responding to these attacks? Do they not see “inclusion” as an issue for Vietnamese or people studying Vietnamese experience and history?
Helena Worthen
U of Illinois (retired), visiting instructor in Viet Nam at Ton Duc Thang between 2015-2019
From: Cau Thai <cvthai75@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2023 9:02 AM
To: Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc@environment.nsw.gov.au>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] The arts in Vietnam under the Southern Republic
Dear Eric, Hiệp et al,
I agree with Hiệp that "scholarship and knowledge is human endeavour that has no boundary" and "Vietnam is changing for the better" regarding music and literature from artists living in South Vietnam pre-1975.
People’s reaction to the incident involving Khánh Ly and Trịnh Công Sơn’s “Gia tài của mẹ” last summer indicated that banning books, banning songs, etc. was not a sign of strength:
Furthermore, Vietnam cannot fully join the world’s community with a mindset of the past.
Last but not least, please keep us posted on when your work becomes available in print. They both sound very interesting.
Cheers,
Calvin Thai
Independent
PS: I wrote “music and literature” in that order since in humanity’s evolution, sounds did come first. :-) BTW, I am good with either my English name or birth name, Calvin or Cầu. Coincidentally, the latter means the bridge connecting my two childhood passions: history (past) and space (future - which is my bread-and-butter). Humans cannot enter the future without knowledge of the past, IMHO.
From: Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc@environment.nsw.gov.au>
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 4:27 PM
To: Eric Henry <henryhme@bellsouth.net>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] The arts in Vietnam under the Southern Republic
Dear Eric,
The book covers Pham Duy, a giant in music as you said, and his relatives Phạm Đình Chương, Thái Thanh and Thăng Long band as well as Văn Cao (the author of Vietnam national anthem), Lưu Hữu Phước, Lê Thương, Thẩm Oánh, Dương Thiệu Tước, Phan Huỳnh Điểu, Tô Vũ, Hoàng Trọng, Đoàn Chuẩn, Đặng Thế Phong, Dzoãn Mẫn, Hoàng Giác, Văn Giảng, Từ Vũ, La Hối, Hùng Lân, Nguyễn Văn Tý, Lê Trọng Nguyễn and most authors in Calvin Thai list.
Revolutionary musics from other authors such as Nguyễn Đình Thi, Nguyễn Xuân Khoát, Văn Chung, Hoàng Hiệp, Xuân Hồng, Phạm Tuyên, Trần Tiến …are also covered. Both “nhạc đỏ” and “nhạc vàng” are discussed in the book.
Vietnam is changing for the better. Phạm Duy returned to live in Vietnam for many years before he passed away. Some of his musics are sanctioned but most are allowed. Throughout Vietnam, musics from the south in the golden age of tân nhạc (1960 - 1972) is sung and performed in airways, radios, TVs, stages. During Tet period, observers and visitors to Vietnam, can not miss songs such as “Lý rượu mừng”, “Đón xuân “, Xuân này con không về”, “Anh cho em mùa Xuân”, “Xuân đã về”, “Xuân và tuổi trẻ”, “ Cánh thiệp đầu Xuân”, “Nhớ một chiều Xuân”, “Nếu Xuân này vắng anh”..
The revival of humanist musics from the south is unmistakenly present in Vietnam today . Not different from the troubadour music in the Renaissance replacing staid church music in cities states of Firenze or Venezia in Italy. The Renaissance (rebirth) was germinated from the rediscover of classic Greek and Roman humanist books via Arabic sources which were lost for many centuries in the Middle Ages when theological Christianity ruled over European minds when Arab and Chinese civilisations flourished. The wealth of the cities states of Firenze and Venezia from trades with the Far East and Middle East allowed the rulers patronage of arts and appreciation of humanist values. Similar to what happens in Vietnam. Return to humanist musics. Umberto Eco novel “The name of the rose” in 1982 captured the mood on the way to rediscover classic Greek humanist works.
Best
Hiệp
EPA, NSW
From: Eric Henry <henryhme@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 8:49 AM
To: Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc@environment.nsw.gov.au>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] The arts in Vietnam under the Southern Republic
Dear Ông Đức,
I am delighted to hear of your “Lịch sử tân nhạc Viet Nam từ khởi thủy đến 1975.” The subject interests me deeply. I have three Vietnamese-language “histories” of tân nhạc on my shelves that I purchased in Vietnam about ten years ago. These three books all pretend that no one named “Phạm Duy” ever existed. This is rather like writing a history of the American civil war in which no figure named “Ulysses S. Grant” ever appears. I am fairly sure that your book will not suffer from this defect. And if Phương Nam publishes and distributes your book, then the information you include will become available to everyone in the country. It will be a step in the necessary liberalization of the country. Nothing could be better!
Sincerely,
Eric Henry
Eric Henry, PhD, Senior Lecturer (retired)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
From: Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc@environment.nsw.gov.au>
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 1:49 AM
To: Eric Henry <henryhme@bellsouth.net>; Cau Thai <cvthai75@gmail.com>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] The arts in Vietnam under the Southern Republic
Dear Eric, Thai et al.
Studies and publication in English on Art, Culture, Literature,… in southern Vietnam before 1975 should be encouraged both in Vietnam and outside Vietnam. Scholarship and knowledge is human endeavour that has no boundary
FYI, my draft book (in Vietnamese) is now being edited by Nxb Phuong Nam, Vietnam. The book entitled “Lịch sử tân nhạc Việt Nam từ khởi thủy đến 1975” (History of Vietnamese modern music from the beginning to 1975) covers the time since the first recorded musical note by the Italian missionary Joseph Morrone in 1819, the emerging of modern music “Nhạc Tây lời Ta” from CảI Lương (Tư Chơi soạn giả) in the 1930s, the beginning of modern music in Hanoi before and after Nguyen Van Tuyen visit, pre-war music (nhạc Tiền chiến) before the Franco_Vietnam War (1945), music during the war (1945-1954), music in North Vietnam (1954-1975), music in South Vietnam (1954-1975).
Best
Hiep
EPA, NSW
Australia
From: Eric Henry <henryhme@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2023 2:23 PM
To: Cau Thai <cvthai75@gmail.com>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: [Vsg] The arts in Vietnam under the Southern Republic
Dear Mr. Thai,
Something you wrote to the list a few weeks ago caught my eye:
"...The sharp contrast between the government and society of the RVN and the DRV can be clearly seen in music and literature. Without the RVN's existence, there would be no Thái Thanh, Khánh Ly, Lệ Thu, Elvis Phương, Chế Linh, Thanh Tuyền, Phạm Duy, Phạm Đình Chương, Trịnh Công Sơn, Hoàng Thi Thơ, Cung Tiến, Nguyễn Văn Đông, Trần Thiện Thanh, Lam Phương, Vũ Thành An, Tuấn Khanh, Từ Công Phụng, Ngô Thụy Miên, Trúc Phương, Thanh Sơn, Vinh Sử, Vũ Hoàng Chương, Nguyên Sa, Nguyễn Tất Nhiên, Phạm Thiên Thư, Bùi Giáng, Trần Dạ Từ, Cung Trầm Tưởng, Thanh Tâm Tuyền, Tô Thùy Yên, Du Tử Lê, Nhã Ca, Nguyễn Thị Thụy Vũ, Túy Hồng, Nguyễn Thị Hoàng, Mai Thảo, Võ Phiến, Dương Nghiễm Mậu; the list goes on. Almost half of a century after the demise of the RVN, more and more people of many ages from North to South Vietnam nowadays are listening to music, citing poems, reading books from those names."
First of all, let me say that what you say seems to me obvious and irrefutable. While not totally devoid of significant artistic work, the postwar period has come nowhere near the era of the Southern Republic in cultural richness.
Secondly, I wish to let you know that I am attempting to encourage people to improve their familiarity with that earlier period by translating a couple of books by Ngô Thế Vinh: “Chân Dung Văn Học, Nghệ Thuật, và Văn Hóa (hai tập)” “Literary, Artistic, and Cultural Portraits (two volumes)." I have completed a translation of Volume One, and currently intend to call it “The Creative World of South Vietnam.”
The people dealt with in thís volume are: Mặc Đỗ, Như Phong, Võ Phiến, Linh Bảo, Mai Thảo, Dương Nghiễm Mậu, Nhật Tiến, Nguyễn Đình Toàn, Thành Tâm Tuyền, Nguyễn Xuân Hoàng, Hoàng Ngọc Biên. Đinh Cường, Nghiêu Đề, Nguyên Khai, Cao Xuân Huy, Phùng Nguyễn, Phạm Duy, Phạm Biểu Tâm, and Phạm Hoàng Hộ. To this, the author and I have added a portrait of Phạm Duy. I haven’t yet translated anh Vinh's Volume Two, because I'm currently hugely busy with an unrelated (classical Chinese) project.
A problem that remains is that I have no idea how to induce some publisher to bring this book out. Directors of university press are unanimous in saying that “we need to have more books that express the thoughts of Vietnamese people.” They are also unanimous in their horror of publishing any book that actually does have such content.
Should you, or anyone else have any suggestions with regard to this, I shall, as the Chinese say, “wash my ears so as to listen respectfully to your words (洗耳恭聽).”
Best wishes,
Eric Henry
Senior Lecturer (retired), University of North Carolina
Asian Studies Department
home address: 106 Jones Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514