Musical culture from the Vietnamese diaspora
A bird's eye view of songbird competitions in Vietnam
Musical culture from the Vietnamese diaspora, a bird's eye view of songbird competitions in Vietnam, the history of doi dua
Greetings one and all—and welcome to the June 2004 edition of the Vietnam Art Gallery newsletter.
We've been on a buying spree, so this month we have some wonderful artist-direct new pieces to present, and some stories to tell you about Vietnamese culture.
Don't forget to click here to view a special sampling of our paintings!
=============== CONTENTS ===============
- Little Saigon loves the big band sound - a story about musical culture from the Vietnamese diaspora. Go >>
- Feature artist of the month: Phu Nhieu - Nhieu's paintings embody the essence of Vietnamese grace. Go >>
- Also, we bring you a bird's eye view of songbird competitions in Vietnam - but the twist is these contestants are happy to work for chicken feed. Go >>
- The history of "doi dua": would you know what to do if handed a pair of these? Go >>
- Artist Roster - Our database of up-and-coming artists has doubled in the last few months and we now have over 850 original art pieces in our database - one of the
largest virtual galleries on the Internet! Go >>
=== Little Saigon loves the big band sound ===
by Vicki Duong
This article features a story of Vietnam once-removed: the Viet Band, a twelve piece ensemble from Little Saigon, California, USA.
California's Orange County has the largest concentration of Vietnamese people living in the States — 152,000 at last count. The Viet Band is a group of either first or second generation Vietnamese youngsters who create an unique musical fusion — genres of styles their relatives may rarely be acquainted with, but with Vietnamese lyrical themes which add to the weave of their uniqueness and signpost their growing popularity.
These days, Viet Band is all over Little Saigon. The band seems to spill out of every place they go — crowding the Starbuck's on Brookhurst, jamming on the patio of Café Picasso and littering the sidewalk with boba cups that contained the popular tapioca drinks.
But it's hard to just bounce when you're a 12-member ensemble. There needs to be an understood harmony — hitting the right key both musically and socially. "It's more like a 12-person marriage," said James Dung Le, Viet Band's music director. Viet Band writes, composes and arranges their own music. It's a serious commitment, considering everyone is still so young -- in their 20s to mid-30s. Their music ranges from classical to Afro-Cuban jazz, choral songs to pop music.
Some members are first generation (born "back there") and others second generation (born "here"). What they have in common are the rites of passage of living in the United States and a passion to create music.
They give new meaning to the term, "garage band." On many nights, Viet Band will gather in Le's garage-turned-rehearsal space. It sounds typical, but this is no dingy garage where live music must compete with the Whirlpool. Care has been put into making this space livable: the walls are sponge-painted a deep cedar and sofas in their worn-out, sunken elegance line the corners. Huddled bodies - balancing wine glass in one hand, music sheets in the other - make the scene feel like a family gathering.
The group is rehearsing for an upcoming concert. A Viet Band rehearsal consists of one-part business, two-parts pleasure. And why not? Laughter and good food are essential to how the group works together. One moment, they are advocating the responsibility of the musician to the audience. The next moment they crack jokes about bohemian life. "Hey, what do you call a drummer who just broke up with his girlfriend? Homeless," they tease. Members say if you can't take the heat - get out of the garage.
Daniel Vu, the pianist, believes in a "fight hard, play hard" attitude. A self-proclaimed musician for hire, Vu is linked to more than a dozen other ensembles, including his own band. "He just becomes a big teddy bear with us," said one of the members. None of the musicians relies on Viet Band as a sole means of music or paycheck, yet some chemistry brings them all back. Despite demanding schedules, artistic differences and periods of taking a hiatus from the band, the musicians find a way of resolving their problems. How does the band solve its problems? Democratically: votes by hand and e-mail wars. But when the band is in tune, they make beautiful music together.
Uy Vu and Lina Thanh-Nhan, both violinists and vocalists, talk about unspeakable love in the duet, "Noi Loi Yeu," a piece written by Lina. "Noi Loi Yeu" is not a sad song," Lina insisted. "It's about telling the other how much they love one another." The song has elements of the traditional Vietnamese ballad but with a fresh vision, Lina said between pop riffs and "diva hand gestures," as her band mates tease.
Vietnamese audiences and musicians seem to have an obsession with the insufferable, bittersweet narratives of love songs -- love lost, love left, platonic love and unrequited love. Do Vietnamese just love to suffer? Well, a Viet Band signature song will no doubt bring down the house with sultry vocals that move through you like the final scene of an opera.
Viet Band's reception in the community has been encouraging. The band has garnered support as equals in the music community, even attracting big name singers as guest performers. Despite a market that is saturated by the same song and dance number, there is still an audience that is hungry for the real thing. Their fan following steadily grows with each concert. Members of Viet Band are on a mission to inspire new music. "We want to bring change to the community through music," said Tina Thuc-Nghi, Viet Band's resident flutist, saxophonist and wise woman.
For now, change is happening on a local level. As one rehearsal session wrapped up, the band members began to urge the drummer, Jimmy, to share his newest song. Playfully reluctant, Jimmy traded his drumsticks for a guitar and emerged as a singer and songwriter. The song is "Alone in My Principles." Jimmy's voice started a little shaky, singing about teen angst and discount sushi. Soon, the drums filled in, laced by an easy bass rhythm as background vocals joined in for support. Jimmy announced "key change" and "bridge" aloud, and the group grooved with it. In a matter of moments, the improv becomes a jam and the band is on fire.
As for the garage — it's sizzling. And washing machine — watch out: your surrounds are no longer your own.
====== Feature artist: Phu Nhieu ======
Nhieu's paintings embody the essence of Vietnamese grace. Simplistic in subject, yet complex in their artistry, his works offer the viewer gentle contemplation of single subjects, painted up close; a method which leads the eye to feel the generosity of quiet space.
Phu Nhieu - Quynh Flower - $1000 - more >>
Phu Nhieu - Rose - $800 - more >>
Also featured this month: Xuan Khoat. New to Vietnam Art Gallery, Khoat's subjects are whimsical and playful; and proudly vivid in their Sunday-best of fauvist colours.
Xuan Khoat - The Boats - $1500 - more >>
Anh is a favourite of Vietnam Art Gallery's clients. An artist who moved to the city to learn how to paint, he later returned when he realized his palette was suffering from too little use of the rich yellows, greens and blues that delight the eye in abundance in the harvest fields of Vietnam.
Van Anh - Harvest 27 - $250 - more >>
= Not just for the birds: feathered friends making beautiful music =
Bird keeping is an age-old passion in Vietnam. Not merely a passing amusement or city trend, raising and training birds to twitter and trill is also characteristic of Vietnamese traditional culture in many villages, especially in northern Vietnam.
Competitions between trained birds frequently take place to determine the better singer - a kind of feathery Vietnam Idol; carried out in villages, towns and cities across the country every day. Fervent bird backers may often have a fiscal stake in the outcome of the competition - rather than barracking purely for the love of song!
When it comes to competitions, the winners are usually those with clear, dulcet, multi-tone twitters. According to experienced bird raisers in Ho Chi Minh City, bird-raising became popular in Vietnam in the early 19th Century. Bird lovers raised ornamental birds as a hobby to help them shrug off the cares of the daily grind. In the past, bird raisers were invariably rich and most of them were elderly people. Nowadays young people are more inclined to be drawn to the hobby, and even young children are members of the feathery fold.
Raising birds to sing competitively is a hobby for the patient only, because it takes time - usually one year at least - to care for and train the birds. A bird is usually fed with tender young grasshoppers mixed with flour from various cereals, and the bird is carefully hand-washed and sunbathed every day. Birds trained to twitter like nightingales, vanh khuyen (zosterops), and khuou (laughing thrush) are usually brought into bird raisers' club about two hours a day so that they can learn signing voices from other matured birds and adapt themselves to the rigours of competition.
According to a specialist bird-raiser, to become successful in breeding and training birds, the raisers must be scrupulous in caring for birds and very patient in listening to different twittering tones. Vietnam has more than 50 breeds of songbirds including blackbirds, orioles, magpies and bunting. These birds are brought to the city from the mountainous provinces of Lang Son and Cao Bang in the north or the central highland provinces of Kontum and Daklak. In order to train a twittery bird, owners can choose to either arrange a well-matured bird next to the young one, or turning on a cassette player with a recorded tape of bird singing, so it can imitate sounds.
An untrained bird is usually priced at VND20,000 each, but after a couple of months training it can be sold for one or even tens of millions of dong. To many people, bird cages are also works of art. Bird cages are made from bamboo sticks, and to make good cages, the bamboo should be soaked into mud for about one year and then boiled with lime water for four hours and dried above a stove. This process makes bamboo more malleable and durable.
For bird keepers with more exotic tastes, luxury cages carved from mother of pearl shells or ivory are regarded as de rigueur for their feted tenants - a song bird's palace - and just the spot to compose your next winning piece.
== History of chopsticks; how did the Asian food utensils originate? ==
Our next article was prompted by an American reader, Mitch, who has just returned from a trip to Vietnam. He tells us plans are already made to return and to send home even more pieces of beautiful art. Before that happens though, he's determined to master the art of "doi dua" -- eating with chopsticks.
Mitch asked us: "...OK -- so the food was incredible and the Vietnamese people's hospitality even more so, but why do they eat with chopsticks? How did chopsticks come about?" Vietnam Art Gallery's done some research...and this is what we found out.
In much of Asia, especially the so-called "rice bowl" cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, food is usually eaten with chopsticks.
Chopsticks are two long, thin, usually tapered, pieces of wood. Bamboo is the most common material, but they are also be made of various types of wood, as well as plastic, porcelain, animal bone, ivory, metal, coral, agate, and jade.
During the Middle Ages, aristocrats often favoured silver chopsticks since it was thought that silver would change colour if it came into contact with poison.
Sometimes chopsticks are quite artistic. Chopsticks can be made of lacquered wood and covered with artwork. Artisans also combine various hardwoods and metal to create distinctive designs.
A child's plastic set of chopsticks might feature a cartoon character, such as Mickey Mouse, while aluminium from recycled cans might find new life as a lightweight, easy-to-clean pair of chopsticks.
"Forkchops" are chopsticks for Westerners and feature chopsticks at one end and a fork at the other, just in case the user can't manage during the meal.
Asian people have been using chopsticks for thousands of years. People probably cooked their food in large pots, using twigs to remove it. Over time, as populations grew, people began chopping food into small pieces so it would cook more quickly. Small morsels of food could be eaten without knifes and so the twigs gradually turned into chopsticks.
Some people think that the great scholar Confucius, who lived from 551 to 479 B.C., influenced the development of chopsticks. A vegetarian, Confucius believed knives would remind people of slaughterhouses and were too violent for use at the table. The Vietnamese never use knives at the dinner table. Food is cooked in small pieces, ready for the use of doi dua.
Thank you for reading! We wish you peace and good fortune for the coming month!
============== Artist Roster ==============
Our database of up-and-coming artists has doubled in the last few months and we now have over 850 original art pieces in our database -- one of the largest virtual galleries on the Internet! Here's a rundown on the artists you'll find in our pages. Think you can pick the next Bui Xuan Phai?
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