Attitude Toward Chinese of the Vietnamese/Vietnamese Variety Shows

Michael Nguyen
5/31/2012
ASA 150E

Chinese of Vietnamese/Vietnamese Variety Shows

 Justin starts off by giving a brief explanation of Valverde's lecture from Tuesday about globalization, transnationalism and diasporas. Trieu than explains about the history of the Chinese influence on Vietnam. Vietnam has been under direct Chinese domination for 1000 years. The Sino-Vietnamese War happened in 1979. China has no human rights, meaning they block 2600 websites. China also exports fake and low-quality products. The Vietnamese practice many Chinese traditions and views China and other communist countries as brothers. Vietnamese do not have freedom of speech. Then there was a CNN video shown about China vs Vietnam and how China has made recent attempts on taking over Vietnam. Than Linda explains about Vietnamese Variety shows influence on Vietnamese Americans. These variety shows incorporates dancing, singing, comedy skits, etc. Most of the Vietnamese songs sung are pre-Vietnam war and are usually outdated songs. Justin than starts talking about the Hot Boy Noi Loan film. Where sexuality is questioned amongst the Vietnamese community. Western influence has changed the title of the movie to Lost in Paradise. 

 I feel it is true that Vietnamese do not have the freedom of speech. That is why I have always been quiet most of my life, because I did not want to lose face for myself and my family. Not speaking on a constant basis has caused me to mumble quite often and speak with speech impediments. I feel that the importance of keeping a healthy conversation with anyone everyday is very important. In order to speak better, one must practice speaking everyday. In relating to the Vietnamese, many Vietnamese want anti-communism and want all communists to never speak, which is unfair for the communists. Because every side has multiple stories or reasoning for what they believe in. Communism is for equality for all, while anti-communism wants people to earn money themselves. It is such a controversial topic, and I cannot really elaborate more on it myself. But communism is certainly the biggest topic of Vietnamese debate. 

 I do not watch the Vietnamese variety shows, but my parents do and I always see it playing in the background at my house. So I got a certain gist of the Paris By Night series. These variety shows are made in order for Vietnamese American to keep their Vietnamese'ness, and I do want to keep that, but I cannot speak Vietnamese. And I could barely understand the songs because it is not like the basic Vietnamese I could understand in a Vietnamese household. In Paris By Night, I do take note of them constantly lip-syncing their performances. The comedy skit seems to make my parents laugh out loud all the time.

This movie Justin is explaining about involves prostitution amongst men, and how there is a lot of gossip as usual amongst Vietnamese. There is hybridity of white gay men with gay Vietnamese men, and I believe that the ideals of white gay men have certainly made the image of a gay person in my perspective due to the fact that gay white men are shown more in media based on what I have seen.