Literature

Vietnamese poetry was written exclusively in Chinese until the end of the 13th century. By the 15th century, however, a demotic script called Chu Nom, or “the southern script,” had evolved into a vehicle for writing in vernacular Vietnamese. The Chinese heritage of the elite merged with local oral tradition, producing a truly Vietnamese literature. A distinctively Vietnamese long narrative poem in verse developed, culminating in the masterpiece of national literature, Kim Van Kieu (The Tale of Kieu), by Nguyen Du (1765–1820). In the 20th century, Vietnamese literature came to be written in a Roman alphabetical script (Quoc-ngu). In the 1930s a modern Vietnamese literature developed under French influence, featuring poetry, novels, and short stories. Between 1954 and 1975 a cosmopolitan literature stressing creativity and individual freedom flourished in the south, while a state-sponsored literature of Socialist Realism was promoted in the north. After 1975 Socialist Realism became a national orthodoxy, although in the 1980s literature became more lively and diverse in content. During the 1990s writers tested the limits of their literary freedom, and since the start of the 21st century authors have continued to be bound by both explicit and tacit limitations and generally have practiced self-censorship. Politics has remained a taboo topic.

Theater

Initially, under communist rule the theater was strictly controlled, and all professional performers and other technical staff became employees of the state. A government policy inaugurated in the 1990s, however, was designed to dissolve the state monopoly on the arts and other areas of cultural production. By the early 21st century, many small, for-profit theater groups were operating across the country, especially in urban areas. Women have figured prominently in all aspects of these new artistic ventures since their inception. Although scripts continue to be monitored, censorship is much less harsh than it was in earlier years of the communist regime. In addition to many new plays, which have aesthetic roots in western European dramatic tradition, the indigenous cai luong, a satirical musical comedy genre that emerged in the south in the early 20th century, is still enormously popular. There also are theatrical troupes specializing in a genre of Chinese opera adaptations (called hat tuong in the north and hat boi in the south), popular operettas (hat cheo) of indigenous origin, circus performances, and mua roi nuoc, a distinct form of Vietnamese puppetry, in which performances take place on a pool or pond. The water animates the puppets and covers the manipulating apparatuses, which are operated by puppeteers, who stand in the water, hidden behind a screen. A separate group of musicians and singers follows the movement of the puppets closely, providing voices for them in the style of the hat cheo theater. Water puppetry began to experience a resurgence toward the end of the 20th century, with growth in the number of national competitions and internationally touring troupes.

Music

During the Second Indochina War, the Communist Party attempted to shape the development of modern popular music, promoting "revolutionary" tunes and themes as alternatives to the Western romantic and rock-inspired forms that had developed in the south. Following reunification in 1975, the government confiscated sheet music and cassette tapes of music it deemed depressing, defeatist, or licentious, yet this music continued to be played in private and spread to the north as well. Tapes and compact discs of Western-style rock bands and popular singers who fled the south in the 1970s, as well as recordings made by Western artists, have been smuggled into the country from abroad, reproduced by the thousands, and sold in the streets. Music the authorities generally judge to be "alien," "decadent," or "noxious," but seem powerless to suppress, may be heard in coffee shops and karaoke bars.

As has been the case with other areas in the arts, however, restrictions loosened somewhat toward the end of the 20th century. Increasing numbers of artists began cultivating new sounds that blended elements of jazz, gospel, Motown, and other Western genres with Vietnamese language and musical sensibilities. Western popular music, once the primary fare of Vietnam’s youth, has begun to yield to local popular styles.

Despite the prevalence of popular forms, traditional music has maintained an important place, politically and culturally, in Vietnamese society. The government has long advocated a "traditional but modern" approach to Vietnamese music. This has ultimately entailed the recasting of traditional repertoire into a Western harmonic and stylistic framework, and the structural adjustment of Vietnamese instruments to accommodate the changes. Although the resultant music, called cai bien, is of relatively recent origin, it is often presented officially as the Vietnamese music of antiquity.

Cai bien has been created primarily by Vietnamese composers trained solidly, if not solely, in the Western classical music tradition. Western classical music is well-established in Vietnamese music education. The country has several conservatories, largely staffed by musicians who have studied music in prestigious schools of Russia and eastern Europe. Although it is possible in Vietnam to specialize in either Vietnamese or Western traditions, Western music fundamentals serve as the point of departure for all formal music study.

Visual arts

Painting has developed slowly and unevenly, bound first by traditional Chinese forms, then by a style imitative of French Impressionism, and more recently by Socialist Realism. High-quality lacquerware, however, continues to be produced. Unique local arts persist among the peoples of the central highlands. Women weave blankets and clothing, while men weave baskets and mats. Crossbows and figures are carved from hardwoods. The Hmong are especially recognized for their needlework, and although the Cham and Khmer minorities retain some idiosyncratic arts, their traditions seem to be losing practitioners.

Artists have enjoyed increased freedom to express themselves under doi moi, and the contemporary art scene has often been described as "vibrant." The preeminent institution of art education is Hanoi University of Fine Arts. Several graduates of this state institution known as the "Gang of Five" (Viet Dung, Ha Tri Hieu, Tran Luong, Pham Quang Vinh, and Dang Xuan Ha) were influenced by mainstream Modernism, ignored social commentary in their work, and achieved considerable success in art galleries around the Pacific Rim during the mid-1990s. Most artists of Modernist bent have sold their work through private galleries, and government censors have occasionally forced galleries to remove works they consider too bold. An example was the removal in 1997 of paintings on themes of homosexuality by Truong Tan. One of the few female artists, Dinh Y Nhi, is noted for paintings of women in traditional dress and poses but done in untraditional shades of gray and black. A modern take on traditional themes is common, an abstract one rare. Dinh Quan, Trinh Tuan, and Cong Kim Hoa, however, have focused on the traditional medium of lacquer to experiment with Abstract Expressionism. Nguyen Bao Ha has also worked in the Abstract Expressionist genre.

The small domestic film industry that emerged in Saigon during the 1950s produced a steady fare of romances, costume dramas, and adaptations of cai luong operettas until 1975. Hanoi produced its first motion picture in 1959 and used the medium primarily for propaganda. From reunification until 1989, the state held a monopoly over the production and distribution of motion pictures, subsidizing a handful of state-owned film studios and companies. A few movies made in this period experimented with themes and perspectives that tested the boundaries of official tolerance, but economic reform has done more to change the industry. Faced with budget cutbacks, cinematographers in the 1990s abandoned celluloid for video to make money on the open market. Numerous private companies sprang up to churn out cheap videos featuring kung fu fights, car chases, and romance. Pirated videotapes and later, video compact discs (VCDs), from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States also enjoyed popularity. In an effort to encourage production and competition in the film industry, and to draw people back into the cinemas, the Ministry of Culture and Information in 2002 ended mandatory review (and censorship) of scripts prior to filming, allowed the establishment of private film studios, and opened the industry as a whole to private and international investment. Since that time, filmmakers have been treating topics that were untouchable under earlier government regulations, motivated by the possibility of presenting a realistic image of contemporary Vietnamese society. Ha Dong Silk Dress and Bride of Silence, both released in 2005, are products of the liberalized industry and champions of the new aesthetic, and are among the growing number of Vietnamese films to have won international acclaim.