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Thanh Nien’s Charming Vietnam Gala united Vietnamese with their expatriates in a shared cultural identity at London’s Central Hall Westminster last night.
Got charm? Musicians play traditional instruments in London.
A child tugged at her mother’s sleeve and asked when Dam Vinh Hung would perform.
One of the brighter stars of Vietnamese pop, Hung appeared soon enough and was met with wild applause from young and old alike.
The first of the two-night musical extravaganza thrown by Thanh Nien did not fill the 2,000-seat Central Hall Westminster, but for those who were there, the show delivered.
Proceeds from the show go to help the Nguyen Thai Binh charity for poor children in Vietnam.
Nguyen Lien Ha, a senior student at the London School of Economics, said she wasn’t sure which performance she liked the most.
“Every little bit of it was impressive,” she said.
“A lot of work must have been done to prepare for it and I do appreciate that.”
The performance was a mix of traditional and contemporary song and dance along with fashion shows featuring Vietnamese beauty queens and all shapes and forms of traditional Vietnamese dress.
British vocal quartet Teatro added a lovely version of “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.” One of the Brit vocalists said the Vietnamese models in the traditional Vietnamese ao dai dresses were the most delightful part of the show.
Miss Vietnam Mai Phuong Thuy and Miss Vietnam World Ngo Phuong Lan were recognized by the beaming crowd the moment they appeared on stage.
One audience member thought local divas such as Hong Nhung, My Linh and Phuong Thanh added to the “wonder” of the night.
She said the show was great but too short.
Most audience members were Vietnamese.
Tinh, a hair-dresser who has been living in England for 15 years, said Charming Vietnam was the biggest show she had ever seen.
“We don’t see a lot of Vietnamese shows here in London,” she said.
“So I was all excited and eager for it to begin.”
Nguyen Lien Ha said the night performance was indeed a celebration of Vietnamese culture by Vietnamese people.
Though many English people came to see the show on the cold winter night, the Duke of York and Prince Andrew did not make appearances.
But the prince, a long-time friend of the socialist republic, sent a warm letter to welcome Charming Vietnam to London.
Vietnam, with its “strong sense of cultural identity,” “has become particularly close to my heart,” Andrew wrote.
He said he had visited the country many times andwould visit again later this year.
The first night did not really go as “smooth as silk” as the show’s producer and Thanh Nien Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Cong Khe had promised.
For example, Pianist Bich Tra addressed a mostly Vietnamese audience in English without rephrasing herself in Vietnamese.
But for every awkward moment there was a performer ready to make things ok again, like when Teatro greeted the crowd in Vietnamese.
Cultural confluence harmonious, says BBC
The extravaganza created an impressive and harmonious combination of Western and traditional Vietnamese cultural traits, said the BBC newswire.
“We are taking great strides in promoting the image of a modern Vietnam where traditional music is not only for preservation. [It] is still surviving every night in our country,” show director Tat My Loan told BBC.
Show-goers raved about the unique traditional instruments like dan bau (monochord) and the dan da (stone xylophone).
Meanwhile, divas Thanh Lam, My Linh and Hong Nhung succeeded in bringing modern music to the stage with their pop performances.
Enthusiastic acclaim and great admiration from the audience testified to the show’s success, the BBC concluded.
