Tony Le Nguyen
Artistic Director, Vietnamese Youth Media
My family and I arrived in Australia
in 1978 as refugees from Vietnam. In 1985, 1 got my first taste of the arts
by playing a Viet Cong Boy in an Australian mini series "The Sword of Honour",
about the Vietnam War. Since then, I have had many exciting parts, playing
many different Vietnamese Boys, Minh, Dinh, Thanh, Phan, Nam and Loc. I
also got to play a Vietnamese Gang Leader in "Romper Stomper".
Then moving from there I got to play a Chinese in Paradise Beach, and a Japanese
in Fast Forward. Then one sunny day, I was asked to play "George".
Wow, I thought this was going to be exiting, a non stereo-type character for a
change. As it turns out, "George" is a Vietnamese criminal, but
because the show was Australia's Most Wanted, they weren't allow to use his Vietnamese
name, so they used George instead. So to sum up my acting experience in
Australia; I am a Vietnamese/Asian/Criminal character expert.
When I hear of the word Globalisation, two things come to my mind. The first
thing is to do with the environment, something about protecting certain endangered
species, either plants or animals. We are lucky because we are living in
a country that gives us many choices and options. These choices are often
at someone else's expense, in particular those living in third word countries.
The other thing about the word Globalisation has something to do with economics,
something to do with market shares. My senses tell me that, there is a fear
out there amongst the major arts organisations. They are afraid of the large
multi-nationals, the multi million dollar, megaproductions. They are afraid
because they don't know how to compete with these companies and at the same time
their traditional support based is dying, literally.
Whether they are the ABC, MTC, Oz opera or the Ballet, they are struggling to
win over new audiences. The Australia Council also recognizes this by introducing
programs such as audience development. You see, in my opinion this is a
waste of Taxpayers money. It doesn't matter how much money you spend on
advertising, if you don't have the right product, people will not come to see
your show. What is the right product? You may ask. The right
product is a product that is relevant to the people, to the community. And
if this community is made up of Greeks, Italians, Vietnamese and Aborigines, then
that's what they have to do. Produce work that is relevant to the Greeks,
Italians, Vietnamese and Aborigines. So why don't they? Why do they
keep producing work that is more relevant to the White Anglo middle class audience
and then complain about the lack of audience from other ethnic backgrounds.
I don't know.
So for myself and other artists from non-English speaking backgrounds, what should
do we do? If we keep hanging around here we are classified as an "ethnic
artist". If we go back to our country of origin, refuse to speak English
and wait till they bring us back here, then we will be seen as an international
artist. Anyway, I am currently shopping for a crappy fishing boat so that.1
can go back to Vietnam, if anyone is selling one please see me after this session.
Five years ago, I decided to established Vietnamese Youth Media, with the support
of the Footscray Community Arts Centre. This was to be our own company,
a place where young VietnameseAustralian can come and make arts, tell our own
stories and create our own characters. The work that we do ranges from theatre
to documentary making, from music production to karaoke performance nights.
We make our own work, because we don't want to wait for Anglo writers and
director to give us work
because they feel sorry us or because they think it's the most political correct
thing to do.
The arts is not and should not be about money or charity, but it should be about
humanity and our relationship with one another. So my warning to those who
are involved in this industry for the wrong reason. I think they should
get out.
So what do the live performing arts provide for young Vietnamese people?
In Vietnam there are very few opportunities because the adults are too busy trying
to make money. Vietnamese people still see the arts as a hobby of the middle
class. In Australia, most Vietnamese parents only want their kids to be
doctors, layers or accountants. Vietnamese young people do not have the
aspiration to become artists, and why should they, when they learn about the reality
about life of an artist with an average income ot about $14,000 a year.
Would any logical normal people want to be artist? The answer is no.
When young people ask me why am I an artist, I often tell them, arts is like a
disease, you either have it or you don't, and the minute when you are cured, you
cannot make arts.
I have been back to Vietnam twice, once in 1995 and again in 1998. 1 tried to
see as much theatre as I could. Again there are similarities. Theatre
in Vietnam is also a form of entertainment for the middle class. A ticket
price to see a typical play is $50,000 dong, which is about $5 dollars US, while
the average annual income is about $250 US dollars. This is the commercial/professional
theatre scene. Another theatre scene in Vietnam is government funded theatre,
and since Vietnam is a Communist state, you can all guess what is in the content
of these plays. Another type of theatre, called "Vietnamese Water Puppets",
has been poping up recently has proven to be quite popular with Western tourists.
Like many minority cultures in Australia, the Vietnamese people are still trying
to work out what it is that they want to preserve. The problem with trying
to preserve cultures is working out which one is yours and which one is not, because
you can end up preserving the wrong thing. To understand what I am talking
about, It is important to have some understanding of Vietnamese history.
Vietnam was ruled by the the Chinese for 3000 years, a hundred years by the French,
and 30 years by the Americans in the South. The North has had 50 years of
Communism. Today, Vietnamese kids in Vietnam can watch American MTV and
soccer being played somewhere in Europe but have little understanding about life
elsewhere in Vietnam.
In Australia, traditional Vietnamese performing arts are less popular than table
top dancing. Vietnamese community leaders try very hard to preserve them
by incorporating or inserting them into Vietnamese Karaoke competitions or beauty
contests. One of the many reasons why Vietnamese people don't like these
traditional performances is because they are being performed by inexperienced
amateurs. There are experienced professionals around, but because they realise
that they can't make a living in the performing arts in Australia, they prefer
to work in a factory instead.
Sometimes I just wonder why the Australian government sends Anglo artists to Vietnam
on cultural exchange when they can just send them to Cabramatta or Footscray.
Again I want to ask, why don't they acknowledge us Vietnamese-Australian, aren't
we Vietnamese enough? But if we are not Vietnamese enough or if we are too
Australian, then why aren't we in Neighbours, Home and Away or Sea Change or Blue
Heelers. That is what I don't understand.