The Renovation Generation

A chat with the Queen of Rap about music, spirituality and being a woman in hip hop.

Over the last couple of years hip hop artist Suboi has emerged from the underground scene, where she has been active for a decade, to firmly establish herself in the mainstream conscious as a strong voice for her generation. And increasingly (aided by run-ins with Obama and the odd modeling gig with big brands) is making a name for herself in and out of Vietnam’s music industry.

We met her by the river in Saigon for an afternoon of cà phê sữa đá and chit chat with her about writing music, building her own production company and what it means to be embracing being a female role model and fame.

 

Links

Suboi Entertainment

Suboi on Soundcloud

Suboi on Instagram

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

[Reciting poetry]

Something like that right

[MUSIC]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation and you’ve probably guessed who that is, seeing that she is one of the biggest influencers and most instantly recognisable individuals of her generation. She is on of the few born and bred alternative Vietnamese voices to have found ears outside of her home country. For our 19th episode we travelled to Saigon for a day to talk about everything but Kenzo and Obama with Suboi.

[MUSIC]

Actually my name at home is just Su. My sister is Si right. And then people like hey I never see you like a girlie girl at all, I'm gonna call you Suboi, but you're not a real boy so the y turned into an i.

She has gone through a few familiar stages of rebelling against gender norms

I wished I was a boy

Do you still?

I love begin a woman now

She took her first tentative steps into Vietnam’s budding rap scene 10 years ago in all boys crew.

I tell you this, when a guy put out a song, put on a hat instant favourite rapper and when a woman do it, you have to show really you have skill, not just your face, you don't sleep with nobody until you get anywhere so I'm the only girl in the crew, but I'm the one who really wanna make good music.

Did it allow you to break through stereotypes of what a woman should be?

Oh definitely that's why I'm with it.

She says there are more and more rappers, but there is one gap that isn’t closing

I don't see any girl coming up yet. At first I didn't want to draw the line between no my skill is rapper like just call me a fucking rapper. My skill is the same, my delivery is the same now I kinda changed like a little, you know just own it, you're female rapper ok female rapper

Is there also down sides to being one of so few and having no, not just competition but allies as well to learn from?

It's actually exactly what my life is about. Cause ok I don't want to be the only one. I want to be the number one. But to get there you have to like beat somebody too. Me, I don't have nobody to look up to. That's why I was angry. At first I was like this country is so funny, I think it's stupid. Now I don't say that anymore. All my message is about this. It's about you're from a really small country, but don't think that you're not the same with everybody else in the world. I show people ok I can be on a billboard in New York and I'm from Vietnam. Nobody believed that shit. When I discovered rap I was like woah, this music is so fucking angry and it's ok you know. I am angry.

What were you angry about?

I was like a teenager you known i didn't know shit and I couldn't talk to my friends I wasn't in the popular kids in the school, I don't hang out with a group of friends, I'm kinda just like by myself all the time and when I come home I couldn't talk to my parents or I couldn't talk to my sister. She always yell at me.

Suboi stopped being confrontational and found she could and should us...

A policy researcher and columnist's post-ideological musings

Khắc Giang Nguyễn firmly believes there is a need to give civil society more of a voice, but he also thinks this need not mean major political reforms as many an ideology has proven to be problematic once implemented.

For our interview we went for a Sunday afternoon stroll around Hoàn Kiếm Lake followed by a coffee. We chatted about why how his personality and lack of connections make him unsuitable to be a politician, what happens when a people forgets to nurture its creative side and what is lost when written from one perspective only.

Từ những suy nghĩ hậu ý thức hệ của mình, Nguyễn Khắc Giang - một cây viết, một nhà nghiên cứu chính sách tin tưởng rằng xã hội dân sự của chúng ta cần được trao quyền nhiều hơn, nhưng anh cũng cho rằng việc này không có nghĩa là cần có một cải cách chính trị lớn vì sự thật là nhiều hệ tư tưởng đã được chứng minh là không thích hợp sau khi được áp dụng.

Trong cuộc phỏng vấn lần này, chúng tôi đã đi dạo một vòng quanh hồ Hoàn Kiếm trong một chiều Chủ Nhật, và thưởng thức một tách cà phê. Chúng tôi đã nói chuyện về việc tại sao tính cách và việc thiếu các mối quan hệ lại khiến anh không thể trở thành một chính trị gia, việc gì sẽ xảy ra khi chúng ta quên không nuôi dưỡng mặt sáng tạo của mình và cái gì sẽ bị mất đi khi chúng ta chỉ viết từ một góc nhìn.

 

Links

Giang's blog - The Worldview of an Asian

Giang's VN Express column

 

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

Policy researcher and columnist Khắc Giang Nguyễn believes there is a need to give civil society a voice and that this can happen without major political reform. We live in a post-ideological world in which there is no one-size fits all answer for complex situations. Small victories need to be acknowledged. Like seeing the positive changes to the energy in downtown Hanoi achieved by turning the busy area around Hoàn Kiếm Lake into a pedestrian zone on evenings and weekends. It may not be enough, but it’s certainly something.

It’s very relaxed.

It’s nice. So this is the first time you’ve seen a development like this.

You know in Hanoi this is a total breakthrough because this area is very big.

There are no motorbikes, just street musician, skate boarders and young families taking their kids out for a day. For our 18th episode we took a walk with Giang around the lake.

Ok, My name is Nguyễn Khắc Giang. I’m 28.

I don’t disagree with other activists, really like strong activists that are opposed to the government opposed to the way that the government is controlling the society. But I think that in the big society you have the people at the periphery – you know the people who actually try to break it. And then you have the middle man you know the people at the middle who want to be activists but actually they approach a way that could accommodate the government and the people in a milder way.

Is that where you are?

Yeah I think so. I think it’s more effective to work that way.

The new pedestrian zone proved to be louder and livelier than we had anticipated and we quickly retreated to the café at the Hotel de l’Opera on Tràng Tiền street to continue our conversation.

Let’s go find a coffee somewhere

Yeah sure.

….

Yeah, we’ll just have… can we just have a coffee?

Giang was born to a mother who worked for a state-owned candy factory and a father who was a builder and he was raised in Nghệ An, most famous for being Hồ Chí Minh’s place of birth.

Possibly even I wouldn't be born if Đổi Mới didn't happen.

You said you wouldn’t be born if Đổi Mới didn’t happen.? Why?

Because Đổi Mới happened is 1986, I was born in 1988, so if there would to be such a good change like that in the society maybe my father and my mother didn'...

A Huế  based NGO worker bringing change to the shelter he grew up in

For episode 17 we travelled to central Vietnam to talk Nhật who lost his parents when he was young boy and had to move from a small village to Huế.

He now works at the shelter he grew up in and on a stroll around the city's citadel we talked to him about countryside living, helping to improve the lives of children who suffered similar tragedies to his and finding success despite some academic set-backs.

Một nhân viên làm trong tổ chức phi chính phủ tại Huế, người đang mang lại đổi thay cho ngôi nhà tình thương nơi anh khôn lớn.

Trong tập 17, chúng tôi đã vào miền Trung để gặp Trần Văn Nhật. Anh mồ côi cha mẹ từ bé và phải rời ngôi làng nhỏ của mình lên sống ở thành phố Huế.

Anh hiện đang làm việc tại mái ấm nơi anh được nuôi lớn. Cùng anh đi dạo quanh Đại Nội, chúng tôi đã trò chuyện về cuộc sống ở nông thôn, về việc cải thiện cuộc sống của những đứa trẻ đang trải qua bi kịch giống anh và việc tìm kiếm thành công dù thất bại trong học tập.

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

For episode 17 we travelled to central Vietnam to meet Tran Van Nhật. His start in life was very different to most of the Renovation Generationer’s. We met him in Huế’s town centre.  

When I was young, my Mother take me to the city once, but I didn’t remember that much…

Born in 1991, Nhật grew up in a village of only 300 people outside of Huế.

It's a small village, small houses, small street. The river divides the river into two. It’s a peaceful place. Since I moved  back to Huế to work I spend my weekend there... go fishing…

He would have lived there until university age, but when he was nine, the course of his life changed dramatically.

We had another conversation with him on Skype…

My Father passed away when I was in Grade 3, then three years later my Mother passed away.

So himself and his youngest Brother were taken to live in the shelter, a home for orphaned children to live and study in Huế.

It was a very hard time for me and for everyone else in the family as well. My Brother and my Sister had to skip school so we can afford me and my younger brother to continue on studying.

This is when Nhật and his youngest brother spent the rest of their childhood, along with 41 other kids, from Grade 1 to university age.

It’s like a life I never ever imagined that I can have, you know back home I don’t have anything, I don't know anything. Come to the shelter I have my own bed, I have people taking care of me, I have friends, I have books and pens, I have everything, I have night clothes and I go to a school that ten times bigger than the school I got to from my village. It’s like my home town was Huế and then Huế was like New York.

But it wasn’t all happiness in the shelter. Being older, he can reflect back now on parts of growing up there, which were really difficult.

I remember there’s a time they build a fence. They build a fence between the kids house and the staff houses, make people think they came here to live, but it’s not like a home.

Volunteers coming from around the world for their Vietnam experience

You can learn from them a lot, but it’s also a disadvantage for the kids, because it's like you know people come and you get close and then they leave. Sometime they come back sometimes they don’t. Some of the kids they spend time with them and they don't care about school, they don’t study, they don't do anything.

 The typical teenage exam pressures came in school.

My dream was to become an English teacher at the time, but I failed my test and I was so down, I was like really disappointed.

So how did he react to losing his dream future?  

I left the shelter and then I got a job as a waiter and working in the hospitality for a couple of years, and I think phew, lucky, lucky I didn’t pass the university test.

Four teenagers trying to make sense of their identity, privilege and future.

We invited four young women in their late teens for a chat over coffee and cake to find out what they think about privilege, not being taken seriously by the generation before them and their hopes for the future.

Mia, Mai, Boba and Giang all come from families who have benefited from the possibilities that Đổi Mới brought for some people in Vietnam. Access to international education, social opportunities and financial stability have shaped their young lives. When we met them they were studying abroad already or preparing to do so.

Bốn thiếu niên trò chuyện về hành trình khám phá bản thân, những đặc quyền và dự định tương lai.

Chúng mình đã mời bốn cô gái trẻ sắp hết tuổi vị thành niên đi uống cà phê và ăn bánh để tìm hiểu suy nghĩ của họ về những đặc quyền, việc không được những thế hệ đi trước coi trọng và những hi vọng của họ về tương lai.

Mia, Mai, Boba và Giang đều đến từ những gia đình khá giả, cũng như nhiều gia đình khác, họ đã nhận được nhiều lợi ích mà công cuộc Đổi Mới ở Việt Nam đã mang lại. Giáo dục quốc tế, cơ hội rộng mở và ổn định tài chính là những yếu tố đã hình thành nên con người họ hôm nay. Vào lúc chúng mình gặp nhau, họ vẫn đang học ở nước ngoài, hoặc chuẩn bị đi du học.

Transcript

For full transcript, click “Next”

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

For episode 16 we invited four young women in their late teens for a chat over coffee and cake. We wanted to find out what they think about privilege, not being taken seriously by the generation before them and their hopes for the future.

Mia: I am Mia Nguyen and I was born in 1997

Mai: My name is Mai Pham and I was born in 1998

Giang: Giang Khuat and I was born in 1998

Boba: Boba and I'm 18 this September.

Mia, Mai, Boba and Giang all come from families who have benefited from the possibilities that Đổi Mới brought for some people in Vietnam. Access to international education, social opportunities and financial stability have shaped their young lives. They are studying abroad already or are preparing to do so and we had some questions for them…

What are your work aspirations?

Boba: I want to open an organisation for aiming at teaching kids, educate them through skating or sport or especially children from poverty or street kids

Mai: I like in the future one of my dreams is to open a gallery there is a huge underappriciation for art here in this country and that's definitely something I want to work on.

Giang: I have no idea want I want to do with my life sometimes. Like with all my heart I want to be a lawyer, but like it's stupid when you go to America to study law and come back to Vietnam to practice law right, cause it's different law, but now I am still trying to figure it out how to study in America and practice law in Vietnam.

Where is home for you?

Do you guys all want to come back here though after your studies?

Mai: I do

Giang: I do

Mai: As a kid, ever since I was five, I've gone to international schools and a lot of people tell me I like mất gốc which means I don't have like the Vietnamese roots with me, and I think as I grow up and now that I am boarding in America, like there is like this feeling that I get when I come home and I know when I walk around the streets of Hanoi, I know the streets well and I know that this is home.

Mia: Now that I am away, somehow I have become more Vietnamese. In terms of like I embrace my culture a lot more when I am abroad. For example I guess my connection between me and Buddhism has grown a lot stronger. When I'm in Canada then I don't have any relatives there and so I guess religion was sort of like a home to me when I am away. Like I want a part of me to be really religious but just a part of me, because I just think it's really healthy in a sense. So yeah.

Emo style icon and Internet artist on online popularity and personal struggles.

Plaaastic is one of Vietnam's most popular and successful online personas. She is a fashion blogger and Internet artist who has established herself as a queen of virtual emo. She lives in a part of the internet where Hello Kitty meets bondage fantasies and teenage souls find comfort in being weird.

We spoke to her about the blurred lines between her art and commercial endeavor, how intense loneliness led to online success and getting married to a guy two weeks after meeting him.

Biểu tượng phong cách emo và nghệ sĩ Internet chia sẻ về sự nổi tiếng trên mạng và những cuộc đấu tranh cá nhân.

Plaaastic là một trong những nhân vật online thành công và nổi tiếng nhất Việt Nam. Cô ấy là blogger thời trang và nghệ sĩ internet, người được biết tới như một nữ hoàng emo trong thế giới mạng. Cô sống trong ở nơi Hello Kitty gặp những ảo mộng nhục dục và những tâm hồn thiếu niên tìm kiếm sự an ủi trong việc trở nên kỳ quặc

Chúng tôi đã nói chuyện với cô ấy về ranh giới mờ ảo giữa nghệ thuật và thương mại, thành công đến từ sự cô đơn tột cùng và cuộc hôn nhân với một chàng trai chỉ sau hai tuần gặp gỡ.

Links

Plaaastic Blog

Plaaastic Instagram

Plaaastic Tumblr

Plaaastic Facebook

Plaaastic Lookbook

Plaaastic Twitter

Transcript

For full transcript, click “Next”

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

In Episode 15 we talk to Plaaastic, the fashion blogger and Internet artist who has established herself as a queen of virtual emo. She lives in a part of the Internet where Hello Kitty meets bondage fantasies and teenage souls find comfort in being weird. We spoke to her about the blurred lines between her art and commercial endeavor, how intense loneliness led to online success and getting married to a guy two weeks after meeting him.

She is wearing a denim mini skirt buttoned down the front, a black leather crop top with fake nipple piercings, and a pair of her signature platform shoes. Her perfectly combed high ponytails have dark purple highlights and her lipstick is the same colour.

For me fashion is a way to show myself respect... It is important for me to dress how I feel like dressing and looking like yourself is the first part to self awareness.

Her unapologetic attitude to fashion and out-there styling has become her career. As a teenager she could not afford the clothes she wanted to wear so she simply started making and selling them herself. And being a digital native, she used the Internet to help…

I open a blog to like showcase how people can wear the clothes from my brand. And then somehow the blog got more popular than the clothing store, so I closed down the store and then I just make the blog bigger and bigger, to what it is today. That is my main mainly earning job now...

How does that work? for somebody who doesn't know how to make money of social media, like how do you?...

It's fairly simple, the bigger the audience that you have, the more money they will pay. And I work as a producer between, so they send me clothes and I will produce the images to advertise for that product and I post it on my social media site.

They being indie fashion labels who ask Plaaastic to feature their clothes on her blog, because of her numbers that are currently:

Seven-hundred-and-thirty-thousand-two-hundred-and-forty-six visits on her blog

Three-hundred-and-forty-three-thousand Instagram followers

Twenty-eight-thousand likes on Facebook

A social activist/entrepreneur's utopia of educational reform and communal living.

Hoàng Đức Minh has over the last few years made a name for himself in the world of social and environmental activism and was selected by Forbes Vietnam as one of their 30 under 30s.

We visited him to talk about his start up Wake It Up, how seeing people cry has decided his career path and being a child with many questions and few answers.

Nhà hoạt động xã hội/doanh nhân với ước mơ về cải tổ giáo dục và cuộc sống cộng đồng.

Hoàng Đức Minh đã gây dựng được tên tuổi trong giới hoạt động xã hội và môi trường. Anh được tạp chí Forbes Việt Nam lựa chọn là một trong số 30 gương mặt nổi bật dưới tuổi 30.

Câu chuyện của chúng tôi xoay quanh công ty khởi nghiệp Wake It Up của anh, việc nước mắt của những người xung quanh đã quyết định con đường sự nghiệp của anh thế nào và về tuổi thơ với nhiều câu hỏi mà chỉ có rất ít câu trả lời.

Links

Wake It Up

Watch Vietnam

Transcript

For full transcript, click “Next”

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

In episode 14 we visit the entrepreneur Hoàng Đức Minh who was selected by Forbes Vietnam as one of 30 under 30. We talk about his utopia of living in harmony with all his friends and doing nothing and how education could benefit from a using a variety of teaching approaches.

[atmo - We have no idea where we are going. So we could be on our way to get murdered right now. We are just going to a stranger’s house and the only reason we trust him is cause he is an activist.]

My name is Minh. I am 26, I am the founder of Wake It Up, a platform for the social activists.

Minh’s company Wake It Up is a start up in its early phases. It is a combination of crowd funding and a platform, which allows social and environmental activists to connect with supporters and sponsors. Minh has experienced some shortcomings of social media platforms. So his website does three things:

One: it counts active supporters

It's not like Facebook, you can have like 60,000 people like your fan page, but you don't know who are they, where are they from. It's really hard. You have to pay the money just to reach the people who follow you on Facebook. So we think that we need a platform for social activists to connect with their participants.

Two: it allows easy communication between activists and their ‘likers’

…you propose a project online and you looking for a company to sponsor for the project.. they will sponsor based on the number who support the project.

And three it uses those numbers to connect projects with funders

The reason Minh got involved in social and environmental activism is not just about helping successful campaigns…

I don't want to be a hero. I don't think I can stand in front of the suffering of people around. The question about what is this world for, what is this program, this interview for, it's hard to say. No one told you the real answer right. So you need to find one for yourself...

But for me, for fun is the most important thing first. It’s hard to be fun when people are crying around you.

Even as a child Minh’s idea of fun was a little more intense than that of his peers.

I always get bored very soon. For me I don't find any meaning with playing alone and playing with the toys. I am really a social one, I need to talk, I need information and I need discussion. But no one talk to me at that time, and no one answer my question, why we need to die, why people married...

so little Minh found distraction…

My mum and my father they are scientists and they have a lot of books. My father teaching programming, I think I'm one of the first children that get access to the Internet.

Wanting to only do things that he has good reason for continued to his sch...

Viral cartoonist and English teacher on retaining the joy in doing what you love.

The cartoonist Xuân Lan has over the last few years amassed quite the online following. Her illustrations take their inspiration from her own life experience and she told us why that is one of the reasons she won't turn drawing into a full-time career.

We also chatted to her about getting giddy over being noticed by one of her idols, her process and why she would take a 21st century camera back to the bao cấp era.

The episode was recorded live at Manzi Art Space in Hanoi.

Hoạ sĩ truyện tranh được nhiều người biết đến và giáo viên tiếng Anh nói về việc duy trì niềm vui khi làm điều mình yêu thích.

Trong mấy năm qua, hoạ sĩ truyện tranh Xuân Lan đã thu hút được một số lượng kha khá người theo dõi trên mạng. Tranh minh hoạ của cô lấy cảm hứng từ những trải nghiệm cuộc sống thường ngày và đó là một trong những lý do cô sẽ không biến vẽ vời thành một công việc toàn thời gian.

Chúng tôi cũng trò chuyện về việc cô được thần tượng của mình chú ý, về quá trình sáng tác và tại sao cô lại mang một chiếc máy ảnh thế kỷ 21 quay về thời bao cấp.

Tập này chúng tôi thu âm trực tiếp tại Không gian Nghệ thuật Manzi ở Hà Nội.

 

Links

Xuân Lan's Facebook fan page

Xuân Lan's Hit Record profile

Xuân Lan on Instagram

Grant Snider's Incidental Comics

Zen Pencils

Transcript

For full transcript, click "Next"

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future.

Welcome to the second live recording of The Renovation Generation Episode 13. Our narrator Maia is going to interview our Xuân Lan, who is an illustrator and cartoonist.

We interviewed Xuân Lan at Manzi Art Space in Hanoi.

Our narrator Maia is going to interview Xuân Lan, who is an illustrator and cartoonist. She didn’t want to speak publicly so I promised her it would only be friendly faces and friends. I think we managed that.

Xuân Lan started drawing cartoons three years ago after a chat with her friend that she decided to share on Facebook. Writing it out sounded lame though, so she decided to illustrate it instead. And that's where it all began. We asked her to describe her cartooning process...

All the ideas for my cartoons are from my real life experience so I do not set up any schedule for when or what to draw. It just when the idea comes to me and when I have enough time and inspiration and there is no class to prepare for the next day. I will just do it, I draw. Oh and I wait until the right time to post it on Facebook

And what's the prime time?

In my experience it's nine pm.

You have a little bit of wordplay in both languages, English and Vietnamese, how do you choose which language to use?

You can see most of my cartoons are in Vietnamese. Firstly because I use my mother tongue better than English, secondly because many of them involve Vietnamese cultural features. I did translate a lot of them into English, but you can notice considerable differences between the two versions and some people think I mistranslate the sentences, but I not, I have to choose different ways to express the same idea.

 What is the best thing that's ever happened to you online?

I had the chance to get closer to my idols. You guys know Joseph Gordon-Levitt? The guy who plays Robin? In the Dark Knight? ...

Award winning music composer on adding depth to pop music and staying on message.

We travelled to Ho Chi Minh City for episode 12 to grab a coffee with Lê Đức Hùng aka Mew Amazing, have him walk us through composing one of Vietnam's greatest pop hits of 2016 and tell us what he would say to Drake if he ever met him.

His big ambition is to put Asian voices on the global billboard charts and wishes he had started doing just that way earlier.

Nhạc sĩ đã từng nhận được nhiều giải thưởng nói về việc đưa chiều sâu vào nhạc pop và giữ gìn thông điệp trong âm nhạc.

Để ghi âm cho tập 12, chúng tôi bay đến thành phố Hồ Chí Minh để thưởng thức cà phê cùng Lê Đức Hùng, hay còn được biết đến với nghệ danh Mew Amazing. Anh đã chia sẻ với chúng tôi về quá trình sáng tác một trong những bài hit nổi nhất Việt Nam năm 2016 và việc anh sẽ nói gì với Drake nếu hai người gặp nhau.

Tham vọng của anh là có thể đưa các giọng ca châu Á lên các bảng xếp hạng thế giới và anh ước gì mình đã bắt đầu sự nghiệp sớm hơn.

Links

Mew Amazing on Soundcloud

Mew Amazing on Facebook

Mew Amazing on Instagram

Mew Amazing on YouTube

Illustration by Nguyễn Hoàng Giang

Minh hoạ bởi Nguyễn Hoàng Giang

Transcript

For full transcript, click "Next"

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country’s future. For episode twelve we travelled to Ho Chi Minh City to have coffee with pop music composer Lê Đức Hùng better known as Mew Amazing who is wanting to add depth to mainstream tunes and gave us an insight in how a viral hit is made, and why he thinks he would have benefited from stricter parents.

My stage name is Mew Amazing. I am 26, that is too old for an artist I think

I first connected with Mew, almost 10 years ago when Yahoo 360 blogs were still a thing.

I even wrote him letters to express my admiration for his work. He sent me some of his early demo songs and I fell in love with his music. But it wasn’t until he released his first single U Thi a couple of years ago that the wider public took notice of his talent…

Sings…. Omg I am so shy, I couldn’t sing the whole song…. It would be so comfortable for me if I am on stage and sing it for you guys, but yeah I released my first EP as a singer songwriter, it’s just a demo song that I put on YouTube and people get to know it and people share it around…

His career has gone from strength to strength. He made his first important connection with big players in the music industry on The Voice Vietnam. Though he didn’t make it past the battle round.

I was so weird that day, you don’t want to watch!

(audio from The Voice video)

…one of the judges, Mrs My Linh, my judge, my teacher, my first teacher, she taught me how to sing and stuff, she even brought my song to Bai Hat Viet contest, that is a contest for songwriter. My proudest moment is when I was on that stage giving thanks speech for my mum and my dad and everyone and then I gave my message. I gave a message about diversity in music.

(audio from acceptance speech)

He won for his hit song…. You might be one of the 40 million listens on zing or 25 million clicks the video has had on YouTube, which helped push it to the top of Vietnam’s streaming services. Chances are you have heard it. We wanted to know how one of the most popular songs of the year came to be.

(audio from Thật Bất Ngờ song)

Two ambitious academics and friends supporting each others non-conformity.

In episode 11 we join the conversation of Trang and Mai, two aspiring PHD candidates, as they talk about reducing poverty, Vietnam's masculinity crisis, and what they'd do with the power to change policies.

Hai học giả tham vọng đồng thời là hai người bạn luôn hỗ trợ lẫn nhau .

Trong tập 11, chúng tôi trò chuyện cùng Trang và Mai, hai nghiên cứu sinh, và nghe họ chia sẻ về việc giảm thiểu đói nghèo, khủng hoảng nam tính ở Việt Nam, và những việc họ sẽ làm để thay đổi các chính sách công.

Transcript

For full transcript, click "Next"

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country's future. For episode eleven we met the two NGO workers Trang and Mai who have dedicated their working lives to reducing poverty and fighting inequality in Vietnam.

They first crossed life paths on their masters degree a few years ago, and have remained close friends ever since. They often meet up  to talk about your typical things like public policy, Vietnam’s masculinity crisis and equality in pay and love.

This time, we joined them in their conversation..

I think among our friends I only have the same path with Trang. Other of my friends say “why do you do a PHD, why don’t you stay in Vietnam, settle down and get married doing something like that?!"

That’s Mai

I like hanging with her, at least I can talk about the topics that I am interested... I don't think many of my friends are interested in listening to those things.

And that’s Trang

They were both born in 1987 in rural areas just outside of Hanoi, but eventually collided when they won scholarships to study micro-finance, development and poverty eradication in the UK. These are things they became interested in during their studies in Hanoi.

I think my friends, like my close friends think I’m independent, strong and ambitious…most of people think I am ambitious, but I’m not sure whether it’s true or not.

We’ll let YOU be the judge of that.

This is them speaking back in 2013 from their student houses in Brighton where they were studying in the UK.

In the first few weeks I was really confused with the way people study here. In all the lectures and seminars every problems that we were discussing the conclusion is we didn't know enough or it's not good. So it's really confusing then so what is the good thing and what should we learn. What I figure out is that yeah the reality is not good and that' why we are here trying to study and later we can improve the reality.

It got easier for them after a while.  When we met, Trang was working as a freelance consultant for charities, and Mai was full-time at an international NGO in Hanoi.

Live in England was really free, I was alone, independently. Coming back it's like bring ourselves back to all types of social  relationships and social pressure. How to deal with family and jobs and college.

I have the same feeling. I feel a little bit lost for a couple of months, especially before I found a job. And friends started asking: Ok, so now you’ve finished your master, when will you get married? You must have a lot of money.

People ask you like really openly how much money do you earn?

Always the first question

Really...

Yeah. I always tell them 5 million a month.

[MUSIC]

But having to lie about salaries is not the only thing that changed after they returned home.

Coming back, it seems that the men look at me differently and I become somehow scary for them, so they didn't even dare to ask me out.

Sometimes in the conversation, it seems that they hint “she’s well educated”, I didn't even think about it, but in their perspective I’m somehow little bit higher. And for a man to accept the woman is somehow at a higher rank than them it's really difficult. Somehow they become more and more conservative, rather keep a distance..

Café owner and poet on the struggle to find meaning in words and life.

Nam Lu is known to Hanoi's creative community as nonsensical poet, thoughtful photographer and the occasional quirky subject of friends' artistic projects.

He is the co-founder of both the Café Nhà Sàn and Tranquil, two of the capital's most quiet caffeine oases.

Over two long conversations we talked to him about his poetry, noticing the details that make certain objects special and certain individuals unique, and coping  with an inability to find meaning in life.

Chủ quán cà phê và nhà thơ chia sẻ về những cố gắng trong việc tìm ý nghĩa của câu chữ và cuộc sống.

Nam Lu được biết đến trong cộng đồng sáng tạo Hà Nội như một nhà thơ tự do, một nhiếp ảnh gia tâm huyết và thi thoảng một nhân vật kỳ cục trong vài dự án nghệ thuật của bạn bè.

Anh là nhà đồng sáng lập của quán cà phê Nhà Sàn và Tranquil, hai trong số những ốc đảo cà phê yên bình nhất tại Hà Nội.

Sau hai cuộc trò chuyện dài, chúng tôi đã nói chuyện với anh về những bài thơ, về việc nhận ra những chi tiết có thể làm cho một vài đồ vật cụ thể trở nên đặc biệt và một vài cá nhân trở nên độc nhất, và đối phó với việc không thể tìm thấy ý nghĩa cuộc sống.

 

Links

Tranquil Café

Café Nhà Sàn

Lu on Instagram

Lu on Tumblr

Transcript

For full transcript, click "Next"

[FULL TRANSCRIPT]

This is Vietnam’s Renovation Generation. Sonic portraits of young minds re-shaping the country's future. In episode ten we’re talking to Nam Lu, nonsensical poet, collector of old objects and books.

People they often call me Lu, Lu is my nickname, it comes from blue, it’s my favourite colour and also my favourite mood of the day…

We talked to him about not believing in words, being the black sheep in his family and struggling with finding meaning in life.

** There are some parts of this conversation which some listeners might find upsetting**

[MUSIC]

How long have you been smoking the pipe?

Nearly two years.

We had coffee with him in the courtyard of the quaint house he lives in which doubles as his café...

The Tranquil.

We want to create a quiet and peaceful space for people.

Tranquil café has quietly established itself as exactly that space. Silence is gently enforced and the handful of tables filling the small space with shelves full of books are always occupied by people working, reading or just seeking refuge from Hanoi’s constant buzzing. It is the place created by its owners with their own needs in mind just as much as the customers'.

There is an old saying here that the customer is god. I think it’s bullshit. The customer they are friend, and friends you respect me, I respect you and we are both happy. You are not my god I am not your servant.

Nam is certainly no servant to anyone. He has much more important things to concern himself with. Like writing and figuring out just what the point of his life is.

I don’t know want I am doing with my life.

While you are figuring that out what are you doing with your days?

My mind is so full of thoughts I have to write down. Some people they can paint, some can write music. With me I write.

He writes prose and short fiction, but mostly poems. And though he spends so much time arranging words, Nam, it turns out, distrusts them.  

I don’t really believe in words. If I see something very beautiful, or something very sad, something very delightful, I can never make you feel the same feeling.

So last year I have one of my books published and some people they ask me about the message behind my words. I don’t want my work to carry some message. You don’t have to understand it in one way, that’s very limited and very narrow.