New Year inspires artists’ devotion to their career

People say “You’re married to Vietnamese Misses”. I don’t deny that. I feel it was my luck to have the honor to design clothes for the most beautiful Vietnamese women, including Miss Beauty runner up Vi Thi Dong, Miss Nguyen Thien Nga, super model Cam Nhung and many others. May be that’s the reason people have called me a designer not a stage artist like what I am. I’m still at the Thang Long Puppet Theater.

 Being a designer, what I care about most is the awesome beauty. If any one asks for my comment on the fashion of young people nowadays, I will say they are more beautiful than in the past and more trendy. Some of the young even have their own style.

However, quite a few of them are chasing after European fashion without knowing that it is not suitable for Asians, including Vietnamese, who are smaller than the people of Europe.

I have to concede that until now, I’ve never been away from home during Tet – the Lunar New Year Festival. As the eldest son in the family, according to the Vietnamese tradition, I have to stay at home during Tet to take care of the family’s altar. That’s my sacred responsibility and my honor. I enjoy it.

Like other Vietnamese, we work hard for the whole year and look forward to the new year to reunite with family and join in celebration. It’s also an occasion for us to look back at last year and to visit relatives and friends.

In 2010, there are many major events taking place in Hanoi. The most important one is the 1000^th founding anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi. As a designer I have a plan to complete my Sacred Dragon collection part of which I have had already introduced in Japan and received an enthusiastic response from young people inside and outside Vietnam. My collection will have 100 sets of clothes for the four seasons of the year – spring, summer, autumn and winter

I’m very proud to be a famous comedian. To keep the audience entertained, I understand I have to learn and practice more.

I came from the countryside and that’s why my outfit reflects of my “countryside” character.

I live in Ho Chi Minh City and my “favorite restaurants” are street food courts. That’s a habit that got into my blood when I was a boy. When I was 13 years old, because my parents were poor, I had to go out to the streets to make money to help my mum and dad and other family members. I spent nearly 8 years selling ice tea and other drinks in the streets.

As a comedian, I want to make people laugh and have a good time during Tet, after a year of hard work. As a normal practice, every Tet, I perform many shows both in the South and the North. And my shows have been made into CDs so those who don’t have the opportunity to go to the theater may still enjoy them.

 In my I recent shows, I played the role as a woman and many people have asked me what made me so successful in that part.

“No secret at all” I said adding “I’m an artist”.

Some people may say that I am very conservative as I have never accepted an offer to give a show during Tet for a very simple reason – Tet is an occasion for family reunion. I want to have more time with my mum and enjoy the food she prepares.

What I hate the most when Tet arrives is that it makes me older. In Vietnamese we have a saying “one year added to your age makes you feel like being shut out of spring””

This year I plan to open an art school to teach different forms of art. That has long been my dream. I hope to encourage many more young artists to make our lives happy and filled with laughter.

My full time job is an artist for the Vietnam Drama Theater. But I also moonlight as a Master of the Ceremonies (MC) on many occasions.

That’s not all I’m also a member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Youth League, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Young Artists Association and others. These jobs keep me very busy.

In 2009 alone, I participated in more than 100 hundred shows at the theater. We have only 24 hours in one day but 8 hours for sleeping. So we have only 16 hours for activity. That reflects how busy we are.

As an artist I always want to perform an enjoyable show for the audience – be they Vietnamese or foreigners. One of my principles in my career is to respect the audience – a factor contributing to the success of an artist. Of course respect for the audience can be shown in different ways. Whichever way the artist chooses, it must be relaxed for him or her yet enjoyable for the audience.

For me, though the nature of my work is demanding and consumes a lot of my time me yet, I treasure the time I spend with my family, particularly during the Lunar New Year Festival. For me, Tet is a private time for me and my family.

I think I can perform for at least 20 more years. So I plan to open a club named Xuan Bac. I hope my club will attract many young children. The club will be a place to nurture young talent. By joining the club they can learn many things, including story telling, stage art performance, music, dance and many others.