By Josie Huang, KPCC
Playing would-be lovers, singers Duy Truong and Huong Thuy sashay along the stage at the Pechanga Casino and Resort, as a full band keeps beat.
The world’s top Vietnamese singers perform for the Paris by Night variety show. Ken Scarboro/KPCC
They’re two of the stars of the wildly-popular Vietnamese-language variety show ‘Paris By Night’.
She in a canary-yellow silk tunic and pantaloons, he in a sporty outfit with a black vest – the two sing a Vietnamese traditional love song before a sold-out crowd of over 1,000.
Crystalyn Le had traveled from Garden Grove with her husband and two young children for the Lunar New Year-themed show.
“We like to them to keep their Vietnamese culture that’s why we bring them,” Le said.
But she seemed the most excited in her family, as she rattled off the names of her favorite singers.
Entertainment and history lesson
Like most fans, Le started out watching Paris By Night on videocassettes sold in virtually every Little Saigon around the world.
Now it’s DVD’s. Throw one into the player, and you’re transported to a Vegas-style variety show- entirely in Vietnamese.
Paris By Night is one part comedy sketch, another part song-and-dance. Some numbers are traditional Vietnamese tunes, others are big and flashy.
Even with the show’s running time of four hours, audiences can’t seem to get enough.
The first Paris By Night was produced 30 years ago in the French capital by an immigrant named Tô Văn Lai. He wanted to fill the cultural void felt by expatriates who fled the country after the Vietnam War.
He quickly moved the production company Thuy Nga to Orange County, where much of the Vietnamese diaspora had settled. His daughter, Marie, now calls the shots as executive producer.
In the decades since, Paris By Night has become synonymous with tradition and family, according to associate professor Lan Duong who specializes in media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside.
“Vietnamese Americans celebrate by getting together, maybe eating Vietnamese food, and popping in a Paris By Night DVD,” Duong said.
Duong said she was raised on Paris By Night herself, and her family still watches them.
“We come together to laugh, to talk about the singing – how bad it is, how good it is, how beautiful some of the singers are,” she said.
Paris By Night, she said, also allows older immigrants to share history with younger generations. Shows are chock full of nostalgic songs about Vietnam before the war, before Communists took over.
“There is such an attachment to the homeland and not necessarily an attachment to the Communist politics or the government,” Duong said.
Popularity, and problems
Other productions have tried to copy the show’s success, but there’s nothing like an original. DVD’s of these shows are not only sold in the US, but in Canada, Australia, and Europe.
The show is just as big in Vietnam, said Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen who is famous for being Paris By Night’s long-time emcee, as well as the daughter of Nguyen Cao Ky, the former South Vietnam leader.
“We actually give the Vietnamese audience in Vietnam a very high level of entertainment unmatched by what they have now,” said Ky Duyen, noting that Paris By Night hires experienced Hollywood directors and choreographers.
But the Vietnamese government bans the sale of Paris By Night DVDs because of the political content. So how do the Vietnamese watch them?
Read the full article by Josie Huang from KPCC.
