MARY HOLSCHER Nam Tran sits on
Linda Tran‘s lap in a rehearsal for a play that
will be an act in the Vietnamese Culture Show.
By Michelle V. Gonzales
Daily Bruin Contributor
Generation gaps are bridged through UCLA’s Vietnamese
Student Union’s Culture Night, to be held at Royce Hall on
Monday.
Monday night’s performance will mark the 25th anniversary
of the Vietnamese Student Union and the 22nd year of VSU’s
Culture Night. This year’s production, “Stranded
Twilight: The Musical,” will include over 100 student
participants. The performance will feature original songs,
traditional and interpretive dances and martial arts. A fashion
show at the end of the performance will display the varieties of
Vietnamese traditional clothing.
“(Culture Night) gives (us) an opportunity to explore the
Vietnamese culture and to explore (our) identity because many of us
are first or second generation and haven’t experienced what
our parents and grandparents have,” said Andrian Nguyen, a
fifth-year psychobiology student and VSU co-president. “It
shows us how to appreciate their experiences.”
One dance, in a rice field, shows how farmers tend to their
rice, and another is a traditional dance of courtship, featuring 10
couples. The martial arts scene takes place in a military training
camp and includes the incorporation of hip-hop dancing.
The dramatic performance will portray the meeting of two people
from two different eras. Thistle, a modern Vietnamese American
teenager, encounters Le Lai, a farmer from 14th-century Vietnam.
Thistle deals with being unfamiliar and unable to relate to the
culture, while Le Lai joins the army of the future King Le Loi in
pursuit of Vietnam’s liberation from the Ming.
“It takes place in three worlds, the past, present and a
dream world where Le Lai and Thistle meet each other,” said
David Kincaide, a second-year aerospace studies student, and the
event’s co-director. “By the end of the performance she
grows closer to her family and through (Le Lai) she learns to
embrace her culture more.”
Culture night is part of a series of cultural events held by
VSU. The series will also feature the Tet Festival, Black April
Commemoration and Cafe Am. The Tet Festival, an occasion to
celebrate the Vietnamese new year, is an event open for all UCLA
students that will include cultural dances and a pageant. Black
April Commemoration explores the political and social aspects of
the organization. This event notes the fall of Saigon on April 30
and part of the event aims at educating the community and how it
affects them. Cafe Am showcases the talents of VSU students.
Not only does VSU center around cultural activities but it also
includes services like community health, mentorship and peer
counseling.
“VSU is a very multifaceted organization,” said Kim
Le Phan, fourth-year business economics student and VSU
co-president. “These events build a sense of community by
showing what we’re about and also educating the
community.”
VSU’s Culture Night has often become an arena where
college students are introduced to their cultures and learn what is
often rarely covered in classrooms. Dances, songs, and music
intertwine with history to produce a unique learning
experience.
Students involved with this production gain insight on cultural
concepts but also learn about life experiences, cultural barriers
and generation gaps. They have the opportunity to interpret these
things through performance while sharing it with the audience.
“(The participants) learn more about Vietnam and more
about their culture,” Kincaide said. “It brings us
closer to each other and to the adults. We hope it sparks an
interest in everybody to go out and learn about the Vietnamese
culture.”