Shakespeare in vietnam

SHAKESPEARE IN VIET NAM 3.1 Shakespeare in Brief The word ‘Shakespeare’ has become a very popular name in the world and also the most challenge word to give definition in contemporary literature The reason is not from what we know about the man having this name but roots in the fact that it is too vast and profound knowledge we have learnt about him Although Shakespearean scholars have researched deeply into the historical and personal life and writing of this famous playwright, Shakespeare is still a promising subject to have numerous studies even this name has been varied in different layers of meaning from person to person all around the world Shakespeare is the Bard of Avon naming a boy from Stratford village in England in Elizabethan and Jacobean time, and then promoted his life by acting and writing plays It took four hundred years for him to transfer from a normal poet to an eternal figure of literature, which is, according to Thomas Carlyle (1840), described as ‘the peasant who became a prophet’1 In Western Literary Classics, the word ‘Shakespeare’ is recognized in all levels of teaching from primary to postgraduate whose schools’ curriculum always refer ‘Shakespeare’ as a subject of study Stanley Well (2002, p.169) states that the word indicates ‘an impression of the constantly evolving mind and imagination from which all the works emanated’2 This word also represents a business definition in quoted in Harrison, G.B (1966) Introducing Shakespeare London: Pelican Book Stanley, Well (2002) Shakespeare for All Time London: Macmillan intercultural theatre of century 21st as a gimmick in marketing All in all, I borrow the words of Jonathan Bate (2008, p.3)3 to define the word ‘Shakespeare’ as follows: Shakespeare means a body of words, characters, ideas, and stage images that have remained alive for four centuries because of their endless capacity for renewal and adaptation through the work of succeeding generations of actor and spectators, appreciative readers, and creative artists in every conceivable medium No matter how different people think of Shakespeare, the famous playwright is all known as one of the greatest writers in the world His name is synonymous with some knowledgeable scientists because the name has been the most cited, analysed, and referenced In the field of theatre, Shakespeare’s plays have been the most performed (Crystal, 2008) Shakespeare is not only a universal literary icon but also the national pride of England in terms of culture and language Harrison (1966, p.11)5 confirms that ‘no household in the English-speaking world is properly furnished unless it contains copies of the Holy Bible and of The Works of William Shakespeare… They must be presented as symbols of Religion and Culture’ In fact, Shakespeare is truly symbolized and acknowledged English culture From his writings, numerous English expressions have been derived and daily used as well Jonathan, Bate (2008) Soul of the Age: the Life, Mind, and World of William Shakespeare London: Penguin Books Ben, Crystal (2008) Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard London: Icon Books Harrison, G.B (1966) Introducing Shakespeare London: Pelican Book as become the stimulus and pleasure for generations of readers all over the world (Wells, 2002, p.403) Shakespeare’s plays no matter in his English origins or translations have been performed in a countless number of global dialects Crystal (2008, p.8) reports that the 22-day-Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2007 introduced more than 30 productions taking Shakespeare’s plays as the starting point Crystal continues that in 2005, sixteen films were produced based on Shakespeare’s plays Besides, his words are quoted in songs and movies, and the name Shakespeare still appears on social media, such as television series, music, films on the marketing purposes The most significant points that make Shakespeare become the centre of the Western literary canon are, according to Bloom (1994, p.46)6, his cognitive acuity, linguistic energy, and power of invention In terms of cognitive acuity, this primary reason for the Bard to be the centre of literary canon means the understanding of Shakespeare about human nature, which John Dryden calls Shakespeare is the poet who ‘had the largest and most comprehensive soul’ (Wells, 2002, p.206), and Samuel Johnson calls him ‘the poet of nature the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life’ (Bloom, 1994, p.63) Wells (2002, p.172) summarizes that Shakespeare often writes about ‘things that matter to most people in most places at most times, they give classic dramatic and poetic expression to great commonplaces of human existence – love and friendship, hatred and malice, family relationships, parting Harold, B (1994) The Western Canon: The Books and School of Ages New York and London: Harcourt Brace and reunion, success and failure, loneliness and community, joy and grief, aggression and fear, good and bad government of both the self and the commonwealth’ To widen this point of view, Maguire (2006, p.194)7 supports that readers are able to see themselves in their daily lives through Shakespeare’s characters because sometime ‘we hear their expression of our pain’, which confirms that Shakespeare’s writings can be shared in human hearts crossing any space, time, and language boundaries Bloom (1994, p.51) gives an example that his students and friends all described Shakespeare as the same one who ‘represents them upon stage’ when they ‘have seen him Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, and Italian’ In terms of linguistic power, Bloom (1994, pp.59-60) confirms that Western writers have ‘no equal’ linguistic ability as Shakespeare who has influenced greatly in the development of English language To support this idea, Francis Meres highly honours Shakespearean language by which ‘the English tone is mightily enriched and gorgeously invested in rare ornaments and resplendent habiliments’ (quoted in Wells, 2002, p.147) Wells (ibid) reveals that Shakespeare used a very large number of vocabularies from 20.000 to 30.000 words in which the Bard invented himself many new words that we still use today The way Shakespeare uses his figurative language is so distinctive that Bloom (1994, p.60) states that ‘no more awesome panoply of metaphor exists’ Different from Elizabethan scholars and writers who often used Latin images to draw in their metaphors, Shakespeare has his own metaphorical style with Laurie, Maguire (2006) Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way London: Penguin Group personal symbols, images and myths coming from his individual characteristics and living experiences to represent human characters (Harrison, 1966, p.24) Besides that, Shakespeare suits his readers and audiences’ dramatic tastes by his own way of adapting Latin and Greek story plots which Sir Philip Sidney confirms that ‘the stage should always represent but one place, and the uttermost time presupposed in it should be, both by Aristotle’s percept and common reason, but one day’ (Quoted in O’Toole, 2002, p.18)8 Differently, it seems that Shakespeare did not follow that rules but sets his plays in a very diverse and broad span of time ‘because they were not good enough to deal with the complexities of the world he was living’ (ibid) In fact, the characters in Shakespeare’s stories are not the Latin classics but very close to each of us in real life because ‘those characters ‘appear to be self-conscious – as if able to overhear themselves’ (Todd, 1998)9 On each particular character, Bloom (1994, p.64) describes that ‘if you are a moralist, Falstaff outrages you; if you are rancid, Rosalind exposes you; if you are dogmatic, Hamlet evades you forever And if you are an explainer, the great Shakespearean villains will cause you to despair’ 3.2 Shakespeare in Asian Shakespeare is a special gift from God, not only for English but all human kinds, not only for England but also all the countries around the world, not only for Elizabethan time Fintan, O’Toole (2002) Shakespeare is Hard But so is Life: A Radical Guide of Shakespearean Tragedy London and New York: Granta Books London, Todd (1998) Shakespeare in a Strange Land, IN American Theatre, 15(6) JulyAugust 1998 pp.22-24 but also for now and future, and not only for Literature but also many life’s aspects The name of Shakespeare is like his ‘eternal summer’ which is so wonderful that nothing could destroy He is the ‘cultural bridge’ connecting the world His plays have been well-known out of England since his time and performed all over the five continents in the world up till now 3.2.4 Shakespeare in India10 The coming of Shakespeare to India seems to the older and more complex than any other countries in the West because of the long time as the colony of England in the past In 1977, the first Shakespeare’s plays were performed in Mumbai (Bombay) by English troupes Ten years later, in the Christmas season in 1780, Othello – the earliest recorded performance was staged at the Calcutta Theatre in Kolcatta – the Capital of British India On the same trend in eight years next till the mid of nineteenth century, other plays of Shakespeare were performed mostly at the Chowringhee and Sans Souci Theatres, such as: Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, and Henry IV In 1924, Shakespeare society was founded by the cooperation of St Xavier's College, Kolkata; M.S University, Vadodara (Baroda); and most notably St Stephen's College, Delhi Shakespeare then came into curriculum of students following Western-style education, and affected the cultural mainstream of the Indian Languages 10 Sukanta Chaudhuri Shakespeare in India Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India [http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Criticism/shakespearein/india1.html] By 1920, more than 20 universities were established in India following the Western-style The curriculum in the schools is very humanistic They ran Honors and Master’s courses in English literature, in which Shakespeare was the staple fare These courses created many Shakespearean scholars for India in the early twentieth century, such as: Praphulla Chandra Ghosh, Subodh Chandra Sengupta, Tarak Nath Sen, Sailendra Kumar Sen and Arun Kumar Dasgupta in Kolkata; V.K Ayyappan Pillai, R Krishnamurthy, K.D Sethna, S Nagarajan and S Viswanathan in southern India (chiefly Chennai and Hyderabad); Phiroze Dustoor, Sarup Singh and A.N Kaul in Delhi; V.Y Kantak in Vadodara; and M.V Rajadhyaksha, Homai Shroff and Kamal Wood in Mumbai, whose studies on Shakespeare were collected in a series of Shakespeare editions brought out by the Chennai firm of Srinivasa Varadachari towards the end of the 19thcentury Later, another collection by William Miller was introduced under the name: Shakespeare’s Chart of Life in 1900 School and college students were eager to work with Shakespeare as the vehicle of acquiring the practicalities of the English tongue Despite of changes through time, Shakespeare is still a ‘staple diet’ at schools, and writings on him have been going on R.V Subbarao introduced a voluminous Othello Unveil (Chennai, 1906), and first volume of Hamlet Unveil (Chennai, 1909) Mohinimohan Bhattacharya presented his work Courtesy in Shakespeare (Kolkata, 1940) S.C Sengupta published three volumes called inter alia, on Shakespeare under the OUP imprint between 1951 and 1972 Especially, R.W Desai is the father of the world’s only journal devoted for a single work, Hamlet Studies, in 1979 Indian criticism of Shakespeare was blooming in next years with S Viswanathan's The Shakespeare Play as Poem in 1980, Sukanta Chaudhuri's Infirm Glory: Shakespeare and the Renaissance Image of Man in 1981, or Rajiva Verma's Myth, Ritual and Shakespeare in 1990 Indian literature has been affected since the coming of Shakespeare in history More than 670 items of Shakespeare translations and adaptations in Idian languages up to 1964: 128 items in Bengali, 97 items in Marathi, 83 items in Tamil, 70 items in Hindi, 66 items in Kannada, and 62 items in Telugu 16 tales derived from Lam’s Tales from Shakespeare were adapted to Indian context by Kandukuri Veeresalingam, a pioneer of modern Telugu literature Besides, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a Bengala humanist, used Errors as his prose narrative in 1869 In 1888, the prose Merchant using plot of The Merchant of Venice was presented by the founder of modern Hindi literature, Bharatendu Harishchandra In the 1950s, Macbeth and Hamlet were translated into verse by the eminent Hindi poet Harvansh Rai Bachchan In 1892, the first Sanskrit translation was published by R Krishnamacharya, and then the Sanskrit Merchant was staged in 1964 In fact, Shakespeare was used pedagogically in many fields of Indian life Recently, the works of Shakespeare have been studied in view of Linguistics, such as: Dream of Nissar Ahmad, and Macbeth of Ramakrishna Pillai In terms of structure, theme, and other literary aspects, early Indian drama was influenced by those features of Shakespeare’s style The year 1852 records the plays of Shakespeare on stages They were adapted in a very Indianized style, such as: The Taming if the Shrew directed by Surat Then, 1903 Othello was directed by Gujarati Between 1867 and 1915, 65 versions of Shakespeare’s plays in Marathi language were introduced by Mahadevshastri Kolhatkar, and acted by the Aryaddharak Natak Mandali After that, different plays like: Hamlet, Othello, Much Ado and Macbeth were staged through the country Besides, there appeared some musical versions of A Winter’s Tale, and Measure for Measure which follow the local tradition of music drama Zunzarrao, adapted from Othello by G.F Deval, became the most lasting success in the 1950s In Tamil language, more than 30 adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays were performed by 1900 in nearly 100 towns in Tamil Nadu, a state to the southern of India Among these, one of the most popular versions is Romeo and Juliet by P Sambanda Mudaliar Post-Independence Indian drama is on much influence of Shakespeare Since then, many Shakespeare’s plays have been performed, such as: Othello in 1950 -1960-1990, Macbeth in 1954, Hamlet in 1957 and 1964, King Lear in 1974, A Midsummer’s Night Dream in 1991, Julius Caesar in 1992, and The Merchant of Venice in 1997 Between June 1953 and December 1956, the English-language theatre Shakespeareana had 876 performances of Shakespeare’s plays The Little Theatre Group performed at least 16 Shakespeare productions in the 1950s to 1960s Among them, Macbeth was on stage in 1954, and performed at least 100 times in Bengal villages as well as Kolkata; The Merchant of Venice was staged in 1955; Julius Caesar in 1957; Othello in 1958; Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer-Night's Dream in 1964 Shakespeare’s plays were formed in dance-drama, introduced by Kathakali with Othello in 1997, and King Lear in 1999 3.2.6 Shakespeare in China11 Lu Xun, one of the prominent figures in Chinese modern literature, is the first person brought storylines of Shakespeare to popularize this name among Chinese readers and theatrical practitioners through his free translation in semi-classic style of Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb For decades, Chinese people, depends on their requirements, used the name Shakespeare in either appropriation or dissimilation into Chinese culture Besides, the writers who had never known about Shakespeare before started to mention his name to legitimize their arguments In July 1913, followed more than twenty Shakespearean adaptations over the ensuing decade, the first play of Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice under the name Rou Quan was performed by a professional theatre in China based on the storyline summaries of Lin Shu 1922 is the marked year when full translations in Chinese language of Shakespeare were introduced, such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet by Tian Han Some other Chinese, who had studied in England before, introduced direct translations of different works of Shakespeare from original English When spoken drama, huaju, came to popular, some more complete 11 No Author, (nd) Shakespeare in China: Old Man Sha in the Middleof Kingdom Available from: http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Criticism/shakespearein/china1.html http://internetshakespeare.uvi c.ca/Library/Criticism/shakespearein/china1.html [Accessed 20th November 2013] Shakespeare and his works is still a secret cave that needs to be discovered The values from applying Shakespeare into teaching English language and literature has not been concerned Only Love and Harte in Romeo and Juliet taught at high school and short excerpts of Macbeth and Hamlet introduced at universities cannot be deserved to the fame of Shakespeare It seems that the difficulties in learning and teaching Shakespeare prevent textbook designers and lecturers from helping their students approach the values of language, humanities in his writings This fear needs to be changed as soon as possible 3.3 Shakespeare on Vietnamese stage 3.3.1 The coming of Shakespeare to Vietnamese stage Stage in Viet Nam is still a luxurious art for upper classes that are rich but just the minority in the society of common labors Vietnamese stages in the North mainly focus on Kịch nói = oral play, Tuồng, and Chèo, while Cải Lương is the typical genre on the Southern stages In those four types, Kịch nói exists as an easy way to approach form in the developing era of country; Tuồng, Chèo, and Cải Lương are only the favorites of old people who love national musical theatre and folklore which are no longer the up-to-date tastes among young generations The scarcity of interesting Vietnamese play scripts that are usually lacking of climax functioning as the background of conflicts encourages domestic stages to choose foreign plays as safer solutions (rarely be broken down in the mid-way) with literary features, philosophy, and bold content, etc to verify their performances and attract more audience In terms of conflict, Western play scripts not describe small conflicts, or repeated quarrels between characters In contrast, Vietnamese ones (play scripts) often narrow in surface and daily living conflicts, not the oppose of era The above reasons have supported conditions for the import of famous foreign plays to Vietnamese stages in which Shakespeare is a typical one whose Hamlet, Othello, King Lear are performed and edited into Tuồng and Chèo Another reason why Shakespeare’s plays are chosen is the wide and deep conflict scale Besides, the structure of five chapters and monologues make the difference and interest for audience 3.3.2 Shakespeare in Tuồng and Chèo Tuồng and Chèo, the two traditional musical theatres of Viet Nam were created in the 11th-12th century with no relation to the Western theatres in terms of genre, performance, and origin Happily, researches of European scholars 12 show that they have the seeds of modernity (not the old fashion as many young Vietnamese often think about) which are much closed to the content in the writings of modern playwright Shakespeare The conventional style in Vietnamese traditional theatre with the encouragement of audience’s imagination and knowledge is also the modern acting features on European stages and similar to what Shakespeare intended in his works Shakespearean characters seem to be the clones, for example the clown with conventional cloth, make-up, gestures, and facial expressions in Vietnamese folklore stages The same in Shakespeare’s plays, those characters are used to describe the contrast or oppose between human situation and social background Not only language could bring the play to 12 http://www.baomoi.com/Shakespeare-va-Brecht-trong-tuong-va-cheo-I/132/7819794.epi and http://suckhoedoisong.vn/20120212081630336p0c15/shakespeare-va-brecht-trong-tuong-va-cheo-ii.htm audience, the acts of characters with body gestures and facial expressions contribute a great part in conveying the content Shakespeare’s plays exist in human hearts by those factors which are reflected in traditional folklore theatre where honors the values of poetry, soft and flexible body language of characters in the melody of traditional musical instruments 3.2.3 TNT (Terrific New Theatre) and the introduction of Shakespeare to Vietnamese stage Macbeth is the first Shakespeare’s play of TNT edition and performance which have been on stages through more than thirty nations in the world in which Viet Nam is also a lucky destination Eleven years ago (2001) Macbeth of Viet Nam (performed by Vietnamese actors) was on stage of The Youth Theatre under the hand of magic director Le Hung who brought Shakespeare to Vietnamese audience by the Vietnamese version with the excellent performance of actor Anh Tu and actress Lan Huong crazily rolling in the blind ambition, in deepest despair through their dialogues, gestures, facial language, steps and music Along with the simply designed stage but containing wither and stuffy atmosphere of ancient society, the combination of drums and líu, nhị13 and lights brought the scene of Macbeth and his wife’s death closer to Vietnamese audience Despite being the same play, Macbeth of TNT was warmly welcome in Viet Nam because the differences in designing, the way of choosing climaxes, and the impressions in audience’s hearts Domestic play directors also have chance to review their work as well as 13 Vietnamese traditional musical instruments the methods of how to introduce Vietnamese plays to the world On the purpose of confirming that Shakespeare’s plays can suit this modern life, TNT used to introduce King Lear along Viet Nam from the North in Ha Noi city, to the Middle land: Da Nang city, and the South: Ho Chi Minh city Not only ‘stage-like’ dialogues, director Paul Stebbing of TNT changed music in this play to be movie-like, rather than traditional stage The environment around the stage was designed with Stonehenge picture adding the Celtic music as background, which illustrated the full of sunny and windy island where the tragedy of King Lear happened 3.4 Romeo and Juliet in Viet Nam 3.4.1 Romeo and Juliet in Sai Gon14 Still in the same motif of the original text of Shakespeare about the tragedy of two lovers, Romeo and Juliet in Sai Gon, a play of IDECAF stage on 15 th of July 2011, brought relaxing but interesting and friendly laughs by adding very Vietnamese social features with bicycle, motor, sạp dance 15, and hò16, etc This famous love story is combined flexibly between the Western art of physical theatre and Vietnamese opera (hát bội) 14 Sai Gon is the former name of Ho Chi Minh city 15 a traditional dance of ethnic minority groups in the North-West area 16 a popular folklore in the Middle land and the South of Viet Nam By mixing Western play’s atmosphere and Vietnamese living styles, audience were directed to different surprises besides the conflict between the two families whose the quarrel opens with the music of songs: Chuyện nhỏ17, Sáu mươi năm đời18 Romeo and Juliet date on the Y Bridge19, and then dance Sạp in their wedding party On the stage, Romeo rides his bike and Juliet comes on her motorbike in a background of hò and music with traditional Vietnamese clothes, dialogues, which receives encouraging long applauses of audience In addition, Vietnamese opera was mixed skillfully demonstrating conventional steps, gestures and emotion of characters Audience extremely loved the image of the balcony where Juliet was enjoying the Moon and Romeo was expressing his love, which was replaced by the standing on perform-mate of characters Director Cliff Moustache and Doctor of Art Nguyen Nghieu Khai Thu were very proud of this Vietnamese version of Romeo and 17 a song of musician: Lê Minh 18 a song of musician: Y Vân 19 Y Bridge is a famous bridge in form of letter Y, located to the East of District 8, Ho Chi Minh city Juliet which is the contribution of ideas from all participated characters Mark Woollett and Candace Clift, the two members of Shakespeare & Company based in Massachusetts of America, directed students of Ho Chi Minh College of Stage Performance and Cinematics to perform Romeo and Juliet in April of 2006 On the hope of bringing Shakespeare to Viet Nam, this couple added many Vietnamese characteristics into the play, for example: Juliet wears Ao Dai; the kungfu is performed with hand, not sword; there is no gun in the play (because using gun is illegal in Viet Nam); and especially, at the beginning of play, the quarrel of two families happens outside the front door of the theatre where audience standing around to enjoy then following the characters into the theatre In summary, despite of the distance between language and culture, Shakespeare has been introduced to Vietnamese audience on stages To overcome difficulties, his famous plays are edited with additions of Eastern culture and Vietnamese style Shakespeare in Viet Nam is a friendly playwright whose works are directed by domestic and foreign directors as well as international theatres by combining modern stage’s arts and Vietnamese living aspects, for instance, Hamlet is performed through physical theatre added Vietnamese traditional opera directed by the artist of common Lan Huong Shakespeare will be more popular in Viet Nam because most of his famous plays are on process of performing 100 international classical plays of the Youth Theatre 3.4.2 Romeo&Juliet vs Lan&Diep 3.4.2.1 Romeo and Juliet – The suicide for love of a young couple The suicide of Romeo and Juliet has become the legend for the faithfulness of love, the romantic model for young couples, and the target to compare any other suicides in the same motif In love, losing a half is equal to losing all, and living without lover in this life is really nonsense Romeo killed himself with the purpose of following his lover to the heaven when seeing lifeless Juliet Juliet, in the same stream of thought, seeing a bloody breathless Romeo, also wanted to end her life for the eternal world where they could be peacefully together forever Their death is the confirmation of a strong love that cannot be separated by any force, let alone prohibition of family, distance, or death Their love is the timeless evidence for the faithfulness which is made of the calling from heart Love without any boundary, following the joyful rhythm at the first sight in the romantic and long lasting melody, in the moonlight, under the balcony seeing the garden with leaves and winds, etc, becomes the ideal model for young couples in wish of having such the same tune of love Not only staging in the same romantic love, young couples are ready to choose Romeo and Juliet-like suicide as the solution to confirm their love and faithfulness against the arrangement or prohibition of family 3.4.2.2 The tragic love story of Viet Nam: LAN AND DIEP There are, around the world, some Romeo and Juliet-like love stories which all end in tragic China has 梁梁梁梁梁梁梁 – The Butterfly Lovers telling about a girl cross-dressing to go to school and falling in love with her schoolmate She tried to escape from the arranged marriage of her parents by killing herself, and the schoolmate killed himself After that, they become butterflies Viet Nam also has a similar one written by writer Nguyen Cong Hoan who introduced the tragic love story Lan And Diep in his novel Tắt Lửa Lòng in 1933 Different from Romeo and Juliet of Shakespeare, the Vietnamese version ends with the death of Lan (the girl) and the painful rest of life for Diep (the boy) This story reflected Vietnamese feudalist society where young couples have no right to decide their love although they are already engaged in secret with each other The story tells that: Lan was a young maid living in a small poor village where had Diep, her beloved man trying to study for the graduation examination Swears of a faithful love encouraged Lan to wait for Diep when he went to the town revising lessons New life in strange place made Diep sad and he missed his lover so much He often visited his father’s friend, a rich landlord living with his naughty daughter, to reduce his loneliness The uncontrolled living style made that rich girl pregnant with a strange man To avoid gossips, a big party was celebrated with many guests, among them Diep was a special one because of his close relationship to the family Drinking too much wine, Diep was drunk and put on bed sleeping beside the landlord’s daughter This trap along with the news of being pregnant, Diep was asked to prepare a hurried marriage Despite having no love and being mixed in confused, guilty feeling, he had to follow the arrangement of that girl’s family The news of Diep’s marriage was like a thunder on ear spreading to Lan who was still on the hope of a successful day when her lover would come back after the exam Extremely shocked and carrying a broken heart, she left away to a far temple to become a Buddhist nun However, love, sadness, and loneliness always stayed in her mind, which day by day weakened her to a terrible sickness After recognizing that the child was not his son and the trap of that day in his father’s friend’s house, Diep tried to go to many places to look for Lan Sadly, right at the time he found that temple where Lan was living, Lan spent her last breath in Diep’s hands Since burying Lan in village’s burial ground, Diep had lived his rest lonely, single, and humble life until his death Both Romeo and Juliet and Lan Điệp appreciate the faithfulness in love but the ending of these tragic love occurs in different ways While Romeo and Juliet ends in blood and death, Lan Điệp burns a murmuring sadness and tears in readers’ heart This tragic love story is also edited into play, songs, and films In 1936, the playwright Tran Huu Trang 20 edited this story into a Vietnamese traditional play performance – Cai Luong – with the name Lan Điệp In 1948, the Asia Music Company recorded this play and then it was so popular to Lao and Cambodia that people forgot the original name, but “Chuyện tình Lan Điệp – The love story Lan and Diep” In 1970, when drama was highly developed, the Kim Cuong (Diamond) Drama Group performed this story in oral play In the same time, this 20 Tran Huu Trang (1906-1966) is one of the Vietnamese greatest playwrights of Cai Luong His famous works are: To Anh Nguyet, Lan va Diep, and Doi Co Luu, etc story in form of Cai Luong was recorded to broadcast on television In 2006 and 2008, this play was staged many times with little changes Right the beginning 1940’s, musicians composed songs based on this love story The composer Vien Chau 21 wrote into Vọng cổ rhythm In 1965, the musicians Le Dinh, Minh Ky, and Anh Bang22 cooperated to composed four songs named “Chuyện tình Lan Điệp – The love story Lan and Diep”, in which the first song is very famous In 1972, this tragic love story was edited to film named "Tình Lan Điệp" directed by Le Dan This black and white film is a production of Da Ly Huong Film Company lasting hour and 30 minutes Late 1980’s, the film was produced in color named “Lan Điệp” directed by Tran Vu and Nguyen Huu Luyen This colored film was on cinema in 1990 3.4.3 The variants of Romeo and Juliet in Viet Nam The fact that young Vietnamese couples decide to get suicide is real, but, is Romeo and Juliet the typical model for them to follow? The question has not been answered yet, however, while Romeo killed himself and Juliet did the same for their faithful love, Vietnamese couples experiment in various ways Some couples get no prohibition from family, unluckily, one of them died by suicide, accident or something else, the 21 The Artist of Common Vien Chau (1924) is a famous Dan Tranh (traditional musical instrument of Viet Nam) player and Cai Luong composer He is honored as the father of Tan Co Giao Duyen (a modern kind of Cai Luong) 22 These three musicians formed a music band in 1966 taking their first name to call the band’s name Le Minh Bang other one cannot live without lover then decides to get suicide by drinking poison or jumping into river, etc One of this Vietnamese modern Romeo and Juliet happened in Da Lat city in 2005, online published on the website: http://dantri.com.vn/c36/s20-65743/chuyen-tinh-kieu-romeo-vauliet-o-da-lat.htm The girl was 20 years old and died year ago (2004) by drinking too many sleeping drugs Her lover, one-year living alone and always coming to her grave to talk till midnight, decided to suicide by jumping into the river They used to be happy together, but people around that girl were too strict when mentioning her as a kind of willing money person who followed another man She died of overpressure Death for love has become model of young couples nowadays On the website Phu Nu Today, the article NHỮNG DỊ BẢN KINH HOÀNG ROMEO VÀ JULIET VIỆT NAM (My translation: The Frightening Variants Of Romeo And Juliet In Viet Nam) published online on 07/03/201123 wonders the suicides of young Vietnamese couples in a very dangerous way The first story happened in an early morning of 2011, people were doing morning exercise, a car stopped, a girl was thrown out of the car, shouting crazily, and a man in the car got off with a knife, killed the girl then killed himself before jumping into the lake The second story happened on the first day of 2011, in a motel in Ha Dong district, Ha Noi city The couple was found in the room where the girl was lying in blood, and the boy was killing himself right the time police came The reason was that the boy 23 http://phunutoday.vn/xahoiol/201103/Nhung-di-ban-kinh-hoang-Romeo-va- Juliet-Viet-Nam-1981488/ did not agree to the saying goodbye of the girl In the same motif of killing lover for possessing forever, the tragedy was that the boy was refused when expressing love to the girl He decided to kill that girl then himself A more suffered tragedy happened to the couple who are relatives of each other Vietnamese tradition does not allow relatives get married with each other even how far the generations they belong to They decided to suicide by the way that the boy killed the girl then himself On the Valentine’s Day of the year 2012, a male student jumped from the seventh floor of a building in Tay Bac University after killing his girlfriend because this girl had a new man If having no prohibition from family, the selfishness in love makes Vietnamese couples, especially the boys (some cases the girls) become monsters killing their lovers Vietnamese Romeo and Juliet are very violent Many Vietnamese psychologists agree that those suicides are no longer the phenomenon of ‘self-confirm’ among young couples, but belong to ‘behavior in love’ Some of the couples want to be the same like Rome and Juliet They not care about their selfishness to family, relatives, and lovers Just wanting to be beside each other forever, the affects after their suicides on family and people around are too much painful Five days ago (10/10/2012: http//vietnamnet.vn/vn/xa-hoi/92060/bi-cam-yeu-2-hoc-sinh-thue-nha-nghi-tu-tu.html), Vietnamnet.vn wrote in an article about the suicide of a 15/16-year-old and high-school couple who had rented a room at a hotel to drink insecticides because of the prohibition of families The causes of these painful suicides could be the prohibition of family, jealous quarrels, or ignored loves, etc Going with the trend of violence in the youth, these selfish behaviors must be alarmed in society Romeo and Juliet go to death by having no chance or solution because their lover already died Differently, Vietnamese Romeo and Juliet nowadays kill themselves with very stupid reasons Psychological education in schools of any levels, especially from secondary schools to colleges needs to be implemented immediately and widely Students at these ages are having changes in psychology, they are not experienced enough to pass conflicts or difficulties in life and love The latest love story in form of Romeo and Juliet was published online on vnexpress.com 26/09/201224 with the article ‘Chuyện tình Romeo Juliet xứ Việt’ (My translation: The Vietnamese love story Romeo and Juliet) which tells about a young couple falling in love with each other but facing the strict prohibition of two families The strength of love encouraged these two lovers to leave home to settle down in a remote area at the border between Viet Nam and China At hometown, two families are still in serious conflicts Up till now, despite of having a baby who can go to visit both his grandparents, the couple has not been accepted Different from the original text of Shakespeare, these Vietnamese Romeo and Juliet did not find the death as their solution Believing that their love one day could release their families’ hatred, they still live happily and often come back to visit their parents even though the conflict between two families has not been passed by 4.5 Summary 24 http//vnexpress.net/gl/suc-khoe/gioi-tinh/2012/09/chuyen-tinh-romeo-va-juliet-xu-viet/ By detail discussions on three main aspects: education, stage and social phenomenon, Shakespeare and his works, in an overall comment, are too small in Viet Nam and not deserved to the reputation of this famous writer In school’s curriculum, if taking a formula looking for the number of existing Shakespeare from Primary to Postgraduate levels, the result is equal to 3, such an amazing number Right in English departments of colleges of foreign languages as well as Ph.D degree of English Literature, Shakespeare is a strange and being hated name because of difficulties in approaching to his writings Vietnamese educationalists have not foreseen the values that Shakespeare could bring to students at significant teaching and learning levels On stage, some plays of Shakespeare have been performed in both English and Vietnamese Some foreign theatres from England and America come and cooperate with domestic theatres with editions of the original play scripts suiting Vietnamese culture and life style Nevertheless, only Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet have been on stages Many other Shakespeare’s plays have never been introduced to Vietnamese audience The most popular and enjoyed work of Shakespeare in Viet Nam is Romeo and Juliet The faithful love of this couple effects on many Vietnamese ones who are ready to jump into death if facing the prohibition of family Actually, the humane values of this play are not understood correctly among Vietnamese young people Besides the prohibition of family, the refusal of lover could be the reason leading to murders because of the selfishness in love In conclusion, Shakespeare in Viet Nam is till so fade in comparing to the values and reputation of this playwright and his works English language learners, researchers, translators, play directors and educationalists need to set a campaign on the purpose of bringing a friendlier Shakespeare to Vietnamese people ... Author, (nd) Shakespeare in China: Old Man Sha in the Middleof Kingdom Available from: http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Criticism/shakespearein/china1.html http://internetshakespeare.uvi... perception in terms of the understanding and attitude to Shakespeare in particular and English literature in general The thinking of unimportant and nonsense Shakespeare raised up in mind during twelve... single work, Hamlet Studies, in 1979 Indian criticism of Shakespeare was blooming in next years with S Viswanathan's The Shakespeare Play as Poem in 1980, Sukanta Chaudhuri's Infirm Glory: Shakespeare