2007年VOA标准英语-Vietnamese Art Flourishes Despite Censorship

By Matt Steinglass
Hanoi
12 February 2007

In January, police in Hanoi ordered a Vietnamese artist to remove his installation - a giant diaper, with a lining¹ composed of hundreds of police shirt pockets - from a German-sponsored exhibition. Although rules on self-expression have loosened somewhat over the past several years, the flourishing Vietnamese art scene still faces government censorship, as Matt Steinglass reports from Hanoi.

When

A worker hangs onto an abstract painting while transporting it on the back of a motor bike through the streets of Hanoi (File)

gave Vietnamese artist Truong Tan an idea. Franz-Josef Augustin, director of the German-funded Goethe Institute here, explains the installation Tan made for the show.

"It was a very ironic³ piece about corruption⁴," he said. "It's a diaper, a huge diaper, made in the form of a sofa, put together out of uniform pockets. And the comment of the artist is, the absorbency is unlimited⁵."

The absorbent pockets, which Tan stitched himself, were made to look like those on police uniforms.

In Vietnam, where the government limits free expression, a comment on police corruption is risky⁶. The exhibit went up on January 10. The police response came soon afterward⁷.

"Two days later I got a call, I was in Saigon, I got a call: the police have asked us to remove these two pieces," he said.

The authorities wanted both Vietnamese artists' pieces taken down, saying that the institute had only asked for permission to show German works. To avoid trouble, the artists agreed.

Truong Tan, 42, a former teacher at Vietnam's Academy of Fine Arts, lived in France for several years before returning to Vietnam in 2004.

He says he moved to France because he was frustrated⁸ with censorship here. To show his work in official galleries, he would have had to submit it first to the censors².

"I don't want to show them, and then say, give me permission," he said. "Because my work is free. And they're never thinking artists must be free. Here, they always think we are freedom, freedom, open, open. But for art it's not."

Tan's giant diaper now sits in his workshop. Tan says it is about lack of transparency, and a comment on Vietnam's new tourism slogan, "The Hidden Charm".

"I want people see inside the pockets of the leaders peoples in my country," said Tan. "What is it inside? The title of my work is 'Hidden Beauty'. At this moment Vietnamese always say 'hidden charm, hidden beauty'. I don't know, what is inside?"

Censorship is not immediately apparent on visiting an art gallery. Vietnamese artists are free to address personal themes, and even are allowed to make subtle social criticisms.

But the Ministry⁹ of Culture must approve any art project or exhibition, which slows the art scene down and frustrates¹⁰ international contacts.

Marcus Mitchell is one of several young Americans behind Campus, a new art space that has become a center of the Hanoi cultural scene.

Mitchell says a major problem for Vietnamese artists is that censorship isolates¹¹ them from the contemporary art world. He says young Vietnamese are often unaware¹² of how isolated¹³ they are.

"This generation thinks they're tapped into contemporary art globally, because they're surfing on the Web and they're looking at magazines," said Mitchell. "But all they get, and it's really frustrating¹⁴, you kind of get like knockoff clothing - like imitation Nike. It's purely¹⁵ superficial."

Vietnamese art sells extremely well these days, at galleries in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and New York. Mitchell says the reason is simple.

"Novelty. Asia's hot, and the market in China's completely bloated right now, and everybody's looking for the next big thing," he said.

Sitting in the garden of his Hanoi house, Truong Tan says he thinks the censorship cannot last forever.

"I think it's better, but they must open more," he said. "Because they must think, the ideas of people must change. And they change."

The Goethe Institute's Augustin says Vietnam must move beyond what he calls "ridiculous, petty censorship." For foreign observers and Vietnamese artists, the reaction to Tan's giant diaper is a sign that change is not going to come soo

1 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

2 censors   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the President. 审查员删去了该书的精华以取悦于总统。
• The censors let out not a word. 检察官一字也不发。

3 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

4 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

5 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

6 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

7 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

8 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

10 frustrates   

v.使不成功( frustrate的第三人称单数 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• What frustrates him is that there's too little money to spend on the project. 使他懊恼的是，可用于这个项目的资金太少。
• His trouble is that he frustrates much easily. 他的毛病是很容易泄气。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 isolates   

v.使隔离( isolate的第三人称单数 )；将…剔出（以便看清和单独处理）；使（某物质、细胞等）分离；使离析

参考例句：

• The transformer isolates the transistors with regard to d-c bias voltage. 变压器可在两个晶体管之间隔离直流偏压。 来自辞典例句
• In regions with certain isolates of TRV, spraining is more prominent. 在具有TRV某些分离物的地区，坏死是比较显著的。 来自辞典例句

12 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

13 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

14 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。