Meritorious Artist Le Vi's family runs a homestay business. Le Vi spends most of her time taking care of her family, gardens and practicing Buddhism.
She had a conversation with a Lao Dong reporter about the joy, happiness and homesickness after 20 years in France.
In France, which time of year makes you most homesick?
Maybe it's Tet. Usually, I will try to arrange to return to Hanoi every Lunar New Year, however, not every year is possible.
Now, every time I go home during Tet, observing around, I see many women have a "fear of Tet" mentality. Not only because Tet has to be busy shopping, cleaning, cooking... but what makes people tired is probably the "procedures" of visiting and asking for gifts intertwined before Tet along with lucky money envelopes at the beginning of the year that have become a psychological burden because that "traditional cultural beauty" has no longer maintained its original meaning.
The further away from home, the more deeply I feel the warmth with loved ones in the moment of New Year's Eve harmony between heaven and earth and people. Vietnamese Tet is very unique and special.
Every year when Tet comes, I remember the childhood scene. Tet in those days was very simple, new clothes with a faint smell of firecrackers (picking up firecrackers on the street) and lucky money envelopes at that time were indescribable joy.
Life is deprived all year round, only until Tet is a little more fulfilling, only until Tet can we eat delicious dishes like banh chung, pork legs... Tet also comes with the sacredness of New Year's Eve.
Now, life is too abundant, food is abundant all year round, people lose the feeling of "craving".
How is "Vietnamese quality" present in your family in France?
I am still excited to welcome Vietnamese New Year according to the lunar calendar. I am still frantically worried to be able to burn incense right at the moment of New Year's Eve Vietnam time like when I was at home every night on the 30th.
In my home garden in France, I grow peach blossoms and try to take care of them so that they bloom on time for Tet.
I enjoyed that time again. I used time to preserve and cherish the cultural values that have deeply permeated my heart.
After so many years have passed, I still remember the small attic on Phan Dinh Phung street. The childhood we sisters went through there. Still remembering Tet days picking firecrackers, eating jam, receiving lucky money envelopes of five cents, one hao...
In your family, who do you think you look more like?
I am like my mother and also most compatible with my mother. I am the youngest daughter, so I always "stick" to my mother. Before going to France, my family always lived with my mother.
In terms of art, perhaps I am most influenced by Ms. Le Van. Our paths are unintentionally very similar.
My sister Van and I studied dance together. When my sister Van graduated and became a ballet and film star, I just started my first year. A few years later, I also started acting in movies from small roles to big roles.
I am proud of her, but her efforts in studying are not to hope to be like her. It seems that fate has arranged our path very similarly, even when we stopped, it was very early.
On her personal page, she posted many photos taken with her mother and 2 older sisters. There is a photo of her and her four children wearing ao dai very nostalgic. Is that a special photo?
That photo was taken right on Tet 2018. After many years I could not arrange to return to Vietnam for Tet, so I had the idea that all four mothers and children would wear old ao dai to take commemorative photos for an impression.
When I posted photos on my personal Facebook, many people liked it and I was very happy because after a while, such a baggy ao dai trend has become popular again to this day.
A few years earlier, following the trend, many designers had transformed and innovated ao dai to suit the times.
But the value of the traditional ao dai is to honor the elegant, gentle, gentle and discreet beauty - the pure Vietnamese quality of Vietnamese women.
In you, there is always the demeanor of a traditional woman, is it that you want to aim for that image or are you influenced by family?
Not only me but all three of my sisters are the "woman of the family" type. My sisters and I are all introverted people, who like a simple life without ostentation.
Your husband is French. Did he say that he loves you because of the traditional Vietnamese quality in you?
My husband loves everything about Vietnam, and loves his wife because of the Vietnamese qualities in me.
The further away from my homeland, the more I am aware of preserving Vietnamese qualities because that is a part of the quintessence of the nation that we carry within us.
I love Ao Dai, love Vietnam, love the root culture in the purest and most sincere way.
After many years, when I remember Hanoi, I still feel myself on that street with green dracontomelon trees and the sound of cicadas in the summer afternoon, the echoing cheers of street vendors and the simple but profound beauty of Hanoi people.
Although Hanoi today has changed so much, the memory of an old Hanoi in me is still the most beautiful.
