Loving traditional Vietnamese culture
Meritorious Artist Le Vi was born and raised in a family with a rich artistic tradition, her father is People's Artist Tran Tien, her mother is Meritorious Artist Le Mai, Le Vi's two older sisters are both very famous, Meritorious Artist Le Van and People's Artist Le Khanh.
In a conversation with a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, Meritorious Artist Le Vi shared that she has been in France for more than 20 years, but always remembers Hanoi, the time when her house was still on Phan Dinh Phung street.
I still remember my Hanoi in those years, remember the clanging sound of the tram, remember the days of picking ambarella, remember the midday cicadas, remember the Hanoi space of that time. Until now, in my heart, Hanoi that day is still the most beautiful Hanoi. Just like in my memory, there is always a frame, there is our family of 5... Many years have passed, that is still the most beautiful frame" - Meritorious Artist Le Vi said.
According to Meritorious Artist Le Vi, her parents loved traditional Vietnamese culture and that deeply affected their 3 daughters.
Traditional customs in my family are most clear on Tet occasions. For so many years, every Tet my family has wrapped banh chung, displayed jam, displayed peach blossoms, kumquat trees. There were years in France, I couldn't come back. I still always arranged offering trays with boiled chicken and sticky rice to burn incense at New Year's Eve and excitedly and worriedly to burn incense and pray for a peaceful year on New Year's Eve" - Meritorious Artist Le Vi shared emotionally about Vietnamese Tet and the habits she still maintains.
In France, she grows peach blossoms in her home garden. She learns how to take care of them so that peach trees will bloom right on Tet.
In Le Vi's family in France, her husband and children speak Vietnamese very well. According to Le Vi, she only speaks French with guests and her parents-in-law. When there are only her husband and children, she always speaks Vietnamese and teaches her children to use Vietnamese when talking to their mother.
Le Vi's hobby is wearing ao dai, tailored in the traditional style, straight shirt style, silk material.
Le Vi's family currently runs a homestay business. Le Vi recounted that when she wore ao dai to welcome guests, everyone praised the ao dai for being beautiful. Recognizing that she is Vietnamese, many international guests praised the beautiful scenery in Vietnam, the development speed of the country after so many years and especially praised the open and friendly personality of Vietnamese people.
Le Vi's husband - Cyril Lapointe was originally a university graduate in art history at the Louvre, France. He has a great passion for Vietnamese culture. Cyril Lapointe spent a long time in Vietnam researching Cham culture. He has traveled to many places, spending a lot of time learning about the indigenous culture of many localities on the S-shaped strip of land.
When away from the homeland, you see how beautiful national culture is.
BTV My Linh has also lived in France for many years. She once described that when living in France in the last days of the year, just suddenly seeing peach blossoms blooming can make her burst into tears of emotion and homesickness.
Away from the homeland, when separated from the place where you were born and grew up, you have enough space and time to look back at the land of your homeland, to deeply understand the beauty of that place.
Che Lan Vien once wrote, "When we live, it is only a place to live/When we leave, the earth has transformed into a soul". Children away from home have carried homesickness, carrying the national soul with such special emotions.
For them, family is like a "coordinate axis" clinging to them, on their shoulders is love for their homeland and country, so that when integrating into the world, they carry pride, wanting to spread the cultural beauty that has been deeply ingrained in their blood and flesh.
“Vietnamese cultural identity is very unique, from ao dai, to characteristic personality traits, or Vietnamese Tet culture. Just keeping that identity is enough beautiful. I take an example from the ao dai. We often transform, innovate, try to change the style and think that this is "integration", is more suitable for modern times... But the traditional, traditional ao dai - is the most beautiful design. I go far away, even more wanting to preserve Vietnamese identity, Vietnamese blood, the most purely Vietnamese things in me” - Meritorious Artist Le Vi said.
