CREATIVE WORLD OF SOUTH VIETNAM AND OVERSEAS
1954 – 1975 TO THE PRESENT
Author: Ngô Thế Vinh
Translator: Eric Henry
Copy Editor: Trần Thị Nguyệt Mai
Jacket Painting by Tạ Tỵ
Cover Design by Uyên Nguyên
Publishing Group: Việt Ecology Press & Văn Học Press
Language: English
Print length: 628 pages
Softcover – color: $55 USD
Softcover – black & white: $45 USD
Books are released on https://www.amazon.com for color version
and https://www.amazon.com for black & white version
Reviews:
- Dr. Eric Henry, translator
This book is a translation of a collection of personal, literary, and journalistic vignettes of Vietnamese individuals who have made notable contributions to literature, art, and science. It is a rich source of information on the social, cultural, and political history of South Vietnam, as well as the individual careers of its human subjects.
The people described for the most part came into prominence in the period 1954 – 1975. After the fall of the South to North Vietnamese forces in 1975, most of them were imprisoned for some number of years in communist reeducation camps after 1975. Later, in the 1980s, some of them made their way to the U.S., and most continued to be creatively active.
- Trịnh Y Thư, writer, poet
The book entitled Creative World of the South Vietnam and Overseas 1954-1975 to the Present (2025) originally known as Portraits of Literature, Art, and Culture written by the eminent writer Ngô Thế Vinh with English translation by the American scholar Eric Henry is a unique book in a sense that it presents to the general readers the fresh images of many personalities including writers, novelists, poets, journalists, painters, musician and other cultural figures, who, by all accounts, have been among the most respected and influential intellectuals in Vietnam.
This book is a valuable trove of rare and authentic information, vividly portraying more than one generation of writers from South Vietnam. Dr. Eric Henry’s translation closely follows the original, though inevitably, some culturally rich Vietnamese details could not be fully conveyed. Even so, it remains a commendable effort by a foreign scholar deeply devoted to Vietnamese culture.
A book well worth having on the shelf of anyone who still holds memories of a historical period slowly fading into oblivion.
A few years ago, I read the work “Portrait of Literature, Art and Culture” by Writer, Doctor Ngo The Vinh. At that time, I knew that this was a work of special value in Vietnamese literature, because it contained many rare documents that could not be found anywhere else. And I hoped that this work would be translated into English, so that the young generations of Vietnamese born after 1975 abroad who are not fluent or do not know Vietnamese will better understand the misfortunes that happened to the Literature and Culture of South Vietnam during the period 1954-1975. This was the period when the North Vietnamese Communists, after taking over the South, mercilessly destroyed and erased everything written during this period.
Time passes quietly and quickly, it has been eight years, today in August 2025, I hold in my hand the English translation of the book “Portrait of Literature, Art and Culture”. Translated from Vietnamese into English, the book is no longer in the small environment of the Vietnamese exile community in the world, but it has changed to respond or, more accurately, adapt to a new, vast and open environment outside. From now on, the book will stand side by side with the classic works from all over the world. “CREATIVE WORLD OF SOUTH VIETNAM AND OVERSEAS 1954-1975 TO THE PRESENT”. That is the title when the book was translated into English. The translator is Eric Henry, he is a PhD at Yale University, specializing in Chinese and Vietnamese literature.
Compared to the Vietnamese version, the translation has nearly one hundred more pages about Musician Pham Duy and the interesting meeting between the author and the translator about eight years ago at the home of Pham Le Huong, a Master in Library Science. That meeting was the reason for the birth of the translation “Portrait of Literature, Art and Culture.”
I have read and had in my hands the original Vietnamese version of the above book by Writer Ngo The Vinh for several years. The title of the book and the content are completely consistent with each other, because when Vietnamese people read the book, they will immediately understand that the author has drawn portraits of artists, writers and cultural figures of South Vietnam during the period of war between Communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
When translating “Portraits of Literature, Art and Culture” into English, the title of the book seems quite vague to foreign readers, because they will wonder: whose portrait? Are they British, French or American? For this reason, I think the title of the English translation has been changed to CREATIVE WORLD OF SOUTH VIETNAM AND OVERSEAS 1954-1975 TO THE PRESENT. Thus, foreign readers will immediately understand “The creative world of South Vietnam from 1954-1975 and overseas until today”.
Here I would like to reiterate that the translator is a PhD, a scholar specializing in Chinese and Vietnamese culture. With such a reputation and degree, if the translator translates an empty, valueless work, it is no different than digging his own grave.
When Eric Henry chose to translate the book “Portrait of Literature, Art and Culture”, this work was already evaluated through the selection of a Doctor of Literature specializing in Chinese and Vietnamese literature.
– Writer Ngo The Vinh, a giant in the literature of South Vietnam with dozens of great works, starting from the work Storm Clouds in 1963 until today, including Portrait of Literature, Art and Culture. This work is a brilliant picture with many colors depicting the portraits of the Artists and Culture of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. After 1975, if these people remained in Vietnam, they would be persecuted and tortured by the Vietnamese Communists and sent to re-education camps in the deep forests and mountains, while others would have to cross the sea to seek freedom on old, fragile, and rotten ships.
Today, out of the one hundred million Vietnamese people, how many know that during the 21 years from 1954 to 1975, South Vietnam had a brilliantly developed culture. This culture was destroyed by the book-burning fire of the Vietnamese Communists?
“Portrait of Literature, Art and Culture” by writer Ngo The Vinh is a timely work that appears to leave behind for posterity “A creative world of South Vietnam in the period 1954-1975 and after 1975 overseas until today.”
A book with two titles was published to reveal what the Vietnamese Communist Party deliberately covered up, concealed, and destroyed during more than 70 years of ruling Vietnam.
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