Extra-curricular

On August 29, thirty years after the deaths of the famous playwright Luu Quang Vu and his wife, Xuan Quynh, the Institute of Literature and DTU held a seminar entitled: “The life and works of Luu Quang Vu”. The workshop was for researchers nationwide to discuss Luu Quang Vu’s creative work and present their research on his contributions to Vietnamese literature and art.

  

Attendees included  Mr. Nguyen The Ky, Chairperson of the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art; Mr. Vu Ngoc Hoang, Former Deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of Vietnam; Associate Professor Nguyen Dang Diep, President of Literature Institute of the Vietnam  Academy of Social Sciences; Hero of Labor and Distinguished Teacher Le Cong Co, DTU President; Leaders of Vietnam Writers' Association, Arts and Literature Associations of Vietnam; relatives of playwright Luu Quang Vu and DTU lecturers and students.

Luu Quang Vu was born in 1948 in Phu Tho province where he spent most of his childhood. Luu Quang Vu’s father, Luu Quang Thuan, is also a famous playwright. Luu Quang Vu is one of the most honored and distinguished modern playwrights and poets of Vietnam, whose work represents the people's sentiments during the era of renovation. He had written some 50 plays. His plays, short stories, and poems are full of pragmatism and humanism and are steeped with the character of each of the phases of the author’s, especially of the 1980s. His life, career and monumental contributions to Vietnamese literature were described. In 2000, Luu Quang Vu was awarded the Ho Chi Minh prize for his contributions to theatrical arts.

  

Mr. Nguyen The Ky, Chairperson of the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art, said: “The loss of Luu Quang Vu and his wife Xuan Quynh has left a big hole in Vietnamese literature and art, especially in theater and poetry, which were their greatest successes. With Quang Vu’s talent and his extraordinary, unparalleled workmanship, wrote outstanding plays which were staged in theaters nationwide. This began an age of sublime Vietnamese theater.” 

Some 70 discourses were submitted to the Board of Organizers, of which 55 were selected to publish in the workshop summary. 

 

Many of Quang Vu’s works livened up Vietnamese theater of the era, such as Truong Ba's Soul, Butcher's Body, The Ninth Pledge, Egotism, Timeless Moments, He's Not My Father, I and We, Believe in the Rose, and Sita Lady.

Mr. Luu Kinh Khanh, Luu Quang Vu’s cousin, said: “Hopefully, the workshop would lead to more of Quang Vu’s works being translated. I believe, however, that it would be extremely difficult. To translate works like Truong Ba's Soul and Butcher's Body into English and convey Quang Vu’s spirit would require expert translators. In other universities around the world, especially in the US and UK, theater studies are very strong. If we in Vietnam had that kind of capital, not to make use of it would be a great waste.”