"By bridging Vietnamese traditions with Vietnamese-American culture, we keep and change with the times, both making and breaking traditions as we go," the program for the Vietnamese Student Association's Tet Show stated.
The program itself represented this mix of customs, including traditional red envelopes inside the programs, symbolizing good luck in the New Year, as well as modern advertisements and pictures of the students in their everyday lives. Similarly, opening the ceremony with both the Vietnamese and American national anthems displayed the melding of American and Vietnamese culture that laced throughout the event.
The Tet Show was started 24 years ago by VSA students who wanted to celebrate the Vietnamese Lunar New Year at the University. The Vietnamese New Year is the same date as the Chinese New Year, usually in the first weeks of January or February; however, the VSA always holds the show around the first weeks of February to allow time for coordinating the elaborate festivities, VSA President Mai Phuong Nguyen said.
This year, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year fell on February 18th, ushering in the Year of the Pig. Tailoring the show to this particular year, the pig was a central theme in much of the entertainment, from the appearance of a club member dressed in a Pepto-Bismal pink pig suit to the delicious roasted pig provided at the reception.
Since its beginning, the show has developed into a production including skits, Vietnamese-inspired dances and a traditional dress fashion show. To incorporate modernity, students perform contemporary Vietnamese songs and dance to popular American music. To top the performance off, the VSA provides a veritable feast afterwards of authentic Vietnamese food.
"The show gets coverage by Vietnamese papers as far away as California and overseas, and they're even doing a small spot on the Tet Show on Vietnamese television," Nguyen said.
With more coverage than expected for a college production, the Tet Show has provided benefits for the club, such as greater recognition within the Asian Pacific American community at the University.
"The club has grown so much in the past four years with great leadership, even joining the category of the Big Five of the APA at U.Va., where we didn't used to be," VSA Senior Advisor Jennifer Chu said, referring to the larger, more established APA organizations of the VSA, the Chinese Student Association, the Organization of Young Filipinos, the Korean Student Association and the Indian Student Association.
Nguyen added that the Big Five are capable of hosting more events and cultural activities because they have more resources, funding and man power. She also mentioned that in the last few years, the Taiwanese Student Association has grown and is approaching Big Six status within the APA.
Both Chu and Nguyen said they agreed that the Tet Show has contributed to the VSA's increased visibility. The main goal of the Tet Show, however, remains to honor and incorporate Vietnamese culture into Vietnamese-American students' lives. Traditional Vietnamese culture was evident in the luxurious and colorful dress worn by the girls and women involved in the show, a garment called an ao dai. These dresses, which first-year College student Linh Ly described as somewhat like kimonos, are either donated for the show every year or accumulate over time.
While the ao dai present a visual tie with Vietnamese culture, the dances performed within the show develop from a collaboration of student creativity and inspiration from Vietnamese music and movements.
"The dances that we do are not 'set' ones from Vietnam," Nguyen said. "With the wars in Vietnam for the past years, many of the old customs have been lost or simply not perpetuated. Our dances try to evoke the old Vietnamese ways as much as possible by using music made with traditional Vietnamese instruments, melodies, etc."
Thedancers performing in the show often choreograph their own moves and insert their own style into the piece. For example, the First-Year Dance, composed of 12 first-year women in the club, was once choreographed by an outside group, but now the students themselves compose the moves in two-hour, twice-a-week practices until the performance, Ly said.
Given the few weeks the students have to prepare, practices must be worked around homework and other activities.
"We haven't even had a full run-through with all 12 girls yet," first-year College student Vanessa Dong said before the show. "Hopefully, everything will turn out like in practice."
Despite Dong's apprehensions, the 12 dancers came together.
"I was a little nervous before coming on stage," Ly said, "but once the music started, it was just like another practice."
The group danced to the song "On Your Own," with props such as streamers and hats that intertwined vestiges of the past and hints of present.
Between the dances, different presenters called out raffle winners and informed the audience of VSA charity events, such as the Catalyst Foundation, which works to build schools for girls in Vietnam. One humorous emcee, fourth-year College studentKatherine Vu, appeared in a new ao dai each time she spoke, despite only short intervals in which to change.
A skit about two American students, Jason and Larry, studying abroad in Vietnam also threaded through the different performances. Larry, a clueless American boy, falls in love with his Vietnamese host sister and tries valiantly to get her attention while attempting to learn Vietnamese language and customs. The skit incorporated some specifics of Vietnamese culture through the antics of Larry and Jason as they explored a foreign country, met their host family and went to school.
Toward the end of the show, the Fourth-Year Slideshow, created by fourth-year College student Tina Nham, and the Club Slideshow, by VSA Historian Julie Luu, depicted the activities and projects accomplished by the club members during the past year.
Mixing different medias to exhibit both new and old customs, the VSA's Tet Show honored the ancient holiday of Vietnamese New Year while injecting the traditions and personality of modern Vietnamese-American culture.
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