Bolsavik.com

 A concert featuring songs by a Vietnamese musician who’s been long dead is drawing protests from some who claim the man was a communist.

Trinh Cong Son, a musician many call the Bob Dylan of Vietnam, died 7 years ago next week. He was, if not the top, then certainly one of the top song composers of Vietnam. He’s written hundreds of love songs, most famous and perhaps also most controversial of which are a series of anti-war songs entitled “Songs of Yellow Skin” (in Vietnamese, Ca Khúc Da Vàng).

It is because of those songs that many people accuse Trinh Cong Son of being a communist. (Ironically, the Songs of Yellow Skin are now banned in Vietnam.) The fact that Trinh Cong Son was a protege of Vo Van Kiet, former prime minister of the communist government, doesn’t help.

This week-end, a band from Orange County called “The Friends” is having a concert in honor of Trinh Cong Son. So, you guessed it, some groups went up in arms and called for a protest.

Never mind that for years and years and years, many musical shows in Orange County have featured, sometimes primarily, songs by Trinh Cong Son.

The Bolsavik has heard for years the argument that Trinh Cong Son was a communist. Those many gigabytes of claims can be summarized in a few points:

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  • The Songs of Yellow Skin are anti-war.
  • On the day the communists took over Saigon, Trinh Cong Son went on the radio and sang about unification.
  • Vo Van Kiet protected Trinh Cong Son, and Trinh Cong Son wrote songs praising some of Kiet’s pet projects.
  • For somebody so outspoken in Saigon, Trinh Cong Son never raised a peep about injustices under the communists.

In the Bolsavik’s opinion, all of this does not make Trinh Cong Son a commie. There are also other factors indicating he’s not, one of which is this:

Trinh Cong Son lived under the communists for 26 years, and not once did he proclaim himself a communist — something that would have brought him lots of worldly advantages.

When a man has everything to gain and nothing to lose by saying “I’m a communist,” and he doesn’t do it, the Bolsavik would tend to think that means he’s not a communist.

Unless, of course, you have a rather broad definition of a communist. Which some people do.

By the way, the protest organizer is named ”Vietnamese Community of Southern California.” How convenient!

The concert is scheduled for 7:30pm March 29, at the Don Wash Auditorium, 11271 Stanford Avenue, Garden Grove.

The protest is scheduled for 5pm.