For those who don’t yet know, I’m fond of all things food and Vietnamese. And judging by recent responses on VTP, I’m not the only one. I am, however, equally – if not more so – obsessed with the cultural production of “accents.” Imagine my delight then, when confronted with the Australian hybrid travel-cooking show, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. If I were a bit more sexually ambivalent, I’d have jizzed my pants. You too will reach the same premature conclusion when you hear his sweet Aussie accent:
Go on, I’ll wait. Now that we’ve all basked in the glory of the ever-dapper Luke Nguyen, consider what a significant achievement Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam represents. As the first Vietnamese expatriate to headline a successful transnational television show (Maggie Q’s horrendous re-reincarnation of La Femme Nikita not withstanding), Nguyen exposes a Western audience to an image of Vietnam that often contradicts their common knowledge. The show takes for its subject not simply food or travel, but the people and culture of Vietnam. It is, in essence, a Vietnamese expatriate’s fantastic journey through the perils of modern Vietnamese society in an attempt to reclaim culinary and ethnic authenticity.
I’ve learned quite a bit from Luke Nguyen, the most enlightening of which is that unless it’s cooked in lemongrass, it isn’t truly Vietnamese. This places my entire life in crisis: am I really Vietnamese or have my parents mislead me? How much lemongrass must I consume to reaffirm my Vietnamese authenticity?
These signifiers of Vietnameseness, of course, are arbitrary, and in the case of lemongrass, environmental. But the question of authenticity continually re-emerges as we watch Luke Nguyen interact with his native brethren. The audience sees him cook in strange, exotic locales as a flurry of Vietnamese people surround him. Often, he invites a guest to sit and (uncomfortably) watch him cook, acting as a kind of living backdrop that attests to his authority. “Look,” it says, “a real Vietnamese person accompanies me.” This, of course, raises several questions: is Luke Nguyen not a real Vietnamese person? Is he some fake Vietnamese/Australian cyborg sent back in time to kill John Connor? And if he really is Vietnamese, why must the show constantly strive to prove as much to its Western audience?
That Sweet Aussie Accent
The show’s desire for authenticity may stem from the standard stereotype of the accented Asian. But let’s first be clear about what an accent is. Regional “accents” are, in actuality, dialects. Accents, instead, are a matter of (mis)pronunciation – what, for instance, someone Fresh Off the Boat would have. The FOB stereotype is so pervasive that it haunts even the most pompous Ph.D. candidates in English literature. On more than one occasion, I’ve been congratulated, in all sincerity, on how well I speak English. “Why thank you,” I always reply, “yours is aight.” Such an experience reveals the assumptions being made about what a typical Vietnamese (or Asian) person should sound like, and these are the same assumptions that challenge Nguyen’s claim to authenticity. If the stereotype imagines all Asians, whether first- or second-generation, as an accented caricature, it also inversely questions the ethnic and cultural knowledge of “unaccented” Asian people. As someone with a distinctly Western dialect, Nguyen is forced to continually remind his audience that despite his Aussie “accent,” he is ethnically, culturally, and linguistically Vietnamese. The relatives he visits, his scripted knowledge of Vietnamese culture, the people he awkwardly speaks to on screen – all attest to his Vietnamese heritage. This constant reiteration helps Nguyen gain much of his culinary authority. After all, who would watch a show called, “John Smith’s Vietnam?”
Authenticity and Exploitation by Proxy
On some level, the show is also about Luke Nguyen’s personal odyssey to reclaim his Vietnamese ancestry.
He roams the countryside flirting with young ladies, gets himself into all kinds of trouble, and narrowly escapes with help from the native inhabitants. He even gets attacked by a sea creature – or two-inch squid – in the middle of the night. Homer would be proud.
This reclamation of his authenticity, however, sometimes comes at the expense of the native Vietnamese population. Whether their presence is necessary or a twisted form of tokenism, it’s never made clear. And that is at once the beauty and frustration of Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. It straddles the line between homage and exploitation, between a celebration of culture and an incitement to tourism. As a Vietnamese expat who is also culturally Western, Nguyen acts as a tour guide to the “real” world of Vietnam. But like the contradiction between his English dialect and his Vietnamese dialogue, the audience never experiences an “authentic” Vietnam. As the title suggests, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is a mediated experience. When he says, “It’s a pity I’m here alone” while cruising down a serene river in Tam Coc, you can’t help but feel sorry for the invisible Vietnamese person rowing him around. Or when he makes a game out of carrying 40-kilo baskets, an activity, he recounts, that “these little ladies” do all day, you’re not sure whether you should be buoyed by their strength or question his privileged trivialization of their harsh life.
At moments, the tension between what he says and what occurs on screen is palpable. Check out his interaction with the elderly Hmong woman starting at 22:00:
You feel for the old Hmong lady as Nguyen informs the audience that the Hmong in this area are incredibly poor and can rarely afford meat in their diet. He tells you this all before slicing up a piece of smoked duck breast and tasting it in front of the poor woman’s eyes. He even asks, “Thu Khong?” but then seemingly changes his mind and shoves it in his own mouth. The scene highlights a very clear disconnect between what he says and what he does. It signals an incredible failure on his part to appreciate the situation as he recites from the script. His words acknowledge that many people – like the woman perched behind him – can’t afford meat even as his actions reveal an apparent incomprehension of its consequences.
The Trouble with Translations
But the show’s mediation goes beyond simply using the native Vietnamese population as props to promote Nguyen’s authenticity. It also makes judgments as to what counts as legitimate and intelligible speech. Anyone who speaks multiple languages knows that the act of translating is a tricky business. The cultural production of language makes it nearly impossible to translate the literal, idiomatic, and connotative at the same time.
Translations are even trickier in Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam.
In some instances, the Vietnamese is subtitled as well as can be expected. In others, however, the show simply ignores the Vietnamese words uttered. The value judgment here, that these words aren’t important or lack the intelligible content viewers can comprehend, typifies the Western notion of foreign languages as insignificant gibberish. At times, subtitles are absent when Nguyen translates for the audience. At others, both subtitles and translations go missing. When he asks the Hmong lady if she’d like to try the smoked duck in Vietnamese – and then fails to follow through – the show gives neither subtitle nor translation. Non-Vietnamese speakers miss the disconcerting exchange, and its import, altogether.
The show’s selective representation, strangely, is even more problematic when he offers translations, since his renditions are almost always misleading. He often asks his guests in Vietnamese if the food smells good. They’ll give a little nod or quietly say “yeah” – how else could they respond? – and he’ll translate it emphatically as, “She said it smells delicious!” And all in that charming Aussie accent.
It’s likely that correctly subtitling these leading questions would raise doubts as to his authority and authenticity. If a chef has to ask for validation and receives a quick nod in return, it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in his abilities. And Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, like all cooking shows, is heavily invested in its chef’s ability to not only produce, but astound. Instead of subtitles with that ambivalent nod, then, the viewer sees a real Vietnamese person supposedly enamored with Nguyen’s food. And what better verification of his Vietnamese and culinary authenticity than confirmation from a native Vietnamese person?
A large part of these questionable situations come from the artifice of the show’s “reality” format. We don’t expect authentic castaway life from Survivor, so why from Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam? Still, it’s difficult to come to terms with some of these representations of Vietnameseness.
What do you think the lesson from Luke Nguyen’s desire for authenticity is? Or, better yet, what the hell is Vietnamese authenticity, anyway?
This article is the first in a proposed series that examines Luke Nguyen’s journey to his native land in order to explore the often troubled, and always entertaining intersections between culture, identity, sexuality, and, of course, food. Look for Questionable Vietnamese Masculinity in the near future.
So does one have to be living in Vietnam to call oneself “authentic”? I think not! Is there anything wrong with one wanting to re-discover one’s roots to further understand their heritage/culture more? Once again, I think not! And what about one trying to show-off their love for their motherland to those who would normally have ignorant views towards a developing country?
I think you should have focused more on what he is doing actually doing for the country his parents had to flee in order to provide his family a better future than bagging out what you think “authenticity” means. Also, may I suggest that you google “Little Lantern Foundation” in order to see the work he is actually doing to give back to the motherland. To me, he is the Vietnamese version of Jamie Oliver. Both these men are using their fame to promote good things for the community. What’s the harm in that?
Did you really have to mock him like that? The show was meant to be light-hearted and highlight to those not in the know the true beauty of a wonderful country. I understand, this may not be “authentic” but do you really think he needs to show people going to the toilet in the middle of the streets/rivers, people throwing garbage freely, and all activities that westerners may think are “filthy”?
I thought you being Vietnamese would support your own people (isn’t this what this network is truly about?) and not go against them to bag them out! Shame on you!
Hai’s analysis of Luke Nguyen’s inauthenticity disproves that Nguyen can be considered as someone who shows support for his “own people” and motherland. In fact, he is the very antithesis of that notion. To agree with showing only a very selective image of Vietnam is to say that Vietnam, does in fact, have a lot of social problems. More importantly, it is to say that Vietnam’s social concerns are irrelevant to one’s reconfiguration of his/her own identity/roots. If one ignores these problems, how can one say that he/she is indeed tracing his/her roots, and supporting the mother country? It’s a complete hoax to reclaim authenticity while ignoring fundamental social issues that are inevitably intertwined with the cultural. And let’s be realistic here: in spite of recent assertions that Vietnam may be the new India, how many people in Vietnam can actually afford to do what Nguyen does (eg cooking escargot on a private rowboat)? Or even if they could afford it, how many people actually do it that way? Nguyen shows no regards for the communal aspects of Vietnam’s culture; his work is largely solitary, with the exception of a native adjunct, as Hai observes, to affirm Nguyen’s “authenticity.” Nguyen’s portrayal of Vietnam is very bourgeois, and this is complicated by the fact that he is an expatriate (see Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands for a better idea of why this might matter). In other words, he purports to portray a Vietnam that Westerners are not allegedly not familiar with. Yet, this Vietnam, I dare say, is more familiar and seductive to a Western eye than most local Vietnamese.
Chrystal-YOU are the only one along with Hai, that has made your fellow Vietnamese out to be poor, weak, uneducated folk, that need to be pitied. EVERYONE that lives near freshwater, has access to FREE snails. They pick them, themselves- it is a food for the working class, but all classes of Viet eat it, whether they collect it themselves or buy it from the market. YOu obviously have never visited Vietnam, because you’d also know that the new found development there has just brought VN above the international poverty line- people have access to good food, and living standards have raise considerably to 15yrs ago. Vietnamese people are the #1 tourists of the country, that spend perhaps $10 less overall that a foreign visitor during 1 trip. People in VN have money, and they are spending it. So DONT try to play that bourgeois card.
Lastly, this is a cooking show, not a documentary. If you want to talk politics, social justice etc you watch the news. AND, your little pea brain should had considered that Luke has personally begun steps towards working on social needs through his Foundation in Vietnam.
oh, p.s.
THis show is all over Asia- yes ASIANS love the show, and the format resonates with them too, not just westerner’s, so you and Hai’s bitter little rant should stay where it belongs, in a university paper/ project and away from a public forum where you will get your bum smacked.
Perhaps you don’t know this yet, but the Vietnamese adore Luke Nguyen. I’m talking about the so-called “authentic” Vietnamese living in Vietnam. He’s appeared on various local magazines/newspapers, and was interviewed on a recent talk show in Vietnam as well. Truth is, Vietnamese are just as curious about Luke Nguyen, or any other Viet Kieu trying to discover his roots and heritage, as he is about Vietnam.
The show is called “Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam”, so it is how Luke sees and experiences Vietnam, which is a personal experience and not necessarily universal or “authentically Vietnamese”. This is what interests us. We already know how Vietnam is like in our eyes. Vietnam, being sophisticated as it is, is different in everyone’s eyes and varies greatly from province to province. So to see Vietnam through an eager Viet Kieu’s eyes, who’s trying to bring Vietnam closer to the western audience, is definitely an eye-opener even for us. We’d never think that a simple “Oc Xa Luoc” (Snails cooked in Lemongrass, Ginger and Lime leaves) would look so good on tv or be so mouth watering to the westerners. But Luke Nguyen made it attractive.
Unlike many other Vietnam Travel documentaries or books, Luke goes really deep into the villages of his home town and shows the viewers places and foods they would have not otherwise discovered on their organized tours. It’s refreshing against the various documentaries about Vietnam’s war-struck areas or poverty.
That is exactly why we love Luke Nguyen. He repackages Vietnam and presents it to the westerners, making Vietnam more desirable, or “sexier”. Sure it’s a very produced and glorified version of Vietnam, but it is way more effective than any commercial Vietnam Airlines has been throwing millions into as an attempt to make people fly Vietnam Airlines to Vietnam.
As to the awkward conversations or representations of Vietnamese people on Luke’s shows, it’s a TV show, not a documentary. They probably were told what to do or say, and Vietnamese are shy in nature. The production crew is probably full of foreigners, who seem intimidating to the local people. So I’m not surprised to see them slightly awkward or stiff. Luke, being the show host, would have to spice it up and make it more lively by making his own interpretations of what the local people are saying.
So do we really care if Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is “authentic”? No. But even if it wasn’t, we would want Vietnam to be like Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. Because it’s beautiful.
His show seems ok, not very good but not that bad. I just like the locations and the food he presented. I do agree that his interactions with the old lady was bleh. He should’ve at least let the woman have the first bite; it’s only respectful to do so. But it’s obvious because many people raised in different countries would have the same attitude as him.
I just feel like you’ve dissected the whole issue down to the core which I think is unnecessary. At least he’s trying =)
You know who will be great for this type of video? Natalie Tran, talk about authenticity! ^_^
You should see Vietnamese-produced cooking shows. they are so painful to watch. I’m glad someone out there raised the bar and made it internationally consumable. Another food personality that I (and many other Vietnamese) enjoy is Bobby Chinn. He’s not even Vietnamese! But that guy made Vietnamese food, and opening restaurants in Vietnam a cool thing to do.
So until a local Vietnamese is able to make an authentic Vietnamese food show, Luke Nguyen, or Bobby Chinn (or even Anthony Bourdain) will be our best bet.
To Vietnam Kieu and Vietnamese Living in Vietnam:
I agree. In fact, I love the show and Luke Nguyen entertains me to no end, at leasy much more than other travel-cooking show hosts. That’s not mock enjoyment in the beginning of the article, but very real, if irreverent, admiration of Luke Nguyen and the show.
But there’s a difference between critical and being negative. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying something and still thinking about it critically. If anything, doing so actually enhances my enjoyment of the show. You can watch the show two main ways: inactively then go about my business or critically and think about what this all means for our understanding of Vietnam. The latter makes me consider these complex issues often, if not non-stop, and hopefully it makes readers think about it as well. Presumably, you thought about it enough to draft a response. And that’s what it’s all about (the hokey-pokey).
As for authenticity, I’m with you there as well. The show strives for that authenticity – whether or not we agree there’s such a tangible thing or not. Authenticity should be the question, not the answer. So to still a non-sensical idiom, keep on keeping on brother.
PS. I will mock everything I can get my hands on, so, yeah, Luke Nguyen isn’t being singled out.
To Hai,
Thank you for your response. It is definitely interesting to have this discussion today, as I haven’t thought about this matter until I read your article.
I do hope that we show more supports towards Viet Kieus or Overseas Vietnamese who are trying to reach out to Vietnam. This is why I joined OneVietnam network in the first place. It would have been great if prominent Vietnamese born like Luke Nguyen was part of this network too. But with this article, I’m afraid it would shun him out.
We tend to be over critical with our own kind. Let’s be more forgiving and appreciate what we DO have in common.
Snails, anyone? 😛
Very interesting piece though it does exhibit a curious argumentative irony. On the one hand, you critique Luke Nguyen for his persistent, if unconscious, obectification of the local Vietnamese as ‘props’ for his own narrative of authenticity, yet you in turn engage in an equally persistent act of fetishistic ‘othering’ with your continuous references to Luke’s “charming Aussie accent”. It is a move that effectively inscribes your own ethnocentric (it could *only* be North American) position as hegemonic norm, while rendering Australians as marginal and exotic others, albeit charming little ones. Just saying…
Hi Ben,
I’m glad you caught that!
It’s difficult to find someone who appreciates some good ol’ fashion irony or sarcasm nowadays.
Perhaps I can make it more obvious that it’s rhetorical tongue-in-cheekiness I’m up to rather than being complicit in the same discursive practices. Let me know how you think I can do that better. I thought my tone, expressed interest in the cultural production of “accents,” and the jizzed my pants comment would be sufficient to render the article ironic and self-mocking.
Im loathed to think that people out there are taking my words at face value. By gosh, I hope readers don’t think I jizz my pants or reproduce that same exoticizing assumption. I’m not as mean or oblivious as I sometimes – okay, often – seem.
I see, so your exoticisation is all right because you tell us it is produced it in an archly ironic fashion but, in your analysis, Luke is effectively precluded from any form of redemptive knowingness in his discourse. Kinda hypocritical, no?
Interesting read, but I do believe the article was more like“random complaints about Luke Nguyen and his show” than how authentic Luke Nguyen and/or his show is. You offered a number of examples and instances but none of them really centered on authenticity as much as it centered on his behavior and actions.That,however,doesn’t necessarily negate the authenticity of the show.Let me explain, when you’re questioning the deficit of authenticity of a culturally oriented cooking show,the very first thing you ask is, does this person know how to cook? It’s safe to say that Luke does, otherwise he wouldn’t have a cooking show to begin with. The next question would be, does he know how to cook Vietnamese well enough to merit a Vietnamese cooking show? Again, the answer would be yes, because at the very worse his cooking would be mediocre and at the very best, exceptional.Think about it, no sane expat Vietnamese would have the temerity to cook in front of native Vietnamese people if he/she didn’t know what he/she was doing.You well know that the “props”, I mean people, would be up in arms and complain and yell at him to an inch of his life.Because if anything, Vietnamese people are passionate about their grub.
So the next question would be, how authentic is his Vietnamese cooking? Unfortunately,you didn’t offer any examples that called that in to question, rather you offered random examples ranging from how insensitive he was of eating duck meat in front of the elderly Hmong woman (which was quite callous) to how his audience members would nod and give affirmation as he cooked. None of those examples though questioned his ability to cook authentic Vietnamese. The random examples (some taken out of context) seemed more aimed at making him look like a self indulgent expat .Your authenticity argument would have been better supported if you’d pointed out how he prepared his dishes incorrectly or that he didn’t used authentic ingredients,or how westernized his dishes were.After all, isn’t that what’s really important about a cooking show?
Your questions, funny enough, raises converse questions. Why isn’t Luke’s show authentic? Is it because he’s a Vietnamese Australian? It’s obvious that he knows how to cook Vietnamese food so that can’t be a factor. Are you then implying that because he’s Vietnamese Australian that he’s unable to cook Vietnamese food as well as a native Vietnamese? Isn’t that inverse racism? What if a Vietnamese chef cooked French food? Would people judge the authenticity of the French dish by its content and preparation or by its Vietnamese preparer? What it all boils down to (no pun intended) in a cooking show is simple, have the correct traditional ingredients and prepare the dishes in the correct traditional manner. That’s it. It doesn’t matter who the preparer is as long as the dishes are done correctly, and that is what makes the food authentic in a cooking show.
As for the cultural aspect, it’s understandable how one can question whether it’s appropriate and/or acceptable to have a foreign person(be it nationally, racially, or ethnically) host a specific culturally oriented show.A lot of sensitive issues are involved as a nation’s culture is shaped by its history, traditions, and circumstances.It is this aspect alone that the question of Luke and the show’s authenticity can be debatable. What really is important is if the host (any host) accurately offer facts about the culture and its history and if he/she is sensitive and respectful when dealing with the culture and its people. The failure in the latter is attributed more to the individual’s disposition than anything else. You can have a native Vietnamese host do the same exact thing with the Hmong lady, or have him be surrounded by other native locals where they’re nodding their heads as he cooks, or have him in a boat saying he feels alone while a man rows the boat( and another man holding a camera to his face. By the way, I’m sure the camera man is hurt that you felt for the invisible Vietnamese man and not him also). Would that make the show any less authentic?
It’s true that a native would have an advantage in the knowledge of a respective culture, but isn’t knowledge attained through study and research as well as through experience? If Luke reads off a script and the information was written by native Vietnamese, does that make it less authentic that he said it or not?
I think your article would be more interesting and accurate if it was titled, “Preceptions of Authenticity” because more than anything, it has to do with one’s perception in regards to his cooking show. Maybe that’s something you can explore in your next article.
Hi there Perception,
I like your title! It’s almost precisely what I was going for when I said in the article that “Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is a mediated experience.” Perhaps my title misled you into thinking the article was about (dis)proving Luke Nguyen’s authenticity. That’s something that I have no interest in doing because it over-simplifies the performative nature of authenticity. The questions that you’ve attributed to me, or at least, wished me to answer (how authentic is his cooking, etc) are, I think, impossible questions. I would never answer yes or no to a question about anyone’s “authentic” Vietnameseness, and I hope you can see that the article never seeks to do that. Rather, it tries to do what you want my next article to do: explore the mediated experience of what Vietnamese life (and thus, its authentic value) entails.
So, you’re right. If the article was interested in how authentic Luke Nguyen and/or his show is, you’d be completely justified in your assessment. But as indicated in the concluding questions (what the hell is authenticity anyway?), the article has no interest in making such a claim.
How can anything be “authentic” when the very notion of authenticity is always already in crisis? The examples that you take as random are meant to highlight this flux, not to prove or disprove Nguyen’s authenticity. As I mentioned in the article, it’s this constant teetering on the precipice that makes the show seem like it “straddles the line between homage and exploitation.” It’s in the process of performing his authenticity that he becomes (not is) “authentic.” It’s an act of becoming, not a state of being. Heidegger may be rolling in his grave with my simple reiteration here, but I don’t think it’s any less true.
The act of becoming is the greatest thing about the show. He’s constantly cooking, walking about Vietnam, and learning new things. He constantly reiterates his Vietnameseness. Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t adverse effects – there always are – or that I can’t have fun highlighting those effects.
Anyway, you mentioned a lot more, but I have an article deadline sometime in the near future as well… I do enjoy these responses though; the conversations make my day. If you, or anyone else would like to speak further, please feel free to contact me via email.
Peace. And word to your mother.
Great article and interesting questions raised.
Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam has helped increase tourism into Vietnam by 300%.
Luke’s charity The Little Lantern Foundation is a hospitality school aimed to teach underprivileged kids, hospitality skills, to help them find employment.Luke’s restaurant Red Lantern in Sydney is fully booked months in advance. The restaurant raises awareness to Vietnamese cuisine and culture. The restaurant also has strict sustainability practices – giving back to, and preserving the environment in which we live.Luke’s first book (written with his sister) documents their family’s bittersweet journey escaping Vietnam and assimilating into Australian culture. Secrets of the Red Lantern has won international acclaim and has helped others to understand the plight of refugees and increase tolerance and compassion to other cultures. Secrets of the Red Lantern is now used in school curriculums.Luke’s second book Songs of Sapa pays homage and respect to Vietnam and her beauty.Luke’s third book Indochine is a gentle nod to Vietnam’s history and the French influence.Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is a light entertainment television cooking show. It is not an over contrived and heavily scripted documentary to be scathingly over analysed and deconstructed. Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is true to Luke’s personality. He sees the beauty and positives nature of all things. This is how he has always been. Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is called Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam for a reason. You can’t get anymore authentic than that!My question to you dear author; what is your contribution to society?
Hai you really need to get a life, your analysis of the show and of Luke are insanely negative, unfounded, and disrespectful. Your petty and over self indulgent article is loosely based on your definition of and obsession with authenticity. What Luke is doing is showing the audience all the things he finds beautiful about Vietnam, her food, and her people. That’s it, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is as the title says, it’s a show about the Vietnam that Luke sees, knows, and loves. The people in it are not props, they are the people that are around at the time or people who live in the area and are involved in a key aspect of the dish that he is preparing. Luke doesn’t try and delve into the inner minds of the viewers and manipulate them into believing or seeing something which is not there. You however try to taint the view of anyone who is reading your article, based solely on your personal beliefs. To you they are props, to Luke, they are the poeple of Vietnam.
Luke is an acclaimed chef whose specialty is Vietnamese food. Have you eaten any of the dishes that he has cooked? How do you know that they are not authentic?
Your article has actually made me angry to my core as you are pretty much attacking Luke and the show purely because of silly things that you think are important. I watched the show and I thoroughly enjoy it as do many millions of viewers. I have a very simple solution for you Hai, if you have so many issues with Luke’s presenting, his cooking and of Luke, change the channel and spare us your rant.
You say that Luke is taunting the old lady…… are you kidding? When I read what you wrote I pictured Luke “taunting” the old lady, are you serious? You imply that Luke is holding it in front of her like a carrot and promising her a taste, then snatching it away and shoving it down his throat, I have watched the clip over and over and not once do I see what you see …. open your eyes and get off your high horse.
You deconstruct a show which millions of viewers have watched and love, you strip away everything that is enjoyable and beautiful about it, add your own bitter and resentful ingredients and disguise it as an article worthy of reading.
I agree with Fellow Viet Kieu from down under, you should be supporting your own people Hai, shame on you indeed. Have you forgotten what VTP is actually all about? Let me remind you…. VTP was “designed to shed a fresh perspective on Vietnam and Vietnamese issues” and the One Vietnam Network is a “social network for Vietnamese expatriates to deliberately take action to build our community”. Does your article do either of these? No.
And what’s with “PS. I will mock everything I can get my hands on, so, yeah, Luke Nguyen isn’t being singled out.”? Listen to yourself, seriously. You mock everything you can get your hands on, you’re so very clever aren’t you Hai? Has life dealt you such a bad hand that you feel you have to mock everything to make you feel better? Even if it means mocking someone who is actually doing some good for Vietnam? “One Vietnam?” I don’t think so. Shame on you.
“One Vietnam?” I don’t think so. Shame on you.
Hai you really need to get a life, your analysis of the show and of Luke are insanely negative, unfounded, and disrespectful. Your petty and over self indulgent article is loosely based on your definition of and obsession with authenticity. What Luke is doing is showing the audience all the things he finds beautiful about Vietnam, her food, and her people. That’s it, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is as the title says, it’s a show about the Vietnam that Luke sees, knows, and loves. The people in it are not props, they are the people that are around at the time or people who live in the area and are involved in a key aspect of the dish that he is preparing. Luke doesn’t try and delve into the inner minds of the viewers and manipulate them into believing or seeing something which is not there. You however try to taint the view of anyone who is reading your article, based solely on your personal beliefs. To you they are props, to Luke, they are the poeple of Vietnam.
Luke is an acclaimed chef whose specialty is Vietnamese food. Have you eaten any of the dishes that he has cooked? How do you know that they are not authentic?
Your article has actually made me angry to my core as you are pretty much attacking Luke and the show purely because of silly things that you think are important. I watched the show and I thoroughly enjoy it as do many millions of viewers. I have a very simple solution for you Hai, if you have so many issues with Luke’s presenting, his cooking and of Luke, change the channel and spare us your rant.
You say that Luke is taunting the old lady…… are you kidding? When I read what you wrote I pictured Luke “taunting” the old lady, are you serious? You imply that Luke is holding it in front of her like a carrot and promising her a taste, then snatching it away and shoving it down his throat, I have watched the clip over and over and not once do I see what you see …. open your eyes and get off your high horse.
You deconstruct a show which millions of viewers have watched and love, you strip away everything that is enjoyable and beautiful about it, add your own bitter and resentful ingredients and disguise it as an article worthy of reading.
I agree with Fellow Viet Kieu from down under, you should be supporting your own people Hai, shame on you indeed. Have you forgotten what VTP is actually all about? Let me remind you…. VTP was “designed to shed a fresh perspective on Vietnam and Vietnamese issues” and the One Vietnam Network is a “social network for Vietnamese expatriates to deliberately take action to build our community”. Does your article do either of these? No.
And what’s with “PS. I will mock everything I can get my hands on, so, yeah, Luke Nguyen isn’t being singled out.”? Listen to yourself, seriously. You mock everything you can get your hands on, you’re so very clever aren’t you Hai? Has life dealt you such a bad hand that you feel you have to mock everything to make you feel better? Even if it means mocking someone who is actually doing some good for Vietnam? “One Vietnam?” I don’t think so. Shame on you.
“One Vietnam?” I don’t think so. Shame on you.
Interesting article to say the least.
I understand that there are various discrepancies on the show and perhaps, some of what Luke Nguyen says and does may seem a bit strange. However, I still find him quite entertaining and love the enthusiasm he displays on the show. He obviously loves being Vietnamese and sharing Vietnamese culture to the world.
If anything, I don’t think it is necessary to point out very small flaws of the show and Luke Nguyen. We should pat individuals like Luke Nguyen, who are great examples of Vietnamese who have worked hard and achieved their dreams. There are few Vietnamese in the media, therefore to have an individual like Luke Nguyen is awesome. He certainly creates a path for future Vietnamese generations in the media.
HA ha! You say you are a perpetual student, and that is exactly what you sound like- a university student that has just dissected a topic, with a specific conclusion to prove. Hilarious. You have absolutely no idea! Have you considered that in an attempt to show more of the people and country within a 1/2hr COOKING SHOW, the production needs to show people, food and location combined in one shot, in order to create a multi layered experience for the viewer. If you worked in television, you would of known that.
If you meet with Luke, perhaps you can ask what happened to the food he cooks every episode. Did the old lady get any duck?
Of course she did; after the meat was finished cooking and shooting the recipe close up sequence, the tight shots of ingredients, still shots of the food etc, etc. Take it from somebody that is actually working in the t.v food industry, you’re a moron! And that’s with your PHD in English lit!
HA ha! You say you are a perpetual student, and that is exactly what you sound like- a university student that has just dissected a topic, with a specific conclusion to prove. Hilarious. You have absolutely no idea! Have you considered that in an attempt to show more of the people and country within a 1/2hr COOKING SHOW, the production needs to show people, food and location combined in one shot, in order to create a multi layered experience for the viewer. If you worked in television, you would of known that.
If you meet with Luke, perhaps you can ask what happened to the food he cooks every episode. Did the old lady get any duck?
Of course she did; after the meat was finished cooking and shooting the recipe close up sequence, the tight shots of ingredients, still shots of the food etc, etc. Take it from somebody that is actually working in the t.v food industry, you’re a moron! And that’s with your PHD in English lit!
Luke Nguyen’s show overall is excellent and the author of the op-ed is overly-critical of the small flaws of the show. Yet, those criticisms are not wrong and he is entitled to them. On the other hand, the comments here are over the top, we, the readers are doing the same to the author or worse.