Vu Thanh An, a Convert: What a Miracle!

Du Tu Le

 

Years ago, when acknowledging the contributions of Vu Thanh An’s love songs to the world of music, I wrote:

“The years of the Vietnamese youth, the years of Vu Thanh An’s own youth as well, were the years of the late ’60s. When the war had gradually deprived the young chests of so many dawns brightened with the meaning of life; when bombs and bullets had blocked all alleys and paths of the future; when the young Vietnamese from both parts of the country could not see the color of hope and had not tasted the drink of their sweet first love—the drink full of explosive separation, the destructive mercury drink—then, Vu’s love songs entitled The First Love Song and The Untitled Song came into being.

“The emergence of Vu Thanh An’s music immediately turned out to be a response, a compensation for the profound human inadequacies as well as the abyss of abandonment. Yes, the abyss of straying and deviation of youth. Vu Thanh An’s music, therefore, became a source of consolation, of comfort for the young people who were dragging along their gloomy lives. And life, at that time, was merely an immense desperation as worded in Vu’s songs: ‘please try to love people so you can survive’, or ‘then after a while, human life would also end.’

“Vu Thanh An’s music always opens into the horizons of trivial love and trust, no different than the Jewish people of the old days who always looked towards “the Land of Promise,” till the end of their lives. Vu’s music always illuminates a search for survival, a search for cracks in the ocean full of blood and bones. Besides the shattered praises, or the traceless separations, the flame of trust and love of Vu’s music always flickers, always glitters...”

Twelve years ago, when writing: “the flame of love and trust of Vu Thanh An’s music always flickers, always glitters,” I merely wanted to emphasize the evident human love found in his world of love songs. It was beyond my belief that after months and years in Communist prisons, that flame of love and trust had been reinforced by faith in Christ, to become a splendid torch in the sensitive heart of the talented musician.

And to me, besides the fact that Vu Thanh An had received late in life the Call of God, it was his willingness that counted, the undaunted vigor of a succcessful songwriter who is entering his 50s after experiencing so much of weariness and humiliation through his ordinary life. Vu Thanh An, however, had been able to suppress himself, to efface his glamorous fame, in order to complete his theology program over the course of many years.

Eventually, his dedication was compensated for by God. Becoming a disciple of Christ, Vu has voluntarily offered the rest of his life to the love of Christ.

The official conversion to become a preacher of Christian faith for a new follower named Vu Thanh An (a famous artist in his late fifties), to me, is indeed a greater struggle than any other rigorous struggle that an ordinary man can overcome.

This event, that had never happened before among the artist class, has encouraged me to express my respect and admiration towards him.

I understand now, that there is nothing that God cannot make happen.

Moreover, I also understand that, while being imprisoned in the limitations of weak and sinful flesh and bones, not everyone—even those starting from a very early age—can reach the stage of enlightenment that Vu has successfully done.

Translated into English by Thien Nhat Phuong