Oklahoma By Day, Paris By Night

Written and Photographed by Tan Huynh

I never thought a couple of DVDs could make me feel so at home.

When I was going through my room, I found some old DVDs my parents had bought from a Vietnamese video store. I was filled with curiosity, so, when my parents had played the DVDs, I ended up watching TV with them I would later learn that this show was Paris By Night.

I didn't know the Vietnamese language, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment despite the language barrier. Most of the people performing on Paris By Night were around my parents’ age, acting out skits and singing songs. I saw the joyful look on my parents’ faces every time we watched Paris By Night, and it felt like my parents were introducing me to a whole different world.

As Paris By Night helped strengthen my connection to my parents, it also helped my parents maintain their connection to Vietnam. All the Vietnamese foods and the music, those things that weren’t common in America. But they were common in Paris By Night. As I kept hearing the performers speak Vietnamese and sing in Vietnamese, it was like I was at a family gathering - at home.

Many years ago, Paris By Night had an event in Oklahoma, held in a casino. I remember as my parents and I entered, we went to where the event was being held and I was surprised by the vast amount of Vietnamese people that showed up. My parents and I greeted one of my dad’s friends, who was also attending the event with his wife.

Their enthusiasm reminded me of teenagers at a concert. We sat in our seats, and I was so amazed by the quality of their production. We were watching live performances that I had only seen on TV in the past. The event lasted around four hours, but there was an intermission in the middle. During the intermission, I walked past one of my idols: the host of Paris By Night, Nguyen Ngoc Ngan. I had seen him on television, YouTube, and wallpaper pictures for so many years, so walking beside him was a once-in-a-lifetime moment that I will always cherish in my heart.

As I continued watching the live show, I saw another legendary figure - Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen. Seeing her in person felt so surreal because she is one of the most successful women from Vietnam, graduating from law school in the United States before she became one of the Paris By Night MCs. She has an amazing story of having to learn how to read and write in Vietnamese from her mom when she first became an MC. Hearing her story inspires me to this day as someone who can’t read or write in Vietnamese but is hoping to be able to one day.

As we watched the performers and their performances, I thought to myself, “How can I enjoy Paris By Night so much when I am not fluent in Vietnamese?” gave Vietnamese people a safe place to express themselves without having to worry whether or not their culture fit the social norms of America. After the event was over and we said our goodbyes, I realized that was one of the few times where we got to celebrate being Vietnamese.

Paris By Night gave our community an outlet for our culture to flourish in America, and I’m happy to have been a part of that.

From the way I see it, Paris By Night has provided a “home” for the Vietnamese community in various ways. Through Paris By Night, I heard the same traditional Vietnamese songs my parents had listened to in their childhood, and one day, my future children will be able to listen to those same traditional Vietnamese songs It portrayed Vietnamese families in a light that was different from the stereotypes of the “typical” Asian American family. Seeing uncles and aunts laughing with each other, not taking themselves too seriously, allowed me to see adults - those around my parent’s age - in a different light.

Before seeing these skits, it seemed like I would only hear Asian American parents talk about jobs and academics. In Paris By Night, we got to see what these parents looked like when they were just simply enjoying life.

Paris By Night is the “home” I turn to whenever I want to feel my connection to Vietnam and to my roots I wouldn’t change that for the world