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Golden Season
By Thanh Chuong
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Luc Nhon Ly
CEO, Sun Life Vietnam
Luc: Sun Life has chosen your painting for the annual report. It’s kind of a big deal. So, today I want to know you just a little more.
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Thanh Chuong
Artist
Thanh: Truth be told, we are sitting at the very place where I was born and raised. My hometown. The land of Bac Ninh.
So, I was born in that land of countryside, in a family where my father is someone who loved and also had his fair share of knowledge about customs and traditions, culture and arts, and the life of country folks.
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Inspiration behind the painting Golden Season
Meanwhile, you know, in making arts like painting, the “personal” touch is what matters. So, looking at my painting, everyone knows it’s a Vietnamese work, it cannot be a Chinese, Japanese, French, or Italian painting. It is Vietnamese. So, that’s the spirit of culture, the traditions that were imbued into the blood of our people, and it shines out into the spirit.
Buffalo is a member of the family. It is a family member. So, as a kid, you raise buffalo and cut grass, growing up, you have labour capacity, you work with buffalo again, plowing, cultivating and harvesting with buffalo. And when you’re old, you can no longer work, you return to buffalo raising. That is the life cycle of a Vietnamese farmer, already closed at the early age, raising buffalo and cutting grass, growing up, you work with buffalo, growing old, you return to buffalo raising.
It is a closed circle. They were deeply carved into our core, and I always express that image as a signature of Vietnam. It’s the embodiment of my style and feelings, and I also... use languages, visuals that are modern so my works can integrate with the world. So the message behind it all aims to showcase the culture of Vietnamese.
The culture of Vietnamese is in our heart... The culture that expresses the souls of Vietnamese, the souls of Vietnamese country people. Yes, that very culture that expresses that very soul and the core of Vietnam is the folk culture of farmers. And because it is folk culture, it’s always simple, rustic, homely, innocent and pure.
Luc: It would be very special because many people will see it. Not just in Vietnam, or in Canada, but even in the US. So maybe you could say something to everyone who’s going to see the Golden Season painting?
Thanh: I hope that everyone on this planet, not just in Vietnam, but throughout the globe, that everyone would get to live in joy, happiness and peace under the sun. May everyone be happy all the time.
Luc: Thank you so much.
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2023 Annual Report
Read our 2023 Annual Report at: www.sunlife.com/AnnualReport
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