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Paris-born Than Trong Vinh came to his parents' homeland last year to search for his Vietnamese soul.
Now he's working to capture the essence of the country with a book and a website.
"My project is an introspective work about my multicultural personality," Vinh said.
"I want to fulfil my Vietnamese side."
Vinh is seeking sponsors for his two-part project.
Stage one of the project is an e-business website that will feature photographs, short movies, funny sketches and Vietnamese language covers of the Western music he grew up with, such as U2 and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Negotiations are already underway for Vinh to record some Vietnamese covers of songs by 1980s British band The Cure.
Stage two of Vinh's "soul search" is a book of photographs of and interviews with Vietnamese people.
He is trying to meet Vietnamese people from all walks of life - rich, poor and middle-class people - who live in Vietnam and overseas
"I want Vietnamese people to explain what their Vietnamese soul is," he said.
The "godfather" of his project is a famous French journalist, Nguyen Vincent, and Vinh is hoping to persuade successful Vietnamese business people to back his project.
Vinh is planning a viral marketing campaign to promote the website andthe book.
Already his personal photography blog vietnamesepicturebookproject.blogspirit.com, the precursor to his planned website, gets more than 5,000 hits a month.
And through social networking site Facebook, Vinh has more than 800 contacts in Vietnam, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark and England.
"The majority of these contacts are young, university-educated people with a large purchasing power," Vinh said.
Vinh's project will allow him to exercise all the skills he learnt studying media relations and e-business at university in France, as well as his experience working in Paris as an advertising copywriter, press officer and marketing consultant.
Vinh's parents left Vietnam in the 1960s to study in Paris.
Vinh's father, An, studied medicine and his mother, Hoa, nursing.
They decided to settle in France and when Vinh was born his parents concentrated on teaching him to speak French to ensure he was granted French citizenship.
"When I was young I always felt Vietnamese," Vinh said.
"I was raised in the Vietnamese tradition, celebrating Tet and other festivals."
However, Vinh (known at school as Erik) and his younger brother Vinh (known as Frederick) grew up unable to speak or understand Vietnamese.
Vinh's father brought his two sons to Vietnam for a month in 1998 to learn more about the culture of their ancestors.
Fascinated by Vietnam, Vinh felt a little frustrated during that first visit.
"I wasn't free to travel because I was with my father and I had to go to the places he decided," Vinh said.
Vinh returned to France and concentrated on his career.
But he was haunted by two desires - the first to be photographer, the second to learn more about his Vietnamese heritage.
Vinh pursued his first dream and last year won a photography contest in France, run by "Photo" magazine and smart, the German car manufacturer.
He was given the key to his prize, a smart car, at "Mondial de l'automobile," France's biggest car show.
"I sold the prize," Vinh said.
"That allowed me to come to Vietnam to search for my Vietnamese soul."
Vinh came to Vietnam last June and spent a month studying Vietnamese at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
The formal lessons were supplemented by talking to locals in Ho Chi Minh City and during a month-long south-to-north tour of the country.
Vinh has already fulfilled one of his ambitions: to be able to talk to - and joke with - his mother in Vietnamese.
His mother is pleased with his newfound language skills, even though she can't help correcting his pronunciation when he calls home to chat.
This article appeared on www.thanhniennews.com
May 13, 2008
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