It is said that Vietnam presently is undergoing a sexual revolution, but sex in Vietnamese literature is lagging hundreds of years behind the rest of the world.

From the left: Writers Le Minh Khue, Vo Thi Hao and Lidia Ravera.

In 1987, the local literary circle was roused by a 40-year-old female poet’s line of verse: “You don’t button my bra for me”. Two decades later, a 20-year-old poet stirred the literary circles with two words in her poem: “them chong” (lusting for a husband).

Two female Vietnamese writers and an Italian writer talked about sex in Vietnamese literature at a workshop in Hanoi last week, on the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8).

Writer Vo Thi Hao said: “There are very old things in the world but they are very new in Vietnam and create unnecessary agitation. Nearly ten years ago, there was a man who died for love. He left the world a treasure of pure nude photos, which were almost burnt. This fact showed that Vietnam moves very slowly behind the world.

“Now we see openness. It is said that that is a revolution of sex. But I don’t think so because the revolution of sex passed a long time ago. Vietnam is several hundred years behind the rest of the world. In writing, women often go to the end. Most of them are disappointed about sex and they want to talk about the lateness of life through literature.”

Writer Le Minh Khue said that sex is one side of life. She admires Ernest Hemingway for his fine writing style about sex. One should not ban writing about sex because writers have to truly reflect life.

In an open country like Italy, literature and sex through the eyes of writer Lidia Ravera is excessive. She said nude women appear all the time on TV channels in Italy as a way to satisfy men. Sexual revolution is good but it becomes mediocre when it is commercialised, she says.

She says it is important how you write, not what you write about. Literature is lifestyle and discovery. Her first work was about sex, too much and excessive sex. That was the voice of a girl who followed the freedom trend. She was 20 years old at that time (1967). That book was translated into many languages. Twenty years later, she still writes about sex.

VietNamNet/TP