The Vietnamese Student Association, or VSA, opened the doors to the auditorium in Witherspoon Student Center at 6:30 p.m. Saturday to welcome attendees of this year’s NC State annual Viet Night: The Art of Passion.
Students, friends and family filtered through the lobby to collect their tickets for the free admission event. Many stopped to purchase a raffle ticket for items such as a jumbo-sized plushie or a rare Van Gogh LEGO set. Merchandise such as shirts featuring cultural designs by the VSA executive team were also bought with enthusiasm.
The night began at 7 p.m. as emcees Anh Pham and Rio Pham warmly greeted the crowd, first in English and then Vietnamese. Students representing the Vietnamese student associations of several neighboring academic institutions like UNC-Charlotte and Virginia Tech heartily led their respective club chants before NC State’s VSA President Ivy Tran, a third-year studying international studies, and Vice President McKenzie Ho, a third-year in the Wilson College of Textiles, led the crowd in a spirited VSA Wolfpack chant.
The titular and featured event of the night, a play titled “The Art of Passion,” was scripted and performed by students part of the VSA. The play follows the dynamic between Liên, a Vietnamese American, and her Vietnamese father as they clash over the career and life choices she wishes to pursue. The cast members performed with gusto, with Hillary Luc, a first-year studying management, leading as Liên and Casey Rhee, a third-year studying environmental engineering, as the character’s father.
The play was interspersed with several performances in between from students part of the VSA, including traditional performances with fans and instruments, an interactive segment with a life-size dragon costume performance by the Crimson Lions and a fashion walk among the lineup.
Anna Nguyen, a VSA member and first-year engineering student, performed as part of Ahn Vang Crew.
“It’s like a V-pop/K-pop dance that we mixed,” Nguyen said. “Street Woman Fighter in Vietnam is where we got our inspiration.”
The dance crew performed to Vietnamese artist Mỹ Mỹ’s song “Breath” to the crowd’s raucous approval.
Maxime Thai, a fourth-year studying engineering and Minh Tri Pham, a fourth-year studying computer science, both looked forward to attending and seeing the Art of Passion play and performances as part of their third year being VSA members.
“We don’t really have that perspective as if we were in Vietnam, but growing up as first gens, there’s still a pretty unique perspective to the … message it is that they’re trying to portray,” Thai said. “For me, it was more about reconnecting with people, because back where I live it was a predominantly white area and I was literally, like [one of the] 2% Asians in my area. So for me, it was just more about connecting with other people of my race.”
“I’m here to support my friends,” Pham said. “They’ve been working hard all year for us.”
Tran wore an Ao Dai, a traditional Vietnamese dress, for the occasion. Tran said they started planning Viet Night in June of 2024 and they typically have it around this time in March every year.
“This year’s play is called The Art of Passion, which follows a young girl who is Vietnamese American who goes through a lot of family struggles because of the cultural standard that she is held to,” Dai. “But of course, she does have a passion for something else, and we just follow throughout the story on how family can help you grow, and then also [how having] the people around you support you can only [bring] you farther.”
Tran highlighted the role of Viet Night in connecting Vietnamese students to not only their culture but to their community.
“Someone who’s having that problem, that they feel like they don’t know where they belong, I 100% will always recommend looking for an organization where people are going through the same thing, because that’s how you contribute to people,” Train said.
