People’s Artist Nguyen Thi Minh Ly, Born in 1912 in former Hai Hung Province. She was the daughter of Trum Thinh who, together with Nguyen Dinh Nghi and Ca Tam, made a great contribution to the modernization of cheo art in the early twentieth century. Nguyen Thi Minh Ly demonstrated her cheo talents early. By the age of seventeen, she was famous for her roles in a number of cheo plays: Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy (Quan Am Thi Kinh), Luu Binh and Duong Le, and The Magic Water Pot (Lo nuoc than). Before 1945, the Lecos Company distributed recordings of her singing throughout Indochina and France. After 1954, she trained generations of Vietnamese cheo artists.
Minh Ly’s own life story sounds like the script for a tragic play. After a performance she gave in 1931 ended, the audience left the theatre, but Doctoral Laureate Thao didn’t want to leave. He was a high-ranking mandarin of the Hue Court who was on a mission to Ha Noi. The beautiful voice of Xuy Van, a character in the scene Xuy Van Feigns Madness, seemed to echo: “On the way to the Doc Market, I rest under the shadow of a banyan-tree. Suddenly, I meet you, a rice-alcohol vendor. You wear a dark brown blouse. I am attracted to you. But I am wearing a green kerchief. One side reminds me of my wife, and the other of my children.”
Minh Ly’s performance completely conquered Thao’s heart. He begged for her hand in marriage. Her father, Trum Thinh, found that the high-ranking mandarin did not scorn inferiors and that he was deeply in love with his daughter. He agreed. Minh Ly became Thao’s concubine. Thao had to return to Hue while Minh Ly was pregnant. Several months later, Thao’s servant informed Minh Ly that the mandarin’s first wife – a sister of King Khai Dinh – was jealous. The wife intended to dispatch her servants to Hanoi to poison Minh Ly before her delivery. On hearing the news, Minh Ly and her father decided to hide in Thai Blnh Province. When her son was barely one month old, Minh Ly entrusted him to her step-mother’s care and retreated to a religious life in a Buddhist pagoda.
The years passed, one scorching hot day, Pham Hoc Hai, the prefect of Thai Ninh (Thai Binh Province), was resting on a wooden bench when a village chief entered and announced that the communal pagoda was sheltering a prostitute. The prefect rushed at once to the pagoda. When the nun appeared, he was extremely surprised. She was not a stranger as he had thought but the actress Minh Ly, whom he had long admired after watching her cheo performances.
The pagoda’s bonze explained: “You’re Highness, the young Buddhist nun decided to follow a religious life at my pagoda to escape her destructive marriage. She is very young and deeply religious. I adopted her to help her escape her unfortunate fate. However, now the village chief wants to force the beautiful nun to marry him. So, he dispatched his patrol to harass the pagoda and accuse us.” Angry about the chief’s false report, Pham Hoc Hai confiscated the chief’s bronze seal and took the nun back to his office for further questioning. There Minh Ly told him all about her sad life. The prefect was sympathetic, and eventually they married.
When he was ninety, Hai recalled their Jove: “The next morning with Trum Thinh’s agreement. I told my secretary to take Minh Ly back to the pagoda to thank the bonze and ask for his permission for her to return to a secular life. In the afternoon, Minh Ly returned, still in her brown Buddhist garments. Seeing that, I presumed that our marriage wouldn’t occur. When Trum Thinh questioned his daughter, Minh Ly gave him a letter, which he read and then handed to me. The letter said: “I wish you a lucky and happy secular life. You should keep and use your Buddhist garments whenever you enter a Buddhist’s door and you will always be welcomed.” To me, that short letter from the bonze was a great lesson in Buddhist humanity: Be kind-hearted, tolerant, and generous with everyone.”
After the wedding, Minh Ly lived with her father and continued her career as an actress. Sometimes, she went to see her husband, the prefect. Their love lasted for nearly ten years, and they had children. Finally, they parted because Minh Ly was no longer prepared to be the prefect’s second wife. One night, Hai seemed to hear the echoing song of Chau Long, one of the main characters in the play Lau Binh and Duong Le: “Who has ever given up drinking tam alcohol? Who has ever given up smoking opium and ‘sharing his bed?’ It is only me who can give up smoking opium; and even ‘sharing your bed’.” His beautiful concubine once sang like that. Where was she now? The tears brimmed over in Pham Hoc Hai’s eyes.
