Lý do con cái lưu ban (The reason your kids are held back) - Nguyễn Nghiêm (1978)

ôi... cô đơn

...cô đơn ôi...

Oh loneliness...

Lý do con cái lưu ban!

Vì chưng mấy đĩa nhạc vàng mà ra!

The reason your kids are held back!

Is because those yellow music records are out!

 
nguồn: Văn hóa nghệ thuật #76 tháng 5 1978

"Vàng" in Vietnamese is a positive word. It means both gold / golden and yellow. In the 1950s China applied the terminology "yellow music" to apply to bourgeois music. That would be music expressing anything emotion outside of national pride or hatred of enemies. Vietnam adopted China's usage to police its peoples' musical tastes. The unification of Vietnam in 1975 acquainted most of Vietnam with the love songs of South Vietnam / The Republic of Vietnam. Yes, there were sappy love songs expressing sadness and loneliness. The concept of yellow music diagnoses this as a harmful contagion. Of course, the little boy gets it and admonishes his elder siblings to get it together.