More songs approved for public use

The Vietnamese music authorities announced that 99 songs composed by musicians in pre-75 South Vietnam will now be allowed for public consumption. Included in the list are two songs by famed composer Trinh Cong Son. This decision brings to 850 the number of songs approved by the Performance Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture and Information. Head of the department Le Ngoc Cuong acknowledged that this is only a small fraction of some 30,000 songs composed in south Vietnam before 1975, along with thousands of others composed by overseas Vietnamese. Cuong said that songs with anti-government or “unhealthy” content will not be allowed for publication; also banned from publication are biographies of musicians and song composers of pre-75 South Vietnam, as well as the work of overseas Vietnamese whose political stance is not clear. (Pioneer, March 7, Vietnamese Panorama, Vietnam News Briefs March 8).