On Vietnamese Television, Tradition Meets Satire Every Lunar New Year’s Eve

HANOI, Vietnam — The Kitchen Gods were asked by the emperor’s assistant: “What curves gently?”

The gods wore flowing robes fit for mandarins in a 17th-century royal court. But they were actors in a television studio this past week.

Four potential answers flashed on the screen, in the style of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” One read: “A newly built road.”

Nguyen Ba Tien, a driving instructor, was watching the broadcast in his living room on Wednesday in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. He said the road answer was funny because it alluded to a widespread rumor that the path of a real-life Hanoi road had been altered in order to bypass the homes of government officials.

The show, called “Meeting Each Other at Year’s End,” addresses “hot topics in society,” Mr. Tien said. “It reflects how Vietnamese people think.”

On Wednesday, several Vietnamese watching the show on a narrow lane near Xa Dan Road in Hanoi said they had been looking forward to it all year, in anticipation of what policies and events the Kitchen Gods would decide to skewer.

“It’s criticism, but in a funny way,” said Pham Minh Hieu, a university student who watched with his mother, father, a cousin and a grandfather. He said the show had become part of their New Year’s Eve routine, along with ancestor worship and a viewing of fireworks at midnight.

A neighbor, Mong Thi Chien, said the show was not only about entertainment; she was always interested to know what policies and events it would define as good or bad, and what “hidden questions” it might raise about government accountability, or lack thereof.

Nguyen Ba Tien, the driving instructor, admitted he was not sure whether the show was censored, much less whether it was trying to make a larger point about government policy.

But, he said, “The jokes are funny because they’re true.”

The New York Times