#4: All Aboard the Hát Xe Buýt (Singing Bus)

Organised and curated by arts producer Lana Nguyễn and artist Hoang Tran Nguyễn, Hát Xe Buýt is part bus ride and part performance event. It was made to commemorate the loss of Footscray Primary School’s Vietnamese Bilingual Program which occurred in 2020; as well as remind the audience of the power language has in connecting us with community and place. Plus, it's a convenient way to transport people between two art exhibitions that speak to themes of language and place: one in Footscray, the other in Collingwood.

Download a copy of the transcript here:

Credits:

Written, cut and hosted by Lisa DivissiSupervising production, sound design and mixing by Jon TjhiaFact checking by Mell ChunTheme music by Marcus WhaleAdditional music, including original compositions by AnSoPublished by Leah Jing McIntoshExecutive production by Lisa DivissiSpecial thanks to Lana Nguyễn and Hoang Tran Nguyễn, thanks for having me on board!

Shifting Subjects is a Liminal podcast and a proud member of the Broadwave podcast network. It is supported by City of Melbourne Arts Grants and Creative Victoria.

Links and further reading, listening, watching:

Podcasts:

* Underfoot by Jinghua Qian and Liz Crash has to be one of the most underrated podcasts out there. Listening to it for the first time, I thought to myself, why isn’t anyone making a bigger deal out of this?! I’m still thinking it, to be honest. Underfoot is a series of audio tours through the secret history of Footscray. Along the way you’ll meet the suburb’s historic queers, migrants, radicals and artists. It’s thoroughly researched and told with humour and warmth.

* Produced by Hoang Tran Nguyễn and VietSpeak, Growing Up Bilingual in Australia is a podcast that speaks with bilingual parents and children about what it’s like to live in and maintain a bilingual household. The parents are generous with their insights and efforts and the kids are really cute! So far the families have all been Vietnamese, but I hear they’re looking to expand the show’s remit to include all community-relevant languages. If you are a member of a bilingual family or know a bilingual family who are open to being featured, they would love to hear from you!

* Tongue tied and Fluent is a documentary series made for RN’s Earshot by Shiela Ngọc Phạm and Masako Fukui that explores Australia’s relationship with multilingualism. How can we be considered ‘the most successful multicultural society in the world’, whilst also being known as ‘a graveyard for languages’?

Film:

* Takeout Kids is a short documentary series directed by Julie Zhu. Each one follows a young New Zealander growing up in their parent’s restaurant. The moment when Moon got up to sing on the Hát Xe Buýt had me thinking about these films. There’s also a bit of nostalgia there for me; my parents ran a post office, not a restaurant, but spending my days playing in a shopfront and talking to customers was a very familiar sight to see! Plus those years were when I was at my most fluent in Vietnamese, so perhaps that’s also why it came to mind. I could watch them a hundred times over.

Read:

* 5 Questions with Hoang Tran Nguyen on Liminal. I loved this interview and will be following Hoang’s work in perpetuity.

Thanks for reading Shifting Subjects! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.