Vu Dinh Long

Vũ Đình Long (1896-1960) was an influential playwright who is considered the father of modern Vietnamese spoken theater. He is known best for his 1921 tragicomedy Chén Thuốc Độc (The Cup of Poison).

Biography

Vũ Đình Long was born on December 19, 1896 in the village of Cao Dương in Hà Tây province. As a young man, he studied at a school of medicine and hoped to become a pharmacist. Instead, he found work as a schoolteacher in Hà Đông, on the outskirts of Hanoi. On October 22, 1921, his recently published play Chén Thuốc Độc was selected to be performed in the Hanoi Opera House, an event covered by major newspapers of the day such as Hữu Thanh (The Voice of Friendship) and Nam Phong (The South Wind). In 1925, Vũ Đình Long opened a bookshop. Later, he founded the Tân Dân (New People) Publishing House. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, he wrote editorials and articles for a number of different newspapers and magazines, including Tiểu Thuyết Thứ Bảy (1934-1942), Phổ thông bán nguyệt san (1936-1941), Hữu Ích (1937-1938) and Tao Đàn (1937-1938). He became a member of the Vietnamese Writer's Association in 1957. He died in Hanoi in 1960.

Major Works

• Chén Thuốc Độc (play, 1921)
• Toà Án Lương Tâm (play, 1923)
• Thế Giới Trẻ Em (textbook, 1927)
• Quốc Âm Độc Bản (textbook, 1932)
• Đàn bà mới (play, 1944)

References

• Phan Trọng Thưởng, Những văn đề lịch sử văn học kịch Việt nam (Nửa đầu thế kỷ XX) (Hanoi: Khoa học xã hội, 1996): 61
• Vũ Ngọc Phan, Nhà Văn Hiện Đại: Phê bình văn học. Vol. III. (Saigon: Thăng Long, 1960), 665-7.
• Hà Minh Đức (ed.), Kích nói Việt nam nửa đầu thế kỷ XX (Hanoi: Sân Khấu, 1997): 23-4.