Presentation: Missing Legacy - Evidence of Recorded Sound in Pre-1945 Vietnam

Discover how early 20th-century phonograph recordings in Vietnam preserved traditional music and shaped the rise of cải lương theater.

Multi-national record labels came to Vietnam at the start of the 20th century to record local repertoire that would encourage sales of their phonograph equipment. They captured in sound a vast variety and amount of traditional music and played a role in the growing popularity of reformed theater (cải lương)." A Missing Legacy" grew out of a conference exploring early 78 rpm recordings in Asia resulting in the book Phonographic Modernity: The Gramophone Industry and Music Genres in East and Southeast Asia.

Jason Gibbs is the music librarian at the San Francisco Public Library. He holds a PhD in Music Theory and Composition from the University of Pittsburgh and is the author of the book Rock Hà Nội & Rumba Cửu Long (2008, updated 2019). He wrote the entry for Vietnam in the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World and has published articles in Asian Music, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Southeast Asian Research and BBC Tiếng Việt. He is also one of the co-authors of Longing for the Past, the 78 RPM Era in Southeast Asia (2013). He writes about Vietnamese music and popular culture on his Tây Bụi blog.