* TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN - BOB DYLAN
by John C. Schafer

   Nicknamed "Vietnam’s Bob Dylan" by Joan Baez, Trịnh Công Sơn (1939 – 2001) was a famous musician, songwriter, painter and poet. He, along with Phạm Duy and Văn Cao, is an important figure in modern Vietnamese music. He wrote more than 600 songs; if many of them are love songs, others are anti-war songs written during and about the Vietnam War. Some of these were censored by the southern Republic of Vietnam and later by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

   The 2012 book TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN - BOB DYLAN - NHU TRĂNG VÀ NGUYỆT? (TRINH CONG SON - BOB DYLAN - THE MOON AND THE MOON?) comes from a research essay by John Schafer, professor of comparative literature at Humboldt University, California. It was translated by Cao Thị Như Quỳnh, introduced by Cao Huy Thuần and published in Vietnam by Tre Publishing House, Ho Chi Minh City.
   It was reprinted in 2019 with the new title TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN VÀ BOB DYLAN - MỘT ĐỐI CHIẾU VỀ TÔN GIÁO, CHIẾN TRANH VÀ TÌNH YÊU (TRINH CONG SON AND BOB DYLAN - A COMPARISON OF RELIGION, WAR AND LOVE) - IS TRINH CONG SON VIETNAM'S BOB DYLAN?, and published by Da Nang Publishing House.
   It offers a new perspective, breaking the almost default understanding, asserting that the comparison 'Trinh Cong Son is Vietnam's Bob Dylan' is incorrect.

   An augmented English version has been published in 2023 in the USA.
  Thank you to Jürgen Wasser for the image and information.

TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN - BOB DYLAN - NHU TRĂNG VÀ NGUYỆT? preface by Cao Huy Thuản, Publisher Nhả Xuảt Bàn Trè 2012, paperback, 262 pages. ISBN 978-604-1-01553-1

TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN VÀ BOB DYLAN - MỘT ĐỐI CHIẾU VỀ TÔN GIÁO, CHIẾN TRANH VÀ TÌNH YÊU, Da Nang Publishing House, 2019, softcover, 260 pages