VietNamNet Bridge – Among tricks to create scandals to attract the public and media like leaking nude photos on the internet, splitting from or pretending to love spouses, falling into homosexual relationships, making shocking comments or buying very luxury and expensive things, dressing up scanty costumes is abused by many so-called celebrities.

Singer Huong Tram performing at the Time Lounge in Hanoi on August 25. – Photo: TN

In the rise of online newspapers and explosion of social networks, scandals not only help such people to gain public attention but also help tabloids to increase ratings. As Western culture and fashion trends are increasingly overwhelming the local atmosphere, many local female celebrities are trying to ignore charms and traditional elegant fashion styles of a Vietnamese lady. Instead of making themselves appealing to the public by using elegant fashion styles, showing outstanding talents and a kind heart, many have sought to capture public attention by wearing costumes that reveal sensitive parts of their bodies.

Last week, the 19-year-old local singer Huong Tram , who was the winner of The Voice Vietnam 2012, was censured with many scathing comments from netizens as she dressed herself up in a weird way, revealing her white lingerie in a performance at a bar in Hanoi. Her manager then apologized to fans, knowing that she could face a fine of about VND10 million and a three-month ban of performing in accordance with regulations of the Ministry of Culture , Sports and Tourism . However, the apology could not satisfy her fans as that was not the first time she wore that skimpy dress. The Time Lounge Bar where she performed was also asked to pay a VND2-million fine.

However, a controversy has then emerged on social networks whether that punitive sanction is strong enough to resolve the problem and prevent law-breakers from doing it again. A Facebooker named Nguyen Thanh Thanh Hang , who is a big fan of the singer, twitted on her page that “Huong Tram has a beautiful voice and a good-looking appearance already and she needs not cause this scandal which just is discourtesy in her fans’ hearts.”

No sooner had the scandal cooled down than the singer continued to show off her body in other skimpy costumes in snapshots on Facebook when she was in a same room with a local male singer on their tour abroad a couple of days ago. Facebookers have immediately responded in withering sensation. They have advised the singer to be careful about her images for the public and to keep her pure beauty like she was in the first days of her singing career.

“ I love her voice and her past innocent image. Her beautiful voice makes her sexy but those cloths make her paltry ,” a Facebooker responds the post on the social network.

Previously, a series of local female artists such as Thuy Tien , Ngan Khanh , Thu Minh, Hoang Thuy Linh , Doan Trang , Thai Ha, Angela Phuong Trinh or Duong Yen Ngoc gave ways to notorious scandals that harmed the image of the local art scene as well as their own images in the public. After such incidents, they often held press conferences to say sorry or make apologies on social networks, saying those were accidents and just a few of them had been fined by local authorities.

According to an updated decree on administrative punishment in culture in 2013, wearing clothing deemed inappropriate while staging performances and offensive to Vietnam’s traditions and customs carries fines from VND5 million to VND10 million and a ban of 3 to 6 months. Despite increasing numbers of violations, authorities have only taken action after strong public outcries, and in many instances, some said the action by authorities has been slow and the punishment often too light-handed.

Moreover, among cases, many artists just pay the fine and still keep performing. Therefore, the accidents seem ready to repeat again and again when artists are willing to pay a fine to burn stages by using skimpy costumes and sensual performances that can spread their name farther.

SGT/VNN