The Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi has been hosting an unusual first solo show: The Translator, by Nguyễn Đức Dũng, a man who has spent 28 years teaching English–Vietnamese translation and interpretation at universities — and six of the past years translating books about digital transformation into Vietnamese.
Dũng's idea is that translation shouldn't stop at swapping words. In the exhibition he tries to give meaning, culture and knowledge a physical, visual form, channelling what he calls his perspectives on nature, humanity and the world around us. The show also displays 19 of the books he has translated — mostly English-language works on lifelong learning, new skills, digital supply chains, green finance and technology — a project he undertook to bring global digital know-how to Vietnamese readers and to help them spot both the opportunities and the risks of fast-moving technology.
His route into painting is refreshingly unorthodox. After revisiting drawing skills from his youth, he taught himself through social media, eventually connecting with a dozen international experts. Early on he took beginner online courses in sketching, composition and materials with artists such as Rinske Douna; later, mentors including Joanna Green, Fredy Villamil and Aziz Sulaymanov trained him in abstract art, cubism and expressionism. Translation work, he says, gave him the patience and curiosity; painting gave him a way to express what he sees.
His working method is equally distinctive. He follows what he calls a "30-3" rule: 30 hours of thinking for every three hours of painting. He paints four days a week, usually in the mornings when the day is still quiet, and shifts his teaching to the following week to make room.
Why should a traveller care? Partly because the exhibition is a good excuse to visit the Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum, one of Hanoi's most rewarding galleries, housed in a striking 1930s building and packed with Vietnamese lacquer painting, silk work and modern art. And partly because Dũng himself argues that digital transformation is reshaping how Vietnam presents its culture — making heritage vivid in digital spaces, attracting more visitors, and opening new business and tourism opportunities, provided content creators keep their standards high. His show is a small, personal example of that crossover between technology, language and culture happening in Vietnam right now.
If you're in Hanoi while the exhibition is on, pair a visit with the nearby Temple of Literature and the old quarter's galleries, and check what's showing at the museum — its rotating exhibitions often surface exactly this kind of contemporary Vietnamese voice alongside the historical collection.
