Xuan Lan - The star of Cai Luong "By the bridge of silk weaving", now has to ride a motorbike taxi, sell insurance

After putting aside her artistic career, artist Xuan Lan returned home to open a restaurant to earn a living and then became interested in selling insurance not long after. Up to now, she has spent 23 years living with this profession.

Sticking with selling insurance after leaving payroll

As fans of Cai Luong know, artist Xuan Lan is also one of the famous vocalists and used to be the main digger of many famous Cai Luong troupes in the heyday of the ancient stage.

Artist Cai Luong Xuan Lan's real name is Nguyen Thi Xuan Lan. She was once famous for her role as Princess Bich Van, making a strong impression on the audience in the 80s of the 20th century.

In addition, she is also known for many roles such as Bich Hue in The Girl Huynh Mai, Chang'an in The Great Love Song, Mu Chan Xu in Hero of Musketry, Principal of the United States in Empress Dowager Duong Van Nga...

In particular, she is also known as one of the close brothers in the profession of the legendary Cai Luong - the late artist Thanh Nga . However, she has been away from the reform scene for nearly 30 years.

She said she "stepped back from the velvet curtain" in 1994. However, the reason for her complete retirement from the reform scene is a sad story.

She hummed at the mention of this time. She said she was working as the head of Ben Tre's Orchid reform delegation at the time. However, at that time, the stage also began to lose audiences, the income was no longer the same as before. The family opened a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. HCM, developed to several branches, did a lot of work, so asked her to work with her.

Before that, only in the rainy months when she could not go to the show, she stopped the troupe temporarily, the backstage brothers, supporting actors who wanted to follow her, went to the family shop to work, until the end of the rainy season went to continue performing.

This time, at her family's suggestion, she was also puzzled. She and her colleagues who were touring together were happy, quitting the troupe, leaving everyone to go home to work with her family. However, the economic worries to maintain the delegation are facing many difficulties.

At the same time, a friend told me that he wanted to be a singing troupe but couldn't get a license. So she decided to pass on the singing burden to this friend. She also stayed on for an extra month to "elect" a new artist to replace her. She plans to take back the delegation after arranging the family's affairs.

"But after only a month I got home, this friend took all my belongings and sent them into storage, disbanding the troupe when I didn't know. Considering that I lost my singing troupe, the costumes I made for the actors a lot... The cost of sending the warehouse every month is only gold, a few years later to redeem it also takes a few gold trees, so I have to ... quit," artist Xuan Lan regretfully recalled the sad story of the past.

After artist Xuan Lan returned home to work, the family's restaurant business became stable. The housework was quiet, but the orchid singing was no longer to return to the reform stage, "Princess Bich Van" of the Silk Weaving Bridge Party was charmed with a new job - insurance saleswoman and has been with this job until now.

She said she's been selling insurance for 23 years this year. She came to this job because of her curiosity when she saw the newly built Thuan Kieu Plaza building, many spacious offices, staff working in it dressed very beautifully - something that villagers like her have never experienced. Knowing that there was an insurance company in it, she went with a friend to ask for an interview in the position of typing documents, writing reports and unexpectedly being hired.

At first she just wanted to work in the office, earning a fixed salary, but people didn't agree. "They said, I have a working relationship so it would be more appropriate to work in sales. Be instructed how I did it. I feel that no matter what job I do, any job needs passion and focus, I will do it well. I didn't skip any training or meetings."

The acting profession is not silver, only circumstances make the artist's life destitute

She shared, with more than 20 years of commitment, currently her job and income are stable, so her old age does not face as many economic difficulties as other artists.

There are many artists who used to be stars, have names, even a golden age, with very high incomes, but when they are old, they often have to go through a more destitute life than ordinary people. There are even many comments that the "acting profession is shameless", at the time, life is very rich and happy, but in terms of the aftermath, there will be nothing left in hand.

Artist Xuan Lan rejects this notion, saying that this profession is not silver, but each person is in each scene.

Artist Xuan Lan revealed that in the past, the artist went to sing famous but the income was not as rich as people think. "At this time, there were only artists with huge salaries, and in the old days when they went to famous theaters, it took a whole year to buy a car. Artist Vu Linh is an isolated case, the time of filming the video is a lot of money to be well-off."

She was a little sad when sharing about the artists of her old age who had a difficult life such as artist Trang Thanh Xuan who had to sell lottery tickets, artist My Hanh who went to get a manicure... She said that after a later time, only artists who participated in video shooting could survive the profession. And the theater companies no longer have enough funds to maintain and operate, so they all disband.

Artist Xuan Lan added that when she was singing, she also saw the decline of the Cai Liang stage. Audiences no longer spend money to buy tickets to the theater because of the rise of videotape. Just spend 2000 VND to be able to watch the whole thing, so the audience does not need to go to the theater to buy tickets anymore.

Currently, artist Xuan Lan said she often goes to work by motorbike taxi and technology car. For decades, her husband has been her "personal bodyguard." Everywhere she went, she was driven by her husband, but since contracting COVID-19, his eyes were poor, so she did not let him drive her anymore. "I called people to the car sale because I was afraid my husband would take the car and cause an accident."

She also said that she does not like to disturb her children and grandchildren in the house, so she does not ask anyone to travel to work. She said that everyone has their own job, she wants to go wherever she wants to go by herself, free and comfortable without disturbing anyone.

"Meeting Thanh Nga, I have a decent life"

Also in the conversation, artist Xuan Lan Bui told about her close sister - the late artist Thanh Nga.

"When I first started singing, my family situation was very difficult. My brother was young, my mother was sick. No one in my family has made any money, so how much I earn, I also send it to my relatives and consider it my most joyful."

She said that during the long tour, she did not think of anything for herself, until she met the late artist Thanh Nga and was invited to join the Thanh Minh - Thanh Nga troupe.

The chance for her to work with the late artist Thanh Nga was that during a concert, the late artist asked her why she had a good voice but why it was not known by many people. She confessed that she had no one to support her, so life went on. So artist Thanh Nga said, "Come here with me, I will support you."

When she first returned to the city, she lacked enough. When she was touring in the province she didn't care about clothes, but when she went back to the city, the artist had to wear a long dress, but she didn't have one.

Sorry for her situation, the late artist Thanh Nga invested in her, not only dresses but also many things, reminding her that the artist went out to wear makeup, saw her go sunny with her bare head and also bought her a hat to wear.

She remembers being yelled at by artist Thanh Nga about not wearing makeup on the street. She said that she didn't have a role that time but still went backstage to play so she didn't wear makeup, the late artist Thanh Nga looked at her face for a while and then said softly: "It is too beautiful to see the face."

She said she only worked with the late artist Thanh Nga for 3 years, from 1976-1978. However, the memories attached to the late artist during this time are always precious memories in her singing life.

After the late artist Thanh Nga's death, the videotape of the play By the Silk Weaving Bridge in which she acted alongside the late artist are the rare remaining "artistic assets". Audiences who admire Cai Luong and love the talent of artist Thanh Nga also know her better.

Talking about the current generation of young reform artists, she said that they are very good, because they can handle the performance and choreography quite well. But the unfortunate thing is that you don't have many stages to perform every night, so it is difficult to hone the roles smoothly.

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