Copyright © 2012 Pham The Trung. All rights reserved.



* Born in Long An - ( Mekong Delta ) South Vietnam

* Petrus Truong Vinh Ky High School Alumnus

* Trained in Sculpture, Painting and Architecture from the Saigon National University of Arts for 6 years

* Escaped from Vietnam by boat

* Living and working in Canada since 1980

* Member of the Sculptors Society of Canada

AWARDS:

* Award of Merit for the Arts - Gold Medal - City of Toronto - 1997

* Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Award - 1998

* Winner of the Vietnamese Commemorative Monument competition - City of Ottawa - 1995

* Ontario Arts Council Award - 1993

* Ontario Arts For Education Award - 1990

MAJOR EXHIBITIONS: 1990 - 2000

* Canadian Museum of Civilization - Ottawa , Canada

* Royal Ontario Museum

* Art Gallery of Ontario

* Multicultural History Society of Ontario

* Roy Thomson Hall - City of Toronto


* Canadian Red Cross Society - City of Toronto


* Sculptors Society of Canada - City of Toronto

PERMANENT BRONZE MONUMENT :

Refugee Mother and Child - The first Monument in the world dedicated to the Vietnamese Boat People

* Installed on April 30, 1995 for the City of Ottawa, Canada

* Located in the park at the corner of Preston St. & Somerset St. West, Ottawa - Capital of Canada




CIVIC AWARD OF MERIT MEDAL:


This Award of Merit Medal is placed in the capsule to show those who open this capsule at a future date the accolades that have been given to citizens who have made singulary notable contributions to the civic well-being of the community, and in doing so, have advanced the reputation and stature of the city. The medal is in gold, symbolically signifying the ultimate regard that the Council and Citizens of the City of Toronto behold the recipients. The medal was provided by Henry Birks and Sons, Toronto jewelers.

Pham The Trung In the Press






The Globe and Mail  - Friday 19,1995
COMMENTARY - WORLD VIEW

REBUFFING HANOI OVER A STATUE

By JEFF SALLOT
OTTAWA


The federal government seems to have discovered its backbone and learned it can stand upright in dealing with a foreign regime on human rights issues – at least as far as defending the rights of Canadians of Vietnamese origin to erect a statue.

Obsessed by economic matters almost to the exclusion of everything else, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Liberals have been retreating on international human-rights issues since they came to office in 1993. Despite their gutsy talk while in opposition about linking trade and other economic matters to performance on human rights, in office they rarely under and unpleasant word about any regime, however automatic or authoritarian, if there is a chance of doing business and making a few bucks.

It’s a mean, dog-eat-dog world out there and Canada has to make deals wherever possible, Mr. Chretien and Trade Minister Roy MacLaren seem to be saying. Or, as Foreign Affair Minister Andre Ouellet put it recently, for a country such as Canada “to try a Boy Scout on your own…is absolutely counterproductive and does not lead to any successful future.”

But finally, after many of us old Scouts had just about given up hope, we find there is still a flicker of old-fashioned Canadian decency and self-respect burning in a secret corner of official Ottawa.
This discovery results from a diplomatic protest by the government of Vietnam. The Southeast Asian country is struggling to put its loony Communist economics and ideology behind it, rebuild infrastructure after a devastating war and open its markets to international trade and investment

Vietnam’s prospects are good. It could well become another of Asia’s economic miracles in the next five to 10 years.

Certainly the Liberal government thinks so. Prime Minister Chretien made a special trip there with a high-powered trade delegation last year to preside at the opening of a new Canadian Embassy in Hanoi. Trade Minister MacLaren, a former diplomat who served in Vietnam during the war, speaks highly of the prospects for Canadian enterprises willing to deal with the Vietnamese.

However, old habits die hard in that country. And so the Hanoi regime took great exception to the fact that the Vietnamese immigrant community in Canada erected a statue in Ottawa to commemorate the refugees who fled from Vietnam two decades ago.

It’s a stunningly evocative work of art by Toronto sculptor PHAM THE TRUNG. The bronze statue depicts a barefoot woman fleeing some unseen danger with her baby in her arms. The theme, sadly, is universal. Whether it’s in Rwanda or Bosnia in 1990s, or the old French colonies of Indochina 20 years ago, most of the world’s hundreds of millions of refugees in this century have been women and children.
OTTAWA Mayor Jackie Holzman attended the unveiling ceremony last month. Mr. Chretien and Ontario Premier Bob Rae sent congratulatory messages to the Vietnamese – Canadian community in Ottawa.

The Vietnamese Embassy threw a fit. The Hanoi regime takes great exception to the suggestion that there was any good reason for refugees to flee Vietnam for Canada and other countries when the Communist rulers of the North captured the South 20 years ago.

Vietnamese diplomats tried to halt the statue’s unveiling, and were rebuffed by the federal government officials told the Embassy that things don’t work that way in Canada and that the government could not stop its citizens from paying for and erecting statues even if it wanted to, so forget it.

The upshot of the incident is that Secretary of State for Asian Affairs Raymond Chan postponed a trade trip to Vietnam that had been scheduled for this month. Undoubtedly it will be rescheduled.

The Hanoi regime overestimated the influence it felt it could exert on Ottawa, but the mistake was understandable in light of the message the Liberals have been giving other regimes. Mr. Chretien kowtowed in China last year. And Ottawa’s protestations about the Russian army’s slaughter of civilians in Chechnya this past winter were barely audible.

Some of us old Scouts want to believe that the Vietnamese – refugee statue flap marks a turning point, and that we will soon here Liberals talking once again about human rights and trade in the same breath. It’s time for good Liberal Scouts to get out some of the merit badges earned in opposition and wear them proudly once more.


CHUYN THĂM OTTAWA VÀ TƯỢNG ĐÀI “M BNG CON VƯỢT BIN"
Nguyn Khi Thư
Ln đu tiên đến Canada, đúng vào nhng ngày mùa xuân đang khi sc. Vi cái se lnh ca mùa đông còn rt li hòa cùng ánh nng rc r ca mt sáng mùa xuân, to cho chúng tôi s náo nc đ lái xe t Montreal xung th đô Ottawa thăm tượng đài k nim “M Bng Con Vượt Bin," tác phm ca mt điêu khc gia Vit Nam.

Lng lng gia tri là hình tượng mt bà M min Nam vi áo bà ba ướt đm gió sương, bng con trên tay ht hi chy, chy như có c mt đoàn quân hn lon đui sau lưng. S chuyn đng nhp nhàng ca đôi chân rn chc cùng vi sc gió bay tung trên mái tóc và vi đa con đưc bng rt vng vàng trên tay…Tt c, tác gi đã din đt ra đưc hình nh mt bà m can đm, t tin và đy sc sng.

Đc bit nht là gương mt vi ánh mt hong ht nhưng không tht thn, hài hòa cùng b môi như đang din đt tt c s kinh hoàng, và tóc bay t tơi trong gió…đã to cho chúng tôi s xúc đng mãnh lit. Đã có biết bao nhiêu thơ và nhc minh ha v hình nh và tm lòng cao c, đp ngi ca nhng bà M, nhng bà M nhc nhn và đy nước mt trong chiến tranh, mt cuc chiến như không bao gi tàn, đ ri li kh đau, li tt bt, không kđến mng sng mình, chi vi, dt díu con đi tìm t do

Ngày m tôi vác tôi trên vai cùng vi nhng gi, nhng xách, lôi thôi lếch thếch dc theo quc l 13 chy v Sài Gòn, chc tôi cũng bng tui vi đa bé trong tượng đây. Và ri vài năm sau, bng s can đm và đy hy sinh ca m, chúng tôi đã vượt thoát đưc ti bến b t do.

Bây gi, nhng đa tr tui tôi, tui đa bé trong bc tượng khi theo m ra đi cũng đã đu thành công trong mt xã hi mi. Tôi hiu rng, đđưc T Do, m tôi, m ca đa bé và rt nhiu bà m đã phi tr bng mi giá…

Dưới chân tượng đài là nhng vòng hoa mà tôi đoán là ca nhng người đến thăm mang ti. Tiếc rng tôi đã quên không nghĩ ti viêc đt mt bó hoa trước Tượng Đài, bi nó mang ý nghĩa ca lòng tưởng nim ti nhng người đã ra đi nhưng chng bao gi đến, nhng người đã b xác li trên bin đông và muôn phương.

Tuy không có nhng tràng hoa sc màu rc r như bao người mang ti đt trước Tượng Đài, nhưng sâu xa trong tôi là s biết ơn đi vi cng đng Người Vit Canada va điêu khc gia Phm Thế Trung, tác phm ca ông đã gi cho chúng tôi nh li tm gương đy hùng tráng ca nhng người m Vit Nam, nhng hình nh mà nếu không có mt biu tượng nào đ gi li, thì vi nhp sng tt bt và đy lao xao nơi quê người, mi th mi điu ri s b quên lãng.

Khải Thư Nguyễn, Ph.D
University of California, Berkeley
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