Hiii i love your gifs and they've piqued my interest, if it's not too much trouble could you tell me more about the survival show you've been giffing?
IT IS NEVER too much trouble for me to YAP about this 2-year-long hyperfixation of mine. So first of all, THANK YOU for allowing me the opportunity to yap about this show.
Soooooo, this survival show that I've been giffing is Anh Trai Vượt Ngàn Chông Gai (ATVNCG) - the Vietnamese adaptation of the Chinese music reality (survival) show - Call Me by Fire. It features mostly underrated (older-than-30) male artists from various fields with diverse backgrounds, including music, acting, and sports, collaborating in joint musical performances. The first season aired in 2024 and the second season is currently airing (which is the very recent gifsets you may have seen me posting). There are typically five rounds of performances, these participants will have the chance to pair up and collaborate with different participants in each round. They often perform in groups of 3 or 4 or 5 in earlier rounds but in later performances near the end it'll often be in groups of 8 to 10. They eliminate participants with the least vote from the live audience at the end of each round but the end-goal for a show isn't to create a boy group like other survival shows. They claim it's to find the members for a "talented family", also known as the winning contestants but there is really no difference between winning and not winning in my honest opinion 😅
WHO DO YOU LIKE FROM THE SHOW?
I have A LOT of favorite participants in both seasons of ATVNCG. I don't follow the Chinese version Call Me By Fire too closely but ATVNCG is really uniquely special for me just because of the amount of INCREDIBLY UNDERRATED?????? producers/rapper/singer-songwriters they invite on the show. From this second season, I really like Thơm/JGKiD (a singer/songwriter from Da LAB - a hiphop/rap music group)
plugging my all-time favorite da lab song because the EDM drop is so nostalgic and it reminded me so much of Big Bang's Blue ಥ_ಥ
14 Casper (singer-songwriter/producer and one half of a musical duo). He's known for the poetic lyrics in his heartbreaking ballads but actually enjoys his rapper identity more.
14 Casper is not-so-secretly a fan of Kpop, rap and EDM but because he rose to fame with ballads, he's always been subsiding his personal interests. In his latest group performance, 14 Casper was able to fulfill many of his long-harbored childhood dreams of becoming an all-rounder idol through this 'Beauty and The Beast'-inspired, epic/theatric /musical/cinematic rearrangement of a rock song 'Xa' where he acts, sings, dances, composes and writes new rap lyrics for this new rearrangement.
it's Charles. (singer-songwriter/producer/occassionally MV director and one half of CHICHA22 - a musical duo formed with his wife). Incredibly talented self-learned producer known for his Pop/Rnb Remake Covers but after getting more recognition as one of the composers of 'Hỏa ca' aka ATVNCG Season 1 Theme Song and the producers for many iconic performances from ATVNCG S1, Charles was invited to join as participant in Season 2 (fans joked that the producers wanted free labor).
I myself didn't even remember that I have been listening his covers for years and I had no idea what he looked like 😭😭😭😭
What particularly makes me appreciate the show even more is that ATVNCG gives these super talented 30ish year olds who have been struggling in the industry the opportunity to live their 'idol-like' dreams, especially for those who do more behind-the-scene works like producing: getting to perform on gigantic concert stages, to dance meticulous hard choreographs, to wear dazzling performance outfits, to share the stage with artists they might have never ever crossed paths if not for this show. For example, Charles shared that getting to rearrange and perform this song 'Quá khứ còn lại gì' with his five-member group made him feel like he's in a part of a boy group like Big Bang or TVXQ 😭😭😭😭😭 [oh the scream I let out at the 1:58 timestamp when I watched this performance live on my TV likeeeeeeeeeeee.]
WHAT MUSIC DO THEY PERFORM?
Usually ATVNCG participants are given the task of remaking old songs and the remake is often expected to contain newly written added melodies/lyrics. One of the most impressive ATVNCG Season 1 rearrangements for me is 'Thu Hoài', which was originally a pop ballad serving as a heartbreaking introspection into the suffering of a person and why they keep hurting themselves written by 14 Casper. In this ↓ remake, the participants had given it a power pop rock and give it a new narrative interpretation, reimagining the song into a tribute to fishermen families at sea and about their struggles to return to land 🥺
Most popular and well received performances from ATVNCG tend to be heavily cultural-infused performances like Trống Cơm, Đào Liễu, Mưa Trên Phố Huế.
Occasionally, they would be given a brand new instrumental demo and are expected to write a new song from the chosen instrumental demo. In the first round of ATVNCG season 2, there were two teams who decided to just make a brand new song for their first performance even though it's the first time these guys ever worked together.
Here's a non-exhaustive list of my favorite performances so far from both seasons, somewhat sorted into genres? (with description)
Traditional Vietnamese music reinvented
Trống cơm: a northern vietnamese folk tune extended into a pop/hiphop song with a zither solo break at the end
Mưa trên phố huế: a vietnamese bolero/post-war song about the beautiful central city Huế reinvented as a pop edm festival-like song
💖Gene x Có Không Giữ Mất Đừng Tìm: mashup of two modern songs but given a new verse using vietnamese proverbs
Đào liễu: a chèo (a form of vietnamese opera/musical theatre) song given a contemporary RnB/hiphop flavor
💖Áo Mùa Đông: a war song, often sung in operatic fashion, reimagined as a rock song
Mẹ Yêu Con: a traditional Vietnamese lullaby reimagined as a pop ballad tributing mothers waiting for their sons to return from the war
Emotional Pop Ballad/Pop Rock performances
💖Thu Hoài: originally a pop ballad about a woman's introspection on her past heartbreaks, reimagined into
💖Xa: originally a rock ballad, reimagined into an epic/cinematic version to retell the story of how the beast needs to fight for his own destiny instead of letting fate decides for itself.
💖Dẫu có lỗi lầm: i don't even know how to describe this one, a heavenly experience?
💖Những kẻ mộng mơ: this performance singlehandedly convinced me i can in fact enjoy heartwrecking ballads
Lặng: emotional pop ballad sung/written by Rhymastic - the most ingenious lyrical rapper in viet nam
Quá là trôi: very anime op coded original song
Đường xa ướt mưa: 30+ yo men in uniform doing high school concept can be surprisingly endearing
EDM/Boy Group Pop Excellence
Tình anh bán chiếu: ballroom dance pop with traditional folk element twist
💖Nước hoa: boygroup pop excellence (all the guys are so evenly good you probably won't even tell which one is a director of photography and not profesionally a dancer)
Vợ người ta: no notes just incredible reimagine of a song that was supposed to be about being sad over your ex getting married
💖Let Me Feel Your Love Tonight: their magic mike moment
💖Quá khứ còn lại gì: ballad that most of us Vietnamese know through its usage in a commercial for a condensed milk, now reimagined as kpop boygroup pop excellence
WHERE CAN ONE WATCH ALL THIS?
The show is completely free and available to watch on Youtube BUT THERE IS NO ENGLISH SUBs NOR MANUAL VIETNAMESE SUBS😭 (Youtube auto translation isn't that bad though ಥ_ಥ). Links below
Performance Clips from Season 1
Performance Clips from Season 2
Performances Clips from the S1 concerts
ATVNCG Documentary Movie - Mưa Lửa 🔥
WHAT DIFFERS ATVNCG FROM CHINA's CALL ME BY FIRE?
Again, I don't think I watch enough of the Chinese original show to know but from what I understand, the Vietnamese adaptation was able to hold NINE sold-out concerts with the almost-full participation of all the contestants from said survival show. The unity of the fans of this show is something I hzve never gotten to experience before in all my years of watching survival shows where everyone watching will have their own bias and favorite picks. The organised fan culture that emerged from this show is something I would love to read more about academically despite being a part of said fan culture. I could really feel that this show united the kpop fans, the wibus, the otakus, the fujos 🥹
THE CULTURAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT
The first season in 2024 was massively popular among general audience and highly praised for the seamless blending of Vietnames cultural and musical elements and international staging into its performances. ATVNCG has since become the research topic for many cultural and social studies Vietnamese academics.
Most interviewed fans stated that they discovered ATVNCG through their long-term exposure to Korean or Chinese survival shows and through short videos, memes, and discussion content circulating on Facebook. In a context where Facebook remains the dominant social network in Vietnam (Chi, 2024), the platform became a natural bridge that enabled K-pop fans to approach a domestic entertainment program. Their encounter with ATVNCG thus not only reflects the East Asian popular culture flow, where Vietnamese fans move flexibly across different cultural spaces, but also vividly illustrates the logic of media convergence (Jenkins, 2006b), in which content flows across multiple media platforms and audiences actively participate in navigating that flow. Furthermore, survey findings indicate that respondents highly appreciated artists’ talent (95.5%), Vietnamese cultural artistic elements (93.9%), and production quality (88.1%) as the primary reasons for watching and supporting the program. In interviews, the performance “Nước Hoa” (Perfume) was frequently described as a turning point that helped fans realize Vietnamese artists “possess the full combination of vocals, dance, and stage presence, approaching K-pop standards” (F1). Statements such as “Vietnamese artists are now just as professional as international idols” (F2) and “they deserve much more love and support” (F5) illustrate a shift in how Vietnamese K-pop fans perceive domestic artists, grounded in the artists’ capabilities and efforts rather than nationalist discourse. Additionally, a sense of nostalgia was highlighted by journalist Nghiem Ngoc, who noted that “for many 2nd-3rd generation fans, contemporary K-pop has become overly globalized and has gradually lost the identities they once loved, whereas ATVNCG stages and artist interactions evoke the feelings of earlier boygroup eras such as Super Junior, INFINITE, EXO, and music shows like Inkigayo and Music Bank. (Nguyen, T. T. N., & Butsaban, K. (2025). The Transculturation of K-pop Fans’ Practices: A Case Study of “Call Me by Fire Vietnamese Version”. Procedia of Multidisciplinary Research, 3(12), 51)
[...] Vietnam’s cultural and entertainment sector is still in its formative stages, with audiences eager to support high-quality local productions that align with global standards. Vietnamese viewers may perceive improved production quality not only as entertainment value but also as a symbol of national industry development. This also explains why prior Vietnamese studies have concentrated more on production strategies, seeing them as crucial to shaping and uplifting the domestic entertainment landscape. This aligns with audience interviews from Anh Trai Say Hi, where fans emphasized the importance of “visually stunning performances and emotional authenticity” over formulaic scripts. As one fan noted, “The show’s grandeur and the artists’ raw talent made me feel connected, even if the format felt familiar”. This finding resonates with Trang (2024), who argued that Vietnamese audiences reject overly derivative formats reliant on foreign aesthetics (e.g., K-pop). Instead, they gravitate toward content that balances global appeal with local cultural identity - a trend evident in Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai, which blended traditional Vietnamese music with modern staging. The supported yet weak effect of H5 indicates that scripted narratives alone are insufficient to replace cultural proximity (Straubhaar, 2007), which remains a pivotal factor shaping audience engagement within Vietnam’s media landscape. (Nguyễn, H. L., & Trần, T. B. N. (2026). Factors Influencing Vietnamese’s Fans’ Online Engagement, Celebrity Idolization, and Program Commitment in Music Reality Shows. VNU Journal of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, 2(1), 65-90)
Through the performance Đào Liễu, traditional folk melodies, chèo opera, and ethnic instruments such as the đàn bầu (monochord zither), đàn tranh (Vietnamese zither), and trống cơm (rice drum) - which have been gradually fading into obscurity - are now being revived under the modern musical lens. The work not only contributes to the preservation of traditional musical heritage but also conveys a positive cultural message about the relevance of folklore in the contemporary context. Traditional music, once confined to nostalgic spaces such as village communal houses, chèo stages, or folk festivals, is now recontextualized on modern stages with refined production techniques. This shift creates a new aesthetic framework in which tradition is no longer ― trapped in the past, but naturally coexists with and enriches modern artistic life. Since folk music inherently contains elements of collective memory, its reappearance through modernized forms reactivates these memories within the community, profoundly influencing young generations -who are often disconnected from their cultural roots. Moreover, a defining feature of traditional music in Vietnam is its inseparable link with ritual practices - from chèo singing in funerals, trống cơm drums during festivals, to hò kéo lưới (net-pulling chants) that pray for a bountiful harvest. When these elements are adapted into contemporary arrangements, the rituals are not only preserved, but they also become more accessible to modern audiences. (Nguyễn, D. H., Phạm, H. M., Nguyễn Thị, L. C., Nguyễn Thị, H., Nguyễn, L. C., & Nguyễn Thị, P. Y. (2025). Preservation of cultural identity by Vietnamese youth through modern music in the global era. Thang Long Journal of Science: Van hien and Heritage, 4(1).)
In ATCG, BB Trần was shown to be popular among colleagues and contestants. In episode 2, before BB Trần’s solo and group performances, a short clip of well-wishes from their friends and colleagues is shown. In the clip, some of BB Trần’s mentees addressed them as ‘má’ (mom) – an endearing way to address the female leader of a group, who is protective of the group members. BB Trần earned this ‘mom’ title through their nurturing quality, socially deemed as feminine, and this label became a running inside joke throughout the show. For example, in episode 13 when a brother jokingly said that BB Trần’s title of the Crown Prince was only self-proclaimed rather than being appointed by anyone, Kay stood up for BB: ‘Watch what you’re saying, that’s my mom!’. Kay’s acting like a hot-headed boy when his mom got humiliated caused everyone to laugh and showed how BB Trần was very dear to him. Brother Hà Lê (a 40-year-old married straight man fitting traditional masculinity) saw BB Trần as a warm-hearted and cheerful younger brother. He commented, ‘You [referring to BB Trần] can be different before you enter the programme, but when you’re in here, your difference is cradled and protected by everyone’ (episode 13). Hà Lê’s statement implies the brothers’ supportive and protective attitudes towards BB Trần’s non-conforming gender, indicating the show as a safe space for them. Multiple moments demonstrated BB Trần’s queerness. In episode 5, BB and their team delivered a performance featuring a dramatic scene where several Japanese samurais appeared to hijack the bride from her wedding carriage and bring her back to her lover. As they completed, the host asked, ‘What’s the role each of you is to take?’, BB replied, ‘I’m Xuka’, even though he was dressed as a Japanese samurai and the bride was played by a different dancer. Xuka (Shizuka) is an elementary school student, the only girl of the five iconic characters in the popular Japanese manga Doraemon. By role-playing Xuka, BB hinted at their identity as a girl. In episode 7, when the host asked the teams for a name they were taking for themselves, BB Trần, then wearing a headband shaped like bear ears, spoke on behalf of the team: ‘Our alliance is after all one of the men of the 9x generations (those born in the 1990s)’. As they spoke, however, they appeared embarrassed and chuckled, as if questioning what they just said. This statement was immediately met with the brothers’ laughter, which signalled their amusement at BB’s identification as part of the men’s alliance (hinting at the irony of the statement). As they also smiled in response to the others’ laughter, BB added, ‘It’s time our alliance matured, so we take the name “Mature 9”, to echo the 90s’ (Gammon, T., Phan, A. N. Q., & Le, C. (2026). Popular queerness on Vietnamese prime-time television: gender ambiguity, compliance and compromises. Journal of Gender Studies, 35(4), 967–985.)
TLDR: it's a really fun Vietnamese adaptation of Chinese reality music/survival show Call Me By Fire, even if there isn't english subs, i highly recommend watching the performances because they're soooooooooo goood
