ZCZC
BFF-40
VIETNAM-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-ART-OFFBEAT
Hair apparent: Hanoi barber offers free Trump, Kim cuts ahead of summit
HANOI, Feb 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Shorn on the sides, thick on top for the
Kim Jong Un look; bright and blonde for the Donald Trump-loving customers: a
creative Hanoi barber is offering free cuts ahead of the leaders’ meeting in
the Vietnamese capital next week.
Barber Le Tuan Duong has been overrun with customers since word got out
about his free dos, a gesture he’s offering out of sheer excitement for the
February 27-28 meeting in Hanoi.
But one style has come out on top.
“Over the past three days, I have made 200 Kim style haircuts, but only
five for Trump,” he told AFP in his cramped Tuan Duong beauty academy in
Hanoi.
He would normally charge a whopping $43 for the Trump dye-job, a steep fee
in a city where most haircuts cost a few dollars.
No matter that Trump’s infamous coif has come under fire, some Hanoians
are delighted with the do.
“I want the Vietnamese to know more about Trump, through my hairstyle. For
me, Trump is an excellent man and that’s why I want this hairstyle,” a
freshly dyed Vuong Bao Nam said.
The barber is not the only artist in Hanoi paying tribute to the leaders.
Painter Tran Lam Binh has been busy churning out technicolour peace
portraits of the men, including one emblazoned with red hearts and the word
“L-O-V-E”.
His colour palette may not be true to life, but Trump’s blonde locks and
Kim’s full cheeks in the 10 or so paintings he has created so far are
unmistakable.
“I really want the two leaders, or just one of them, to come and see my
works here… I dream of giving one of the portraits to them,” Binh told AFP
from a Hanoi cafe where he has been working on the series.
The self-proclaimed Trump obsessive started painting the American
president after the election, and has about 50 portraits of him in his studio
— some that he displayed in the US capital outside the White House in 2016.
“When I paint him, I feel like I understand his inner feelings through his
eyes, his face,” the 36-year-old artist said, standing next to several easels
displaying his technicolour works.
He has even sculpted a nearly two-metre (six-foot) statue of the brash US
leader, and while Binh’s admiration for the reclusive Kim who has overseen
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions has been slower to emerge, he has grown fond
of him.
“I like his humour and his exhibitionist nature,” he said.
The meeting between Trump and Kim is aimed at building on their summit in
Singapore in June, the first ever face-to-face between sitting leaders from
the US and North Korea, which have never formally ended the 1950-53 Korean
War.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1920HRS