By JOELLE TESSLER
AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER
Congressional Democrats
challenged executives from
Comcast Corp. and NBC
Universal on Thursday to show
that the cable TV operator's plan
to take control ofthe entertainment
company won't hurt consumers
and rivals.
In back-to-back hearings,
members of House and Senate
subcommittees expressed concern
that the transaction could lead to
such competitive harms as higher
cable TV rates and fewer video
programming choices.
"The issue before us really boils
down to the seven C's," said Rep.
Edward Markey, D-Mass., a senior
member of the House Commerce
subcommittee on communications
and technology. "Will this
combination of communications
colossi curtail competition and
Vietnamese artist breathes life into a dying song
By AMY MtkXI:NI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Ngoc Bay purses her feet together
and glides to the left, then to the
right, guiding her eight-year-old
pupil in the subtle movements
of the centuries-old Vietnamese
opera.
To the meandering tune of a high
pitched oboe and the rhythmic
thumping of a drum, the 68-
year-old opera singer with gray
hair pulled back into a ponytail
demonstrates for the boy in the
Velcro sandals. He tries it, then
his knees buckle, and he trips.
"I can't do it," Quoc Le moans in
Vietnamese. He then slips off his
sandals and tries again. This time,
Bay's hands steady his shoulders
to help him shimmy across the
carpeted floor. He breaks into a
smile.
The beginner's class in the heart
of Southern California's Little
Saigon is a far cry from the theaters
in Vietnam where a youthful Bay
once crooned to the adoration
of her fans. But it is inside this
windowless room where she has
embarked on a mission: revive an
esoteric artform that animated her
but is in danger of dying.
The poised choreography of Hat
Boi (HACK-boyh) has lost favor
in her homeland and failed to
take root among the immigrants
here in the largest Vietnamese
enclave in the United States. Bay
House Democrats challenge Comcast, NBC on
cost consumers?"
Comcast, based in Philadelphia,
is seeking federal approval to
acquire a 51 percent stake in NBC
Universal from General Electric
Co. The Justice Department and
the Federal Communications
Commission are expected to sign
off, but likely with conditions.
Input from Congress could sway
the outcome of those regulatory
reviews.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told
lawmakers that the combination
would produce "a more creative
and innovative company that will
meet consumer demands" and
drive more innovation among
competitors.
NBC Universal CEO Jeff
Zucker added that significant
investment made possible by the
combination would help NBC
Universal compete in a rapidly
evolving entertainment business
that has become a "media free-
hopes to pass on the tradition to
her students or at least give them
a love for an art she learned to
cherish as a girl.
"I hope they can become good
like me, before I pass away," Bay
says, chuckling. "Here, nobody
knows about Hat Boi. They like
Western music."
In Vietnam, Hat Boi actors
recreate battle scenes and love
stories from Vietnamese and
Chinese history in brightly
colored costumes and make-up
using stylized dance moves and
singing. It dates back hundreds
of years and rose to prominence
during the 18th century with
support from the Vietnamese
royal court.
But as modern cinema swept
across the Southeast Asian
country in the early 20th century,
Hat Boi began to fade. In recent
years, the Vietnamese government
has tried to drum up support for
Hat Boi by sponsoring training
programs, but the opera is now
performed only on commission,
ethnomusicologist Phong Nguyen
says.
Teaching Hat Boi is no easy task.
It takes years of practice to master.
Some scholars question whether
it is even possible to learn it in the
United States, given the lack of
cultural and institutional supports
to pass on the tradition.
Others say the United States
is precisely where the future
of Hat Boi lies as Vietnamese-
Americans become increasingly
THE CAPITAL TIMES
for-all."
Comcast, which serves a
quarter of all U.S. households
that pay for TV, already owns
some cable channels, including
E! Entertainment and the Golf
Channel. The deal would give
Comcast control of the NBC and
Spanish-language Telemundo
broadcast networks, popular cable
channels such as CNBC, Bravo
and Oxygen and the Universal
Pictures movie studio.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said
he is worried about the dangers
of allowing the nation's largest
cable and broadband provider to
take control of NBC Universal's
vast media empire.
"When the same company
produces the programs and runs
the pipes that bring us those
programs, we have a reason to
be nervous," said Franken, a
comedian who spent nearly two
decades as a writer and performer
successful and can afford to invest
more time, and cash, in cultural
preservation
"The way the Vietnamese culture
and art can be saved is by the
Vietnamese overseas," says
Michelle Phuong Thao, executive
director of the Viet Art Center
Foundation in Orange County.
"It is going to be us to do it, not
them."
As a teenager, Bay recalls singing
along with her sister and cousin
in nightly performances in her
family's Saigon neighborhood,
raking in a small fortune with help
from a microphone her father had
bought her. She had always loved
music, ever since she tagged
along with her father to see a Hat
Boi troupe perform near her home
as a young girl.
But Bay's aspirations did not
always lie with Hat Boi.
With her melodic voice, she
dreamed of performing in the
modem Vietnamese theater, which
was more in vogue with girls her
age. After a dismal audition for
the popular Cai Luong theater
program at the Conservatory of
Saigon in 1960, Bay says, she sat
dejected, afraid she had missed
her shot at stardom.
Outside the theater, her luck
changed. An instructor caught
sight of her and invited her to
try out for a new, government
subsidized program aimed at
boosting Hat Boi.
Bay immersed herself in the
opera's archaic poetry and music,
Februa 17 2010
for NBC's "Saturday Night
Live."
Satellite TV companies and
other rivals in the video business
have warned that the combined
company could drive up prices for
or even withhold popular
channels. And small independent
programmers fear that Comcast
cable systems could stop carrying
channels that compete with its
own, or relegate rival channels
to premium tiers with fewer
subscribers.
PUblic interest groups have also
raised concerns that Comcast
would begin charging for its
media content online.
Roberts said the proposed
transaction doesn't raise
significant antitrust concerns
because Comcast and NBC
operate in highly competitive
markets with a "lack of overlap."
Several Republicans echoed that
point.
despite ridicule by her friends
in another theater program.
Four years later, she graduated
and became a successful artist
performing across Vietnam.
After her husband died during
the Vietnam War, Bay started
teaching Hat Boi to another crop
of star-struck youth many
who entered the conservatory to
avoid the battlefield and took a
second job translating Vietnamese
texts to English for U.S. army
officials.
She would sometimes perform
Hat Boi for free, thriving from
the thunderous applause of the
audience. They'd throw money
tucked inside paper fans at her
feet, she says.
After the war, the communist
government took hold of the
conservatory. Bay says corrupt
officers tried to demand she
sleep with them if she wanted to
perform and threatened to take
away her teaching job. But she
refused.
In 1992, Bay emigrated to
the United States. She packed
cassette tapes, books and song
sheets, hoping to start a Hat Boi
class in the bustling Vietnamese
community here. But when she
arrived, her heart sank.
"When I came here, I didn't see
Hat Boi," Bay recalls. "They said,
Hat Boi? What is that?"
She eventually became a nurse's
assistant, saved up enough to
retire and brought her daughters
and their families to live with
deal
"We've heard some of the
usual predictions that this is the
end of the media world as we
know it," said Rep. Joe Barton
of Texas, the top Republican on
the House Energy and Commerce
Committee. "Put me down as
skeptical on that."
Comcast has already made some
pledges meant to ease worries
about the deal. Among other
things, the company has vowed
not to move NBC's free, over-the
air network to cable and pledged
to ensure that rival providers can
get access to Comcast-owned
programming at fair rates.
But Herb Kohl, D-Wis.,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary
subcommittee that handles
competition policy and consumer
rights, said those pledges are
merely a starting point and
called on regulators to attach
strong conditions on any merger
approval.
her in a small house in Orange
County. Hat Boi had no place in
her new world of suburban strip
malls, Hollywood movies and
blaring rock music.
Five years ago, she was asked
to give a Hat Boi demonstration
at the University of California,
Los Angeles. The event inspired
professors and advocates to
search for funding to start the
community's first Hat Boi class.
It began last year in a practice
room at the Vietnamese American
Arts & Letters Association.
On Thursday nights, a handful
of rambunctious 4-, 6- and 8-
year olds cluster around a table
sipping juice boxes before lining
up to learn the opera's carefully
choreographed steps. The adult
students then take the floor,
clutching fans draped with red and
yellow tassels. Some remember
their teacher from newspaper
snapshots back in Vietnam.
In late February, Bay's class
will give its first performance.
The true test of the class' success,
however, will be whether the
children learn to appreciate Hat
Boi along with the latest band to
hit the airwaves.
"Somehow, it will integrate
into their lives," says Ysa Le, the
association's executive director.
"Once you learn something ... I
think it will be with you forever."