Nguyen Chieu Anh

November 2023:

Poet Nguyen Thi Phuong, pen name Chieu Anh, reported to Project88 that she has twice been “invited” by Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) police to answer questions about her active support for political prisoners. At the first session on June 21, 2023, Phuong was asked about her middleman role of receiving money and then forwarding it to the families of prisoners. They also questioned her about a motorcycle she donated to the wife of political prisoner Huynh Truong Ca. Phuong told Project88 the police tried to frame her action as receiving funds sent from abroad as “support for terrorism.”

At the second meeting on October 5, she was once again grilled regarding what the police called “terrorism support funds.” Additionally, they asked about her sharing articles by RFA and former political prisoner Pham Thanh Nghien, who emigrated to the United States earlier this year. The police wanted Chieu Anh to sign a note promising not to repost content that has not been cleared by state censors, but she refused. Phuong was fined 7.5M dong ($300) for unspecified “violations of the cybersecurity law,” but she refused to pay, saying she did not violate any regulations. 

Chieu Anh Nguyen is the pen name of Ms. Nguyễn Chiêu Anh Phượng, a young poet currently living and working in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Her poems appear consistently in Vietnamese literary magazines and websites. She is the author of two collections of poetry: C.A.N. (Writers’ Association Press, 2010) and Gió (forthcoming).

Chieu Anh also established a scholarship foundation called Green Kernel to help poor children. 

In July 2012, she joined several protests against China’s territorial claims to the Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands.

***

In 2019, as part of our series with Vietnamese female activists, we interviewed social activist and poet Chieu Anh Nguyen, who, through different channels, hopes to plant seeds for social change. One of these channels is the foundation the "Green Kernel," which provides support for high-achieving students from poor regions of Vietnam. With education and kindness, she hopes to expand their viewpoints. Watch the full interview here. Chieu Anh also wrote a story about former political prisoner Nguyen Dang Minh Man's background and inspirations for her activism, which you can read here.