Vietnamese women are known for their long, straight raven-black hair, height and exotic looks, what with the history of having been colonised by Chinese, Mongols, French, Japanese and Americans. At one time, during more economically impoverished times, they had been through hard times. Vietnamese are not homogenous anyway, with an unwieldy mix of a multi-ethnic populace. This portrait with slightly puckered lips by Bui Xuan Phai refers to a specific person known by the artist euphemistically labelled as “a lady”. Little else is known of her, whether she is a housewife, stage actor or even a plantation worker. Though brought up on conservative Confucian ethics, the Vietnamese woman today is more independent, with greater literacy. The second-highest office in the land, is held by a woman Vice-President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, while centuries earlier, the Trung sisters were known heroic warriors even. Bui Xuan Phai, though one of the best known of pioneer modernists who hugely impacted Vietnamese art, suffers from political persecution during his lifetime, even losing his teaching job because of his involvement in the 1957 Nhan Van movement. When rehabilitated in 1984, he held his first (and only) solo, and in 1996, was posthumously awarded the coveted Ho Chi Minh Prize, together with his buddy Nguyen Tu Nghiem – two of the Four Pillars of Vietnamese Art. He graduated from the Indo-China Fine Arts College in 1946, together with Nghiem. He was involved in the anti-French resistance in Viet Bac and the August 1954 Revolution in Hanoi. Among other things, he is best known for his paintings of the Old Hanoi quarters, dubbed ‘Po Phai’ (Phai Street).