Chinese beliefs and tradition, adopted and adapted into Vietnam, loom largely in the art of Nguyen Tu Nghiem, which were sometimes reduced to sketches. The dragon dance, Mua Rong, a later adaptation, around 1944-1945, is animated during the Tet, the start of the nine-day Vietnamese new year which is similar to the Chinese. The dragon is a powerful mythical creature which is a harbinger of wealth as it controls water, floods and hurricanes. Here perhaps, Mr Dia (Ong Dia), the Vietnamese spirit of good luck, has morphed into a winsome maitreya goddess commandeering the dragon’s movements. Nguyen Tu Nghiem is revered as one of the Great Quartet of Vietnamese Art, the others in his generation being Bui Xuan Phai, Duong Bich Lien and Nguyen Sang. He was in the 15th intake of the Indo-China Fine Arts College between 1941-1946, then under Joseph Inguimberty. Like Phai, he won the highly coveted Ho Chi Minh Prize for art in 1996, after the 1st Prize in the Salon Unique in 1944. In his early years, he was inspired by Nguyen Do Cung and To Ngoc Van. He is remembered for his revolutionary zeal against the French invaders in the early 1950s, and even taught art at the Viet Bac revolution base. He also taught at his alma mater and the Hanoi Industrial Fine Arts University. As the last surviving of the quartet, he exerted greater influence with his art.