Париж түні: Вьетнамдық мәдениетті сақтайтын музыкалық шоулар сериясы

Series of Vietnamese language musical variety shows

Paris by Night (commonly abbreviated as PBN) is a direct to video series featuring Vietnamese language musical variety shows produced by Thúy Nga Productions. Hosted mainly by Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên, the series includes musical performances by modern pop stars, traditional folk songs, one act plays, and sketch comedy.

Paris By Night was conceived by immigrant Tô Văn Lai in 1983, in Paris, France, to "fill the cultural void" felt by Vietnamese refugees living in France. Shortly afterwards, the show's production company transferred to Orange County, California, which has a larger Vietnamese community.

The show is set up with "melodramatic performances, catchy pop tunes, Vaudeville esque comedy, and elaborate set designs", with a large emphasis of production focusing on expressing Vietnamese culture. In recent years, the rising popularity of K pop and J pop has applied creative pressure to Thúy Nga CEO Marie Tô, who responded by insisting on keeping with the Vietnamese style, commenting "Of course, K pop is very big now but we kind of want to create our own image. The singer[s] we produce, we want to create their image—not imitating K pop or anything." The show has since been noted as not only a form of entertainment, but a "way to connect to a larger identity". Except for several tapings, Paris by Night has been filmed live before an audience. The show has since been filmed in France, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand.

Since the beginning of the show's run, the producers have been releasing videos of the shows on VHS and, more recently, DVD. Since the digital age, however, Paris by Night sales have dropped significantly, and the company has since switched to a video on demand service and subscription services similar to Netflix. Full shows and music clips have been made on the official Thúy Nga YouTube channel, supported with ad revenue. The company has also allowed IP addresses in Vietnam to stream shows for free, countering the country's ban on the show's sales. Production coordinator John Nguyen states “All the copies in Vietnam are bootleg or through illegal downloads." The director of the segment, Lưu Huỳnh, later went on to direct The White Silk Dress in Vietnam, a film with similar themes. In Paris by Night 96, Thúy Nga Productions's Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn wrote a skit about a Vietnamese American gay kid, starring Bang Kieu. This sparked conversations among Vietnamese American parents and their gay children. It helped build more tolerance for the Vietnamese American LGBT community overseas. This shows the company's cultural influence over the Vietnamese American culture, experience and audience. There has also been increasing recent criticism of the production over Americanizing its shows, with traditional Vietnamese culture and aspects no longer being emphasized as before, as well as the production largely losing its original French cabaret influence and roots. In fact, Paris by Night has not been filmed in its namesake city since 2003, Paris by Night 70.