13 years ago, on October 21, 2010, at the closing ceremony of the Vietnam International Film Festival at the National Convention Center, MC - veteran journalist Lai Van Sam stunned public opinion when he "improvised and mistranslated" the words of actor Ngo Ngan To.
The phrase "improvised mistranslation" was the comment of Tuoi Tre newspaper after waiting for a week, but the person involved was still determined to remain silent.
It was not until more than a year later that MC Lai Van Sam confided to fans and the media that he actually did not translate, but completely "made up" (verbatim) some sentences to avoid making the stage "die" for about 10 seconds.
Although there are still many conflicting opinions, MC Lai Van Sam's incident is still understandable because he studied abroad in Russia and is very good at Russian but does not know English. Sam's fabrication was also intended to use a small mistake (fake translation) to save a big mistake (the stage died because the "real" interpreter suddenly disappeared).
Tran Thanh made a serious misstatement in the program "Who is that person?"
But the "incident" of MC Tran Thanh in the program Who is that person recently was in a completely different situation.
First, Tran Thanh’s incident should be accurately called a fabrication, not a mistranslation. Because when explaining the scar on his arm, the guest shared that the doctors used the skin there to create a penis, to help him complete the final stage of his major surgery to change gender from female to male. It has absolutely nothing to do with “opening blood vessels to inject male hormones into the body”.
Second, unlike MC Lai Van Sam who does not know English, MC Tran Thanh always shows that he is fluent in many foreign languages (at least English and Chinese) and often shows this. Even the comment with the content praising a hidden voice by Tran Thanh in the program The Masked Singer Vietnam once caused a storm on social networks because of the "flashy" use of English vocabulary by the male MC.
Third, while MC Lai Van Sam's translation only stopped at making viewers and later guests (possibly) feel upset. Tran Thanh's translation has the potential to cause serious health damage to others. Many experts have warned that injecting male hormones, specifically testosterone, into the bloodstream is contraindicated.
"This is very dangerous because it can guide people to inject hormones in the wrong way. In medicine, testosterone is used a lot, not just for transgender people. Testosterone is like oil, it does not dissolve in water. Injecting it into the blood can cause embolism. If it embolizes a large blood vessel or the lungs, it can cause extremely dangerous complications," said Dr. Nguyen Khoa Binh.
Fourth, Tran Thanh's translation appeared in an edited program, not live. That is, the responsibility here also lies largely with the Producer in the censorship process, not just Tran Thanh's fault.
In short, Tran Thanh's fabrication this time is a big and serious mistake. However, up to now, only the producer has apologized, while Tran Thanh has chosen to remain silent.
With the spread of medical misinformation on television, silence would be wrong.
I read an article about “Who is that person’s producer apologizing”. In it, there was a link to an old article reporting the show’s content before the incident happened. And in this “old article”, all the information - including Tran Thanh’s “fake translation” - remained the same. In other words, there was no evidence that the apology from the producer (without Tran Thanh) was strong enough to correct those who had received the wrong information.
This problem is big, but the solution is extremely simple. Tran Thanh can completely activate a 5-step process as follows:
Apologizing, either alone or together with the producer, is fine. Because the producer was at fault in the censorship process, but the male MC was at fault in fabricating information.
Actively use your influence to ask your fanclub, followers on fanpages, tiktok accounts, youtube accounts... to strongly share correct information.
Through personal relationships and/or official methods, ask newspapers and media channels to correct and revise original articles with mistranslations.
Collaborate with organizations and groups that specialize in working with the LGBTIQ community to help correct information, as well as warn about potential risks if following the content Tran Thanh said.
Apologies to the transgender guest, as well as to the Producer because it's clear that Tran Thanh has caused some trouble for them.
All five of these tasks may seem like a lot, but if you are dedicated, they can be completed in just one morning or afternoon. Of course, this also comes with a prerequisite: Tran Thanh “chooses” the right way to behave, is responsible, and is genuinely concerned about the possible consequences of his wrong statements.
In the first episode of the show Who is that person in 2023, when introducing NPAK - a transgender contestant from female to male - Tran Thanh shared: "He used to be a woman. This hand, people have to open the blood vessels and put hormones and everything in to change gender."
The program also put a subtitle in NPAK's self-introduction: "The doctor opened a vein under my arm to inject hormones into my body."
Many experts say that injecting male hormones, specifically testosterone, into the bloodstream is contraindicated.
On the evening of May 23, the crew of Who Is That Person spoke up to admit their mistake in providing information about NPAK's gender transition process: "Due to an editing error, in episode 1 of the program, the details of the character NPAK talking about the origin of the scar on his arm were not conveyed according to the content shared by the character. We sincerely apologize to NPAK and the audience."
Nguyen Ngoc Long (Media Expert)
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