The nation's epic Nom novel has been adapted into numerous artistic forms such as literary scenarios, music, painting, stage performances, movies and ballet in Vietnam and other countries. In terms of writing, The Tale of Kieu has been translated into almost all popular languages and made accessible to a large audience in all major cultures around the world. According to René Crayssac, a French researcher and translator, The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen Du is truly a literary masterpiece, comparable to any great works in any other countries during any periods.
Many statesmen also quoted some verses from The Tale of Kieu to express their understanding of Vietnamese culture and used these as a bridge to build friendship with Vietnam.
With his great works, Nguyen Du has been honoured by the world. In 1965, he was honoured as a world cultural celebrity by the World Peace Council, on the anniversary of his 200th birthday. In October 2013, UNESCO General Assembly's 37th session issued a resolution to honor and celebrate Nguyen Du's 250th birth anniversary in 2015.
Charles Benoit’s PhD thesis started from a simple idea that he wanted to create an annotated translation for anybody who wants to study Kieu.
For the introduction, he would like to write about the origin of The Tale of Kieu. Then it quickly became an exhaustive search in libraries throughout Asia for additional materials. After 6 years of visiting Tokyo, Dalian, Beijing, Taipei, in 1981, he finished his 400-page dissertation at Harvard University with the title "The Evolution of the Wang Cuiqiao Tale: From Historical Event in China to Literary Masterpiece in Vietnam". It consists of five chapters tracing how the great narrative poem "The Tale of Kieu" came into being.
