Vietnam 2013: December 2013

Sunday, 22 December 2013

December in Hanoi

Hanoi has dropped to temperatures of about 12 degrees centigrade. It is cold and bright and beautiful. The days are slightly shorter and everyone is wrapped up in down coats and long jackets. Security guards wear soviet style hats and smoke their tobacco pipes to keep warm. It is a colorful time of year, and interesting because the power of western capitalism is such that Christmas has been fully embraced in a commercial sense.

Today a very important feature of life for many of the young and up-and-coming artists and educators in Hanoi has also been closed for development. It has been known as Zone 9 and is essentially a dis-used warehouse complex that has been home to a vibrant artistic commumity for the past year or so. It closed today despite being a valuable hub for the arts. Sadly, regulatory bodies do not value the existence of such a place at the current time and the bank-owned land is earmarked for development (at least the type of development that is in line with a frantic race towards so-called modernity that is perceived as progress by the wealthy elite). It is an interesting time of change where new housing and shopping malls are opening on an almost weekly basis: designed according to a pastiche of American lifetyle descriptors. What is lacking, is both a population that can afford the products in these malls and the 'have a nice day' customer service that goes hand in hand with American-style consumerism.

The street-food stalls that famously lure millions of visitors to Vietnam every year from all over the world are facing increasing competition from fast-food chains (available only to the wealthy- a burger and fries is equal to the average daily salary) and trditional street food is cleared away by zealous o-fi-sh-ul types 'keeping the place clean'.

There is so much desire for progress and so few examples of it: the eagerness and the passion of our students remains inspiring.