Spatial Mapping: Luong Dinh Cua and Hoang Tich Tri

Shout outs to Team Cucumber!**

While trying to map this particular space in Ha Noi like a cartographer, I could not help but to reflect on the space from which I myself come: suburban central San Jose and urban Berkeley campus area. I began somewhat comparing and contrasting what life could be like living here in Ha Noi as opposed to there, back home in San Jose or Berkeley. This project helped me think more about the significance of different human living spaces throughout history. For instance, the images of migration from rural to urban then to suburban kept resonating in my mind-- and I wonder.. is that what you call human geographical progress? How does one determine the "direction" of particular spaces though each space indeed has their particular function or purpose (ie: rural as a space of agriculture, urban as a space of commerce, and suburban as a space of consumption). As a result, I became very critical on my background of an American growing up in San Jose suburbia with wide, empty streets; cars more visible than actual human bodies; mass-produced homes echoing sameness and the mundane. *silence* Of course where I come from is who I am. Who are these people here on this street.. and how/where do they live?

The street my group mapped can be categorized in between a village and urban landscape. If you were to theoretically situate this space in time, you could perhaps interpret it as "backwards" compared to American metropolitan urban or suburban landscapes. While many would come to such a conclusion based on European/Western rationalization of history and capitalist material developments, I on the contrary try to remind myself that this space like any other space is where human beings live and interact with one another. I coming from suburban San Jose can say that people here talk and interact with each other more as almost everything you need (goods and services) are in walkable distance. I can imagine how people here who do business and are residents here (many people in fact live where they work) know and cooperate with each other. Back at home, I don't even know my own neighbors in my neighborhood. Instead of seeing faces of people, I see the head and tail lights of cars. There is definitely a kind of alienation in contrast to here where it is much more intimate. Literally, you see people cook right in front of your face. Not only do customers crowd the stores, but the families: sons, daughters, moms, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers, and so on do as well. The business often times is the extension of the home.

I would not mind living here because it is indeed much more of a "community" in comparison to where I come. It may not have sidewalks or such excessively wide streets, or be considered "modern" from the temporal and spatial standards of many. It indeed has humanity; that is, the presence of actual human contact and family ethos from my perspective. I may have a romanticized view on this space, but I still stand strongly in opposition to those who denigrate or are condescending towards people who maynot live like how "we" Americans live. Check your own, especially where you're from. Foo!