Châu [Trung] Sơn - Central (Miền Trung) Trip Reflection

The trip to the central opened up a whole new window Vietnam for me as well as another mirror to understanding closer, yet further the genealogy that is associated with how I ethnically, culturally, and nationally identify myself. While I was overhearing conversations with other EAP’ers whose families hometown is in the south, I related to a lot of their sentiments on how much more they can connect to this region—the people, the food, the way the Vietnamese language is spoken, the mannerisms, etiquette, and so on—unlike their experiences in Hanoi. I found myself aligning with what was discussed.

There, I felt more comfortable and confident speaking Vietnamese. I noticed how much I started to sound like my mother and father when speaking to the locals. I could finally feel that natural vibration in my throat as I pronounce words without being so conscious of imitating the northern accent. It was then that I decided to not forge the northern accent in my articulation. Instead of displacing my family’s tongue, I should try to continually improve it no matter what northerners may think. My family is from the south; Long Xuyen; in a small town called Thot Not. I should speak how people in Thot Not speak.

But ironically, as I started to become more regionally and identity conscious, I started to further question of what constitutes me and to what extent do I romanticize whatever is “ethnic” about me from the beginning? While I am indeed learning if not relearning who I am, or who and what my family is, I am somehow caught in between the rifts of time and space. I suppose after being exposed and interacting with local youth in Hanoi and experiencing the central trip as a tourist opened my eyes to a reality of change. For example, when I hear the word “Vietnamese culture," instantly an image of my family is evoked in mind. I am starting to understanding that Vietnamese people in Vietnam indeed is not my family per say in part because of how generations progress and change. Culture is fluid. Identity is fluid. Just as my family and I are fluid. However, I do have a tendency to preserve what I think my family is in a glass case in my cognitive museum like how I preserve my belongings in my own room.

While I acknowledge my position as an essentially a tourist with a Vietnamese or Asian guise, I constantly reminded myself that Vietnam is not my playground; that I am here to learn first and foremost. Whatever is entailed in the learning is ultimately up to how I choose use my time here.

Viet Kieu. Tourist. Foreigner. I am an American, but my roots are in Vietnam though my umbilical cord is not. Home seems far away, yet I am here. I am here. Then I am there. A few more months left. How will I feel?

Pointing Out Poverty

While I was trying to search for food places at 1 AM on a Saturday night, I was invited by the gatekeepers of D11 to eat a midnight meal: instant noodles. While I had these questions in mind, they were ones to first bring up the issue of poverty and what is entailed when a person is poor in the city versus rural. As we were talking about transportation in a thành phố, one person brought up how it's incredibly expensive to buy a car in Vietnam in comparison to the US. Say a car costs $20,000 in the US, the same car would be $40,000 or more in Vietnam. Same goes with Iphones; it may cost $500 in the US, but in Vietnam it would be $1,000 or more. Then they talked about class and social inequities in Vietnam.

"In Vietnam, you either have very rich people or very poor people, there is no middle"

When this was said, the word "development," and words relating to it: globalization, neoliberalism, capitalism, free trade, free market, and so on kept on resounding in my mind. Is this a side effect to what we call progress or đổi mới?

Moreover, many of the gatekeepers told me their home is in more of the country side or less populous city areas.. thành thị. It makes me think again how the flows of capital to the city parallels the migration to the city for jobs as large corporate enterprises take over farmers' lands. Truly, cities all have a kind of parable that comes with it in order for it to legitimate itself. This legitimacy can come through a kind of romanticization as so many movies take place in the city. We did not talk about poverty so much in different areas, but we did touch upon the polarization between rural and urban. One gatekeeper mentioned how poor people in the rural areas are much poorer than the poor in the city though many poor in the city are those who came from the rural areas from the start.

After the weekend, in the beginning of the week, I started working at Bò Sữa or Boo Skateboards in Old Quarter -- www.bosua.vn. The customers we get range from foreign tourists to incredibly rich, and điệu rich people. You can tell they are incredibly rich because most, if not all of them drive Vespas and have tons of make-up on and perfume if they are girls. We rarely get "ordinary"--người bình thường-- people though we get local Vietnamese youth at times. I just thought my experience thus far working here is relevant to the discussion of poverty and wealth. It is also amazing to see this company or công ty be operated by people all under 30, especially when the owner is a little older than 30. Makes me wonder about the future of Vietnam as these Vietnamese entrepreneurs are so avant-garde or "progressive" in that regard. Of course, it all takes place in the city.

"Everything is fair when you're living in the city" - Funkadelic

Week 3 - Working to Live, Living to Work

This week team cucumber was able to interview a manager for a refrigerator company. This interview was also our first interview so most if not all of us were trying to get used to carrying out specialized roles during the interview. We were able to interview our interviewee at S-Club over dinner though only a few of us were eating. The manager is young and only 2 years out of college. In many degrees, this interview helped me think more about my own future after undergrad which is only a mere few months away.

Before we conducted the interview with him, team cucumber had a meeting to discuss the rationale for this project to get all the members on a common ground and direction. We read in our notes that the purpose of this project is to inquire on the multi-dimensionality of life in Ha Noi as work is a significant part of human life here. When I read the Gerard's proposed purpose I thought to myself how work is essentially not only a very large part of human life in Hanoi specifically, but human life in general as much as Western thought seeks to separate spheres of life in motion into categories (ie: work life, public life, private life, etc.)

From what I've observed from the village-like settlements in Ha Noi, home, work, family, friends, and customers are often not separated from one other spatially and socially. This contention of what constitutes human life, especially "modern human life" always brings me back to the question of whether life "here" which is perhaps "less modern" better (or will bring you more happiness) "there" in the US. The US may have "efficiency" and more advanced technology, but how happy are people in the US compared to people in Vietnam? Is what you call "development" actually "development"; if so, for who? and what is the meaning behind moving forward? Who or what dictates spatial and temporal direction in the first place besides rationality that is induced by science or the constant human struggle to discover truth, to always outdo what the human mind and body is bounded by-- and that is itself.

To my surprise, our interviewee loved his job because he expressed that his forte is management considering that he studied Tourism and Management," a major of which is popular among many HANU students. Although it may be stressful at times, he emphasized his philosophy on "human improvement" which perhaps implies a progressive-oriented way of thinking. He is always trying to improve himself and help improve others around him; those others are people who he manages. He states that his work is contingent upon the clock. He works 12 hour days and he understands that within the 24 hours of the day he does not necessarily get much "time to himself" besides sleep. For lunches, he is restricted to a time slot and time limit.

This corporate-factory ethos reminds me of when I worked at McDonald's and Macy*s. You time in, and when you're done working, you time out on a machine. My pay was precisely calculated on this machine. Say if I were to time out 20 min early, I would get deducted the pay for 20 minutes. Humans and machines work along and with each other.

After the interview was over, I was enlightened and intrigued by the interviewee's knowledge and passion for his work in a corporate sphere. I knew that as we gradually progress in our project and conduct more interviews, my perception and understanding of Ha No will continue to open up.