I bought into it. I really did.
Worse – I didn’t know I’d bought into it.
Let me tell you how I came to a realization.
Recently, I started putting some of my photos on PBase. This is a site for photographers, not just sharing snaps of the family birthday parties. As I was wandering around some of the other galleries, I found one by Richard Calmes. This gentleman is obviously an excellent photographer. He began his career in 1969 while in Việt Nam. He has some wonderful B&W shots on the site. The man has a great eye.
I wandered further around PBase– and found more shots of Việt Nam. On one photo, taken by another artist, Richard had commented that the shot was great, but then he went on to say that it looked like things hadn’t changed much in Việt Nam in the past thirty five years.
My heart cried. “Oh – you are wrong! Việt Nam has changed greatly and is continuing to change. Please, Mr. Calmes – come back to Việt Nam, bring your cameras and your considerable skills, and take another look. Việt Nam has changed.”
And that’s when I came to the realization that I was guilty of perpetuating the idea that Việt Nam has not changed. I have been posting the cliché pictures – the ones you folks back in North America expect to see. The exotic. The different. The slightly strange.
On this blog, you see pictures of little old women wearing conical hats. Shots of xích lô drivers. Tourist pix of The Citadel. Vietnamese food. Ao dai. There are stories about schools for street kids, riding motorbikes, duck-herders, or hard-working and diligent students.
All of this is good – but it also does not represent all of Việt Nam.
This country is changing rapidly. Very rapidly. This is the second fastest growing economy in the world. It is not a “backwards” country. It is a developing country. Obviously, there are lots of little old ladies wearing conical hats. Equally so, there are much evidence of massive change in Việt Nam.
The expatriate chroniclers of life in Hà Noi and Sài Gòn , such as NoodlePie, Our Man in Hanoi , Antidote to Burnout, Down and Out in Sài Gòn, Xe Maybe, and others write about this rapid change in the two big cities. Huê is neither Hà Nội nor Sài Gòn – it is a third tier city of 300,000 - - yet change is happening here.
Grant me a bit of license here. In the picture, the incense sticks are traditional Việt Nam. The 
satellite dish is the emerging Việt Nam. They are both part of the same country – the same people – the same culture. The Vietnamese are trying to figure out how to blend the old with the new. If history proves to be an accurate indicator of the future, Việt Nam will figure out how to be both old and new in a distinctly Vietnamese way.
All this being said. I am starting a new category with this post – Việt Nam in Transition.
