Some news relared to VN - 12/97
Kim Nguyen
* Tourist arrivals in Vietnam up 12.5 pct for year
HANOI, Dec 25 (Reuters, 25/12/97) - An estimated 1.8 million foreign visitors
arrived in Vietnam this year compared with 1.6 million in 1996, a 12.5 percent
increase, the Saigon Times Daily reported on Thursday. The paper, citing a
report issued by the Institute for Tourism Research and Development, also said
2,000 international standard hotel rooms were opened in 1997, taking the total
number across the country to 28,000. But the report said the number of projects
in the tourism sector being built with foreign investment this year fell to 15,
worth $340 million, compared with 30 projects worth $586 million in 1996.
Vietnam has been a strong tourist and business draw since it opened its doors
to the outside world in the late 1980s.
* News Briefs
Though the government of Vietnam promoted December 1, 1997 as the "Internet
Day", it is still working on the terms and provisions for the utilization of
Internet services. Vietnam, via Australia and Singapore gateways, has allowed
users to send and receive e-mails over the Internet in the past three years.
The government estimated that about 10,000 users will be online, however, to
date only a fraction of the figure has been connected to the net.
* The Evolving Art of Today's Vietnam
Washington Post, 25/12/97
Americans might carry a lot of baggage to the exhibit "The Winding River: The
Journey of Contemporary Art in Vietnam," at Meridian International Center.
There could be pain, anger, intrigue, a distant memory, some personal residue
from the war that ended 22 years ago. Even if you feel none of these emotions,
you might carry the common Western assessment that Vietnam and its people are
somehow exotic -- the most "other" that other people can be.
But whatever you bring, this show of 80 works by 45 artists may help you leave
your bags at the door. Instead, you'll walk away with many new pictures in your
head of a country that is fitful, eclectic, evolving and -- after centuries of
outside influences -- very international. There's everything here in this
exhibit, so much so that it sometimes appears a bit crammed, even in the large
rooms of the mansion that serves as Meridian's home. If you're thinking exotic,
if you're thinking insular, then you have to quickly readjust to see everything
from traditional lacquer works to abstract visions One picture strangely
resembles the television cartoon "Cow and Chicken." It is the march of history
and influences that is interesting here first. This is a show entirely made of
paintings, yet painting in the Western sense did not exist in Vietnam until 70
years ago when, during the French occupation of the country, the Ecole de Beaux
Arts d'Indochine was founded. Until that time, the country's culture had
evolved over more than 2,000 years with various regional influences. Lacquer
painting was highly developed but was primarily a decorative art for temples
and other spaces. There were also sculpture and crafts. A 1941 masterpiece of
lacquer painting, "Going to the Pagoda" by Le Quoc Loc, is included in the show.
"I love the lacquer tradition of painting in Vietnam and I want to use modern
art to express it," says Bui Mai Hien, one artist in the show. "I am always
looking for ways to use old tradition to express contemporary art. I am
searching for myself through that work." Now, according to the curators,
painting is the medium almost always chosen by professional artists in the
country, and so it dominates this show. Three generations of artists are
represented, beginning with masters who studied early at the Ecole de Beaux
Arts d'Indochine, which is still in existence under a different name and
Vietnamese auspices. One artist from this period, Nguyen Gia Tri, who died in
1995, is noted as a premier lacquer painter who integrated Japanese and French
styles into his fantastical works. One of his paintings here, "Three Women," is
a red, black, white and gold lacquer rendering of a fairy world, an other-world
of sketchily formed nymphs. Other artists of this period, like To Ngoc Van and
Tran Van Can, both of whom died in 1995, made oil paintings of civil urban
scenes in the style of French impressionists.
According to Nguyen Quan, one of the show's curators, the next generation of
artists -- following the 1945 defeat of the Japanese -- participated in the
organized resistance against their French colonizers and produced works with
themes of patriotism.
This stridency softened during the '50s with artists such as Bui Xuan Phai,
Nguyen Sang and Nguyen Tu Nghiem. These three had also produced painting about
workers, peasants and soldiers during a phase of socialist realism, but they
went on to lead a movement of aesthetic reform. They jettisoned government
conventions they considered dogmatic and restrictive as well as French
impressionist and romantic influences. Instead, they gravitated to Vietnamese
folk art and the modern schools of Paris. The Vietnam War, like the war with
the French, influenced many artists who either fought in the war or recorded
historic events. An example here is "Homecoming" (1976), by Dang Thi Khue,
showing a victory celebration for a soldier returning to his family and
friends. Since then, artists have continued to rebel against conventions in
Western mainstream art and have sought more freedom in their expressions, a
freedom that also leaves behind the colonial and resistance eras. Popular among
artists now in their thirties -- those born during America's involvement in the
war -- is an affection for rural and village life. Traditions and symbols that
hold special cultural significance in Vietnam often stand out in this show.
Tran Quoc Long's "Girl, Buffalo and Moon" (1994) is a whimsical and warm work
that glows with gold, black, pink and oranges. The water buffalo, which is
frequently a subject of Vietnamese artists because of the large role it plays
in village and family life, is elongated. Her hoofs are mere points. Her fat
udder is larger than the moon and looks like a sun. A girl floats over the cow
as if she is levitated, secure in the food and labor the animal provides.
The intricate images in Dao Minh Tri's "Fish Series (1996)," are made with
traditional lacquer but have the texture and glow of mosaic tile. Phan Cam
Thuong's woodblock carvings, printed in Virginia for the first time for this
show, show traditional scenes of village life. Tran Nguyen Hieu's steel
engravings of a coastal city are dark and haunting. Huge drops of rain fall
toward the sea and threatening clouds billw overhead. Yet his work reveals an
affection for the land, for a town's familiar skyline and for nature. The
artists here appear to carry little baggage from the past. The absence of pain,
loss, destruction or bitterness in these images is noted by the curators in the
catalogue's introduction to the show. They said they found "no violence,
bitterness or anger" in the art they collected in Vietnam's towns and cities.
The art here looks forward. And it looks up. Its hands are free.
The Winding River: The Journey of Contemporary Art in Vietnam, at Meridian
International Center, 1630 Crescent Pl. NW, through March 15. Call 202-939-5568
or 202-939-5518. A two-year national tour is scheduled to start in late April.