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Published: October 27th 2009
Propaganda for fire fighting
I saw this poster when I was passing by the Fire Fighting Department in Điện Biên Phủ city, north west Vietnam. The woman wears traditional dress of the Thai ethnic minority group in north west Vietnam.In May 2007, during my transit time from Brunei to Hanoi, I had to stay for a night in Kuala Lumpur. While I was walking down a street in Bukit Bingtang trying to find a hotel or guest house, I passed by a Vietnamese restaurant in the area. It was easily recognizable since the Vietnamese propaganda posters were hung up as decorations both inside and outside the restaurant. I went into the restaurant and asked a boy there if he could speak Vietnamese. He answered me in Vietnamese with southern accent and advised me to ask the hotel next to the restaurant. For the first time I saw a Vietnamese restaurant when traveling abroad and it was interesting to see the owner chose Vietnamese propaganda posters for decorating the restaurant, instead of paintings of the famous landscapes in Vietnam.
Propaganda posters have become a special feature of Vietnam, as I've seen some people in the Thorn Tree travel forum asking where they could buy them. Imagine they would hang up in their room a picture of Vietnam with a star, flag or soldiers with machine guns. In Vietnamese, we call propaganda as "Tranh cổ động". There are many subjects for
Đồng Hới city, central Vietnam
This shot was taken after Tết (the Lunar New Year) in January 2009 in Đồng Hới city, central Vietnam. The words mean "Congratulations to the Country, the Communist Party and Happy New Year!". the propaganda posters, for example, celebrations of the important events, national holidays, new years, elections, family planning (every family should have one or two children), fire fighting and protection of property through fire prevention, traffic safety (safety first and everyone should wear a helmet when riding motorbikes), prevention of drug use and spread of HIV/AIDS etc.
In my opinion, these posters play an important role. Not only they draw public attention to some events or social issues, they also show different ideas and imaginations of the artists. This also can be seen on Vietnamese stamps. Sometimes competitions are organized to find a design for a poster/stamp campaign. These competitions attract participation of many painters. My grandfather was one of the contestants and he was once awarded a prize for his design.
Having been to many countries, I found that I did see more propaganda posters in Vietnam and China than in other countries. It is because I've spent more time in these countries, but I guess another reason is that the communist parties lead the countries. In different cities of China, I often saw posters with pictures of the Chinese presidents. Last year there were posters of the
Country reunification day 30 April
Celebration of the 35th reunification day of Vietnam on 30 April 2010. (Poster in Hanoi) Olympic games in Guilin when I traveled in this city.
The photos in this blog were taken in different cities/towns of Vietnam. You can see various expressions of the same event, for example, celebrations of the new years. There are also different sizes of posters depending on the places. Often I ignore political propaganda and only take photos of posters which are related to the festivals or interesting events.
Tips: There are some shops in Hanoi's Old Quarter that sell propaganda posters to tourists. You can view samples on their websites, but it's better to see them in reality and check out the price.
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Hideyuki Kobayashi
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Tranh cổ động
Thanks for your photos of colourful propaganda bills, which might be one of the best ways to keep same idea in common. Yes, this is a feature in Communist countries. I feel,in China,nothing but being constrained with it because of "written in Chinese Characters" with direct expessions to tell the truth.