Vietnamese propaganda

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 to find a hotel or guest house, I passed by a Vietnamese restaurant in the area. It was easily recognized since the Vietnamese propaganda were hung up for decorating both outside and inside 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 for decorating the restaurant, instead of paintings of the famous landscapes in Vietnam.

Perhaps propaganda have become a special feature of Vietnam, as I've seen some people in the Thorn Tree travel forum asked where they could buy propaganda. Imagine they would hang up in their room a picture of Vietnam with a star, flag or soldier with machine gun. In Vietnamese we call propaganda as "Tranh cổ động". There are many subjects for the propaganda, for example, celebration 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 helmet when riding motorbike), prevention of drug use and spread of HIV/AIDS etc.

In my opinion, the propaganda 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 in Vietnamese stamps. Sometimes the contests of designing propaganda or stamps are organized and it attracts participation of many painters. My grandfather was one of the contestants and he was once awarded a prize for his design.

Having been to 15 countries, I found that I did see more propaganda in Vietnam and China than 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 propaganda with pictures of the Chinese presidents. Last year there were propaganda of the Olympic games in Guilin when I traveled in this city.

The photos in this blog were taken in some cities of Vietnam like Hanoi, Bắc Hà, Đồng Hới and Huế. You can see the varied expressions of the same event, for example, celebration of the new years 2008 and 2009. There are also different sizes of propaganda depending on the places. Often I ignore the political propaganda and only take photos of propaganda which are related to the festivals or interesting events. I've seen some colorful propaganda for prevention of drug use and spread of HIV/AIDS. However, at that time I didn't know that I would need their photos for a future blog. Now when I need them, they are not available... Well maybe later.

Tips: There are some shops in Hanoi's Old Quarter that sell propaganda to tourists. You can view the samples on their websites, but it's better to see them in reality and check out the price.

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