From Bangkok Post
From: Nguyen Qui Duc <DNguyen@kqed.org>
Date: Aug 15, 2006 5:00 PM
Subject: [Vsg] from Bangkok Post -
Bangkok Post
www.bangkokpost.com
Vietnam relives the bad old days
By Kay Johnson, dpa
From: Oscar Salemink <OJHM.Salemink@fsw.vu.nl>
Date: Aug 16, 2006 12:59 AM
Subject: RE: [Vsg] from Bangkok Post -
Last week I saw the exhibition, and I can only confirm Kay Johnson's story in the Bangkok Post. It is a small, simple but moving exhibition, focusing on a few objects and - more importantly - the stories that they bring out for people who lived through that period, and the experiences that they symbolize. The exhibition brings out an unusual crowd, often families spanning more generations but also younger people coming by themselves. The exhibition does not delve into the political and economic causes of the hardship, but focuses on the effects in people's lives, their experiences, their stories. I think that that is a right choice for an ethnological museum.
Having lived through the tail end of the bao cap period (1987-1988) in Hanoi, I could share some stories with my youngest daughter who accompanied me. Stories about the value of a bicycle, about camay soap (not te be confused with Camly soap, as they said in those days), about rice mixed with sand and broad with the meat already inside (flies baked along with the flour). It is also an inspiration for people - friends, families, scholars - to talk about that period and what it meant.
Professor Nguyen Van Huy deserves a lot of praize for curating this wonderful exhibition.