Mamma Mia Meets Vietnam

Spontaneous song-and-dance numbers. A sunny, seaside resort locale. Boy meets girl. On the surface, it certainly looks like Mamma Mia! (which would make sense in ABBA-obsessed Vietnam).

If this is your first Tet in Vietnam, you might be surprised to find that cinemas are beginning to screen a bevy of homegrown movies. One of the film’s released this weekend is–to our knowledge–the first film musical made in Vietnam: Nhung Nu Hon Ruc Ro (Glamorous Kisses). Contributing Editor Thomas Maresca first teased it in the September cover story, “Vietnamese Film Gets Focused,” and we recently found the trailer while compiling the Box Office section for the February issue of AsiaLIFE.

Directed by Nguyen Quang Dung, whose last two movies both broke the country’s box office records, the film follows the exploits of a non-traditional hotel heiress who decides to put on a music show to save her family’s Nha Trang resort from bankruptcy. It took a bit of digging to find that information, which is not to say we didn’t enjoy the following English translations of the plot summaries on cinema websites:

Lam is a rich lady but she is a perverse and haughty person. Beside, she was inherited beauty resort in Nha Trang by her family – Galaxy Cinema

Lam is a naughty dreaming girl who has a big heritage from her parents. She always dreams of being a singer and because of luxurious lifestyle, she faces off bankrupt problem. To save her situation, she helplessly plans a musical liveshow – Megastar

Contributed by Tom DiChristopher

Melodramas Play Apocalypse Now

We got an interesting notification in our inboxes from an up-and-coming U.K. band called Melodramas. Matt Woolway from the band tells us they’ll be playing Apocalypse Now on February 4. The show falls on the cusp of Melodramas’ reign as CMJ magazine’s Band of the Week. Melodramas released their debut EP, Epone, last year before heading out in October to play Kuwait and Australia and heading back to support The New York Dolls at their show at Talking Heads in Southampton. They’ll be headlining the gig in HCM City, supported by local rock acts Unlimited and Microwave. The show kicks off at 8pm.

You can check out Melodramas before they hit Saigon on their MySpace page.

The event is being organised by Tiger Beer’s cross-cultural creative platform, Tiger Translate. The initiative highlights Asia’s brightest creatives and facilitates collaboration with Western partners through a series of events, exhibitions and publications. Tiger Translate hosted My Chemical Romance in HCM City back in January 2008.

dOSe and AsiaLIFE present DJ jojoflores

The crew behind dOSe have been throwing some of HCM City’s biggest soirees for over two years, but they’re especially excited for this one: world-renowned house DJ jojoflores will be headlining their latest party, at the Cage (3A Ton Duc Thang) on February 6.

The Montreal native is known to house-heads as the “mixtape king” thanks to his “Think” mix series, and has been voted Best International House DJ four years running by NYC’s Undaground Archives. The globetrotting DJ has residencies at nightclubs around the world, including Cielo in NYC, and has thrown his “Therapy” parties in cities from Capetown to San Francisco.

Admission is 100,000 VND before 10pm, and 200,000 VND afterwards.  Look out for free CDs and other giveaways, as well as an after party TBA. The dOSe crew, DJ’s Slide, Edge and B’all, support. For more information, email doseofsymphony@gmail.com and check out www.jojoflores.com.

Indie Dance Returns in a Blaze of Irony!

Last year, two DJs by the names of Superkid and White Pigeon began spinning a curious blend of indie rock, discopunk, soul, 80s new wave, 60s girl rock, international pop and whatever the hell else struck them as dance-able at Ho Chi Minh City’s monthly Everyone’s a DJ party. After a few months off, they’re back in the booth to preside over the dance party on January 30 at The Factory (102 Mac Thi Buoi) from 10pm til late.

From their humble origins at Cyclo Bar, they gathered a following and began playing The Cage, which became notorious for giant, sparkly prop letters that spelled out D-A-N-C-E and left you picking glitter off of your face for days on end. And then there was the spontaneous choreography.

Full Disclosure: DJ White Pigeon is one of AsiaLIFE‘s bearded editors, but we’re not telling which one. See you at the show.

Notes from the Ed Office: Creepy Query for Ngo Thanh Van

Anyone who runs a blog knows you have to regularly check what keywords people are using to find their way to your blog. We looked at our blog stats this morning and found that someone had arrived at our site by entering the phrase “every picture of ngo thanh van taken.” Ngo Thanh Van is the co-star of The Clash, and sure enough, we’re the number three listed result on Google for this slightly creepy query. Not surprising, as we’re probably one of the only publications that writes about Vietnamese film in English regularly. However, our delight that people are finding the blog was somewhat overshadowed by the fear that we may be abetting a deranged fan currently in the process of building his stalker wall. Here’s hoping it’s just a very zealous and harmless teenage boy who simply has yet to refine his boolean skills.

Contributed by Tom DiChristopher

Surfing in Vietnam

In December’s AsiaLIFE (issue 21), we printed an article by Clint Lambert on the resurgence of surfing in Vietnam in Hoi An and on the stretch of the Central Coast in Danang nicknamed “China Beach” by American G.I.s during the war. The article mostly focused on the efforts of Aussie expat Dave Spencer and the newly formed Danang Surf Club to jump start the surf scene, but also touched on the Vietnam Veterans Longboard Society (VVLS), a group of surfers and veterans that formed after the release of Between the Lines, a documentary that follows the lives of two surfers: one who went to war and another who dodged the draft and took refuge on the beaches of Hawaii.

Check out the trailer for Between the Lines below. The film can be ordered from the official website.

Contributed by Tom DiChristopher

Dear AsiaLIFE: Where Can I Find Old Postcards of Saigon?

Dear Mr. DiChristopher

I read and continue to read your magazine with considerable enthusiasm. The articles show the ever changing landscape, infrastructure and vibrance of Vietnam, bringing  this to the  front door of the lazy traveller ( of which I am one).  Your article in Volume 22 covering urban archaeology was particularly interesting and while I have seen over the years,  some of these older images of HCMC/Vietnam, wonder if you  know where perhaps one could purchase such images,  as well as any  old maps of the city?

Any assistance, views and/or contacts on this  would be very much appreciated.

Richard Skene

Thanks for the positive words, Richard. First off, I should let you know that Mr. DiChristopher is my father … you can call me Tom.

As for the vintage postcards, many of the shots we featured in the Urban Archaeology story came from the private collection of Philippe Chaplain, which can be found on his website, www.hanoilavie.com. We also turned to Caravelle Saigon: A History, which was released in September to mark the Caravelle Hotel’s 50th anniversary. We did, however, go to vintage bookstore and newstand Bookazine at 28 Dong Khoi for some old photographs (mostly personal snapshots) and old flyers.

We asked another of our Ho Chi Minh City Historians, Thomas Hutchings for advise, and he too pointed us to online resources, particularly Belle Indochine. He also had this advice:

Another way to find old photos is to use the search term in google “saigon ngay xua.” This will return hits with old photos. It’s best after getting the hits to click on images, then go down to various photos and click on any of those. One will thus find even more photos. A knowledge of Vietnamese is not necessary. However, when hits return and the diacritical marks are shown over the term “Saigon ngay xua,” then copy and paste the phrase with the marks and use that as a search term. It will return even more possible sites of old postcards and photos.

So I’m not sure if we answered your query about where to get physical postcards, Richard. Perhaps some of our readers might know. Anyone out there care to leave a comment on where to find vintage postcards of Saigon?

Contributed by Tom DiChristopher

Historians of Ho Chi Minh City, part 5: Witness to History

Ho Chi Minh City is racing towards the future at breakneck speed. But there are some who have dedicated themselves to remembering and preserving the city’s past. In this five-part supplement to January’s Urban Archaeology feature, contributing editor Thomas Maresca profiles the self-made historians who helped us piece the puzzle together.

Witness to History

Nguyen Huu Thai is a respected architect, writer and urban planner. He’s an expert on Vietnamese architectural history, but also an eyewitness and participant in some of the most dramatic moments that shaped Ho Chi Minh City.

Born in 1930 to a middle-class family in Danang, Thai studied in French schools and lived a life relatively unscathed by Vietnam’s battles with the French for independence. However, as a student and journalist in Saigon in the early 1960s, he was moved by the events unfolding around him. He became a leader of the student anti-war activist movement, and later, a member of the urban resistance, working with the National Liberation Front (NLF).

When the iconic tank crashed through Reunification Palace, on April 30, 1975, Thai was there and to help raise the flag. He then led a group to secure the Saigon radio station, and his was the first voice to announce the liberation of Saigon and to introduce General Duong Van Minh’s declaration of surrender.

Thai spent the next decade-and-a-half in Vietnam as it rebuilt after its war years. In 1990, he moved overseas for the first time, living and working as  lecturer in Montreal. However, he was drawn back to Vietnam, and in 1995, he returned to his homeland, where he has remained one of the leading voices on Vietnamese architecture, lecturing widely and publishing books such as Contemporary Vietnamese Architectural Problems and New Trends in Vietnamese and World Architecture and Cities.

Thai, like the other historians and preservationists,  is concerned that Ho Chi Minh’s expansion is expanding to the future without keeping an eye to its past. He sees the way forward as combining the city’s architectural provenance with contemporary technique.

In the past, French colonial architecture was altered to respond to the city’s subtropical, monsoon climate. Large windows, high ceilings and ventilated transoms were built to provide for natural circulation, and large overhangs and wooden shutters helped keep the sunlight out and rain out.

From there, Thai points out, colonial architecture progressed with the work of Hebrard, whose “Indochinese” style began to combine Asian and Western architectures. That direction continued into Vietnamese architecture of the 1950’s and 60’s, with buildings such as Reunification Palace, the General Sciences Library on Ly Tu Trong Street and Thong Nhat Hospital in Tan Binh District combining traditional motifs and modern techniques.

The open, airy designs of this past are a contrast to the hermetically sealed, air-conditioned modern skyscrapers springing up in a sort of faceless, placeless international style.

Thai advocates a future-leaning style that takes its cues from the city’s past. It’s not just preserving old buildings, but learning from them and applying their lessons. “I tell young architects you must find your own way to do tropical architecture,” says Thai. “It is a new concept of historical conservation, a question of heritage: How can we combine the old with the new?” Contemporary green architecture, for instance, is already looking to natural, environmentally-conscious design solutions that were more common in the past.

In a sense, Ho Chi Minh City is coming full circle. As it continues to race forward, there are lessons to be learned from its past and a heritage that many hope will be maintained, learned from, and built on. From very different places in this city’s multi-layered history, come a chorus of voices that both remember, and are pointing the way to the future.

Read the first post in the series: The Map Collector

Historians of Ho Chi Minh City, part 4: Fond Memories

Ho Chi Minh City is racing towards the future at breakneck speed. But there are some who have dedicated themselves to remembering and preserving the city’s past. In this five-part supplement to January’s Urban Archaeology feature, contributing editor Thomas Maresca profiles the self-made historians who helped us piece the puzzle together.

Fond Memories

Thomas Hutchings, a novelist and photographer, is another American who felt the pull of Vietnam. Hutchings served two tours in the Air Force in 1970-71, and like Henry Bechtold, had wanted to come back for years. He finally returned in 2004 and had the same reaction:  “I wished I’d come sooner.”

He returned to his native California, but soon made up his mind to come back for good. “I decided, I can’t stay in the States any longer. I’ve got to go home. I always say that I was born in California but grew up in Vietnam,” Hutchings says.

Once back in Vietnam, Hutchings wrote a novel, Tears of Tay Ninh, which required extensive research for historical accuracy. He’s at work on another novel set during the French colonial period and has continued to research and share information with other Vietnamese history buffs and veterans (www.thomas-hutchings.com).

Another former soldier who has made Vietnam his home is Gil Simpson, who returned with his Vietnamese wife in 2007. Simpson came to Vietnam and after his tour of duty was up, stayed in Saigon all the way until April 1975–just before the fall of Saigon–working in various jobs including managing the International House, a U.S.-run club located on Nguyen Hue, where the Duxton Hotel stands today.

A day spent wandering the streets of downtown HCM City with Hutchings and Simpson is a highly entertaining, living history lesson about the changing face of the city. Their reminiscences are fonder than one might expect considering the circumstances of the time. Perhaps it’s the distance of memory. (As Gil puts it: “Soldiers from World War I didn’t talk about their time in the trenches, they remember that one weekend they spent in Paris.”)  But there seems to be more to it than nostalgia; their stories, memories and research show a special feeling for Vietnam, and are a vital part of the story of HCM City.

Read the next post in the series: Witness to History.

Notes from the Ed Office: On the Road Again

Going Coconuts in Ben Tre

Things are pretty quiet today. Contributing editor Thomas Maresca and staff photographer Nam Quan are out in the Mekong finishing up field work for February’s cover story. Expect a strong documentary from the duo in line with their Living Positive story on HIV-affected families in November’s issue, vol. 20.

Your humble managing editor just got done polishing off the first in our new Urban Archaeology section (the cover story this month was so popular, we decided to make it a regular staple in the Storyboard section). I’ll be working through the weekend to finalize the February issue before setting off on a whirlwind two weeks of field work in Cambodia and southern Vietnam for our annual Causes issue, which will focus on wildlife and conservation this year.

Also, finished looking over Tom’s Street Smart for February and found myself giggling a lot–some of his better zingers can be found in there.

Hmm? What else can I leak? I’ll be heading out with former staff photographer Christian Berg over the coming days to shoot street food and temples (NOT for the same story) while photo editor Fred Wissink is on holidays. Looking very forward to seeing Christian’s fantastic photography in the pages of AsiaLIFE again.

Contributed by Tom DiChristopher