in Hanoi- samestuff theatre
In Hanoi and so far it has been fantastic! I'm here as part of an asialink residency and have been teed up with the gioi publishing house. I met the director today and they were very nice and accomodating with some interesting questions. They were interested in overseas Vietnamese communities and said that they were part of Vietnamese heritage as well. Some curious things though- they wanted to know if I was going into other provinces for security reasons. Apart from that they have even said they are interested in publishing my work- if I give them the copyright. Interesting.
We also went to the University of Social Sciences and the Humanities and saw a theatre show by samestuff theatre. We also got to see a bit of a university revue with three karaoke singers, hip hop dancers and a long skit in historical costume- which we were told by the people next to us was about pollution. This last one was interesting because they were using traditional theatre styles in terms of the music backing up the skit and certainly it received lots of laughs (didn't understand a word!) Alister who has taken the role of my husband when in Vietnam stuck out like a sore thumb being the only white face in the audience and taller than everybody else. The same stuff theatre show was multimedia about chat rooms with a sting in the tail. I'm hoping to meet Phan Y Ly the director this weekend to talk about collaborations with AVYM- her husband is Australian and she is coming to Australia this Christmas.
My first impressions of Hanoi are a jumble. There is a lot less visible poverty and no beggars in the centre of the city- which may be due to the APEC conference being held here in November. President Bush is coming with 1000 people so they say. There are lots of signs and banners welcoming APEC already and visible police presence. We saw them patrolling and causing people sitting on the street to suddenly pack up and disappear. I'm not sure about my thoughts about this- it has made our stay more pleasant not being hassled for things all the time- but I wonder what has happened to the people.
We also went to the University of Social Sciences and the Humanities and saw a theatre show by samestuff theatre. We also got to see a bit of a university revue with three karaoke singers, hip hop dancers and a long skit in historical costume- which we were told by the people next to us was about pollution. This last one was interesting because they were using traditional theatre styles in terms of the music backing up the skit and certainly it received lots of laughs (didn't understand a word!) Alister who has taken the role of my husband when in Vietnam stuck out like a sore thumb being the only white face in the audience and taller than everybody else. The same stuff theatre show was multimedia about chat rooms with a sting in the tail. I'm hoping to meet Phan Y Ly the director this weekend to talk about collaborations with AVYM- her husband is Australian and she is coming to Australia this Christmas.
My first impressions of Hanoi are a jumble. There is a lot less visible poverty and no beggars in the centre of the city- which may be due to the APEC conference being held here in November. President Bush is coming with 1000 people so they say. There are lots of signs and banners welcoming APEC already and visible police presence. We saw them patrolling and causing people sitting on the street to suddenly pack up and disappear. I'm not sure about my thoughts about this- it has made our stay more pleasant not being hassled for things all the time- but I wonder what has happened to the people.
posted by Hoa at
1:34 PM
1 Comments:
When we were in Hanoi in December last year, we experienced the same thing. A Communist party congress was happening so there were plenty of people working on the streets, sweeping and weeding, but very few beggars etc. I asked our guide where the beggars were and he said because of the congress, they'd been moved. When I asked where to, he just shrugged. Maybe just perpetually moved on, or imprisoned, as they do to Aboriginal peoples in northern Qld ...
~ Oanh
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