DO I UNDERSTAND SAIGON AFTER A FEW YEARS LIVING HERE ? I DOUBT IT. BUT THE GREAT THING OF NOT ENTIRELY FIGURING SOMETHING OUT IS THAT; YOU ARE FORCED TO KEEP DISCOVERING IT, CONTINUE ENTERING INTO ITS CHAOS. TO MAYBE, JUST MAYBE… BE ABLE TO START SOLVING THE PUZZLE.
The first time I came to Saigon, nothing hit me the way it was depicted in many movies set in Vietnam.
The city was just like any other big city in my country: its stultifying traffic system, its flashing lights that stun your sensitive eyes, its distinct rhythm of regional accents layered in a complex chunk of sounds that you could barely work out. Saigon is a typical Southeast Asian emerging megacity you will likely see in the countless travel programs. Motorcycles whizzing passed the camera like moths toward a dim light. Low plastic chairs and aluminium tables. Indochinese architecture scattered between hundred-year-old trees and mid-20th century Art Deco houses. You thought the city was a vestige of the friendly old Indochinese city seen in those 1960s Brian Wickham’s photos.
Then boom ! Emerged to your surprises is another Saigon, the almost Blade Runner kind.
Dazzling skyscrapers and flashy electric advertising. Luxury cars and expensive yachts. New urban areas and unfinished sky train stations. Dust and water. Glass and steel. It turns out Saigon is not like any Southeast Asian megacity. Even if you were here already with a sweat-soaked shirt under the tropical sun, a glass of tasty cafe sữa đá on hand, able to drive your motorbike like a local (easy to plunge into the traffic tsunami on the street with utmost confidence). Be prepared mentally ! Saigon will surprise and then dizzy you. It will soothe your nerves and, all of the sudden, tire you out. Get it? This city has no single characteristic. If it were a person, it would be one of the most spontaneous of all! Saigon is Vietnam and Saigon is also the world, depending on how you look at it, the time of day, where you go and the crowd surrounding you.
A place in its own noisy reconstruction. A city still becoming solely with continuous force in a single-dimensional space pushing and pulling people from one era after another.
Following tumultuous waves of historical events sweeping through the city and its generations of citizens, Saigon is now still the “Pearl of the Far East”, Vietnam’s dominating economic, cultural and populous centre. Whatever made Saigon to its past triumph also forms its attribution now. Vibrant enough to constantly attract foreign investments. Promising enough to lure millions of immigrants from not only within Vietnam but also all over the world. Romantic enough to fuel contemporary arts. Nostalgic enough to offer its vintage charms to ones who seek. Forward-looking enough to serve its people an aspirational axis. It’s everything you wish it could be, once you start to play by its rules.
Everyone is welcome in Saigon, meaning Saigonese won't modify how they interact with you despite your accent, your gender, your sense of fashion, your religion, or your profession..
Many of the official 8,993 million citizens come to Saigon to get what they want. Most others only know what they want after their highs and lows in this strange city. Either looking for something in particular or becoming lost, simply breathing the Saigon air makes you a part of it by default. Saigon then becomes an adjective. You ARE Saigon. Yes, you have earned that identity. The question is what you’re going to do with it ?
Living in Saigon means you're living in a constant hustle of testaments and experiments.
It never stops disassembling and assembling like a set of legos. Its perception always seems to somehow auto-reset every day you wake up. Saigon has waived its wand, casting a magical spell above all. This city shelters ideas that will live and die, therefore in every handful of people you meet, someone will tell you they're an artist or working in the creative industry. Before Saigon, the tempestuous drive to create something new is merely a wishful dream. In Saigon, dreams will be a phoenix with the ability to be reborn after its death. Risk becomes irresistible enticement. One dream after another. An invisible rushing clock is timing you every second you fall into a mental limbo. Anything in this frenzied city can be a consolation, an inspiration, and a door opened to new opportunities.
As it turns out, this city's secrets have always been there, hidden in the tangled alleys and its people, hidden in every challenge they go through, in the connections they form over their lives, and the resonance of all. They realise that they can not really rush into loving Saigon. And the moment they fall in love, is also when they become Saigon souls.
Writer ✦ Vân Anh Nguyễn Photographer ✦ Tung Thanh Le Creatives ✦ Robin Mahieux, Vicki Dang