Vietnam's pop culture

During my childhood in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 1980 to 1995, I had no concept of popular culture. I had no idol or trend to emulate or follow because Vietnam was still recovering from the war and the embargo hadn’t been lifted yet. I say this because I still vividly remember asking one of my teachers in sixth grade, "Why American musicians – rockers to be specific – have long hair?" "It's cold in America," my teacher responded, "so they must grow their hair long to keep their necks warm."

In July 1998, only three years after the embargo had been lifted, I made my first trip back to Vietnam. The Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls were on constant replay at many cafés and many teenagers’ lips as every one wanted to "Get Down" and "Wannabe" someone's lover. These teenagers, however, expressed their obsession with pop music differently, not by attending concerts or buying posters and magazines – maybe they didn't have any concerts to attend, or any posters and magazines to buy at the time – but by singing their hearts out to their favorite pop tunes at karaoke bars. My friends serenaded me with "Get Down" at a karaoke bar even though, I'm sure, none of them fully understood the implication of the term "Get Down."

During summer of 2001, my second visit to Vietnam, the movie "Titanic" finally made it to Vietnam’s shore and became an instant smash hit at every local mom-and-pop video rental, which was the only source for movies at the time, and its aspired theme song "My heart will go on" by Celine Dion was perpetually propagating its undying-love message at most of the cafés in town. The movie created a frenzy of teenagers sporting Titanic t-shirts and karaoke bars decorating their rooms with the Titanic-inspired theme, the elements of which consisted of the movie’s poster featuring a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet embracing each other and anything nautical. I literally could not escape this Titanic craze – even one of the mini-hotel’s I stayed at had Leo and Kate embracing each other on every square inch of its bed sheets. Besides the “Titanic” obsession, “clubbing” was the newest trend as every nightclub was trying to lure the youngsters with its flashy laser lights and remixes of the track "Sandstorm" by Darude. So I started clubbing with my friends. At the club, I noticed that most of the "clubbers" dressed in khaki pants and dress-shirts and wore sandals as if they had gone straight to the club after work, and that not many people were dancing. The dance floor seemed almost empty every time. My friends later explained that the majority of these people were not there to dance; since most Vietnamese people were generally inhibited, they went to listen to loud music and just to be out of their crowded living quarters.

The purpose of both of these trips was to visit – to have fun – as I often laughed at what I had noticed. My third trip, which lasted for 8 months from January to August 2004, however, was different because I intended to reacquaint myself with Vietnam – to live there. During this trip, I saw many teenagers dressing very “punk,” in the context of MTV: wearing their trucker hats at a rakish angle like that of Ashton Kutcher's and t-shirts a size too-small with banters bordering obscenity like "Shit happens" and "Enjoy Cock" – which, I'm sure, would never be worn if their owners understood the sayings. This aspect of Vietnam’s popular culture has always been perceived to be a mere material obsession and mindless imitation of Western culture, thus condemned superficial and unoriginal by many people, mainly adults. Had these teenagers stopped there at dressing the part, I would’ve agreed with the adults. These teenagers, however, extended their material obsession to a personalized interaction, turning it into a unique popular culture of their own, by religiously practicing their Backstreet-Boys pop-and-lock moves during their semester-long pop dancing classes. They all seemed so aspired to be in a boy band, though dressing very “punk.” This discrepancy between fashion and music propelled me to ask one of the students, "Why do you dress like a punk rocker, with your hat and t-shirt, when you practice pop moves like you want to be in a boy band?" He simply replied, "I like American boy bands. And isn't that what Americans dress like? I saw it on MTV. And what is a punk rocker?" Unlike my sixth grade teacher, I resorted to my silence. I suspect the Internet and the growing popularity of MTV Asia, which has a very similar format to MTV but with Asian video-jockeys, are responsible for this cultural development.

Besides the music phenomenon, I also encountered a strong interest in basketball – not the NBA, but the And 1 street-ball tournament, where members of team And 1 showcase their talents in acrobatic dunking and intricate ball handling skills. Most of the people that I played basketball with wanted to dunk on their opponents every time they had the ball even though they couldn't even reach the rim. I tried to explain the differences between And 1 street-ball and NBA to them, but it was a futile attempt since they played basketball with soccer rules – it's OK to hit your opponents’ arms.

After my third trip to Vietnam, I often wonder if these Vietnamese teenagers would be able to answer my question: “Why American musicians – rocker to be specific – have long hair?” Actually, they might not even bother to answer it, not that they don’t know the answer, but that they are too cool to answer such a trivial question. It’s all about being cool.