Random Stuff on a Random Day in Hanoi
So I really didn’t have a theme today for why I did what I did, it all was just kind of around and sounded cool so that is what I did. I decided I wanted a lighter day since I have a water puppet show scheduled for later today so I just did two big things: the Military Museum and the Fine Art Museum of Vietnam. I liked the Military Museum but I generally like military museums so that is not a helpful statement. What I can say is that if I was French and I visited the Military Museum I would be pretty bummed. Most of the large artifacts were American made war trophies used ether by American or French forces. The only French made weapons in the place were small arms while the Vietnamese proudly displayed American planes, tanks, bombs, and guns they captured, they even displayed a pile of scrap from shot down American aircraft. It is nice to know that your military’s stuff is so valuable that even 50 years later even the literal junk gets displayed proudly to show the overwhelming odds a people fought against. The Military Museum also had weapons used by Communist Vietnamese forces: the regular NVA, VC, and various other Communist militia forces. They even had the first Communist tank that rolled into Saigon and a MIG fighter that shot down several American jets. Be warned though, the Military Museum does expect you to be at least somewhat familiar with Vietnamese history, for example the Museum spends a lot of time discussing the Battle of Dien Bien Phu without really telling you why the Battle of Dien Bien Phu was important (it was the last battle of the First Indochina war and a victory for the Vietnamese over French forces FYI). After so much Communism I kind of wanted to do something different so I went to the Fine Art Museum of Vietnam later that day. This did not help get me away from Uncle Ho and the ideas of Marx though. Had to first walk by the North Korean embassy in Hanoi which, while somewhat nondescript, was obviously the North Korean embassy because of the bulletin board with framed photos of Kim Jong-Un in it. The Museum itself was also very communistic. Only the first floor was devoted to art from before the rise of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The rest of the art was heavily influenced by communist ideas. Much of it was about the workers, the peasants, Ho Chi Minh, and the Communist military forces. Still, they had a nice collection of early Vietnamese Buddhist statuary and a fine collection of Vietnamese lacquer painting. Two of the museums other three exhibits, a special exhibit on ASIAN printing, a pottery exhibit, and the exhibit on Vietnamese folk art, were also beneficial to the Communist Party. While the pottery and the folk art exhibits were kind of weak the ASIAN printing exhibit had some cool works. I just wish the museum actually explained things a bit more, I have very little context for any of the works. Finally I took a short walk to Hanoi’s Opera House. It was a cool building I guess. It was also next to the actual Hanoi Hilton Hotel something I always wondered if they had. Note: I plan on doing a small update ether late today or early tomorrow on the Water Puppet show and dinner.
2 Comments
Sharon
12/21/2016 09:14:43 pm
totally looking forward to the water puppet! Can't get that in NYC Toto
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Dad
12/21/2016 10:41:53 pm
I guess there were more American than French military artifacts b/c we produce more than any other country (France is no slouch, however, as I think they rank third or fourth in military weapons production
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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