Su-Lin Leong

CSIRO, Australia
Exchange to Nong Lam, Vietnam

“Beautiful parks! Grass! Trees!”, I thought during the taxi ride from the airport, on my arrival into Ho Chi Minh City. Since then, I’ve even seen people in the middle of the highway watering the grassy median strips. Greenery is so highly prized that it is forbidden to sit on the grass in the parks – just sit on the bench and admire it around you.

Ho Chi Minh City (or HCMC for short) is certainly a city of contrasts and contradictions, from the airconditioned department stores stocking the latest in international fashion, to the 50 cent lunches I purchase at the university canteen, from the HCMC symphony orchestra and ballet performing in the French colonial opera house, to the 10 cent charge for catching the lift up to my friend’s apartment.

As the commercial centre of Vietnam, HCMC has a “big city” feel, and a population of over seven million, if you include the outlying and regional districts. Most of this population relies on motorbikes to get around, which means pedestrians utilise an alternative road-crossing technique – just wander out slowly, and they will avoid you! Of course, it’s necessary to check in both directions for traffic going the wrong way down the road, coming up onto the footpath or generally treating traffic lights as “suggestions” rather than “rules”. Another interesting sight is women riding motorbikes in high heeled shoes, protected from an undesirable tan by hats, bandannas covering their faces, and shoulder-length gloves.

HCMC was the site of the reunification of northern and southern Vietnam under Communist rule, and, as you would expect, the relatively recent Vietnamese war continues to impact the lives of its citizens. The history and ideology of Communism is a compulsory, examinable subject for all university students, who also take part in four weeks of military training every Summer holidays. Even pretty young girls, who listen to Justin Timberlake and worry about which pair of high heels best match their designer jeans, know how to assemble an AKA rifle. Noticeably, women feature as equal comrades in many of the paintings and posters from the war. But at the same time, single women undertaking post-graduate qualifications worry that potential husbands might be put off by a woman’s equal or higher level of education.

I’ve been here just over three weeks, with the first week spent studying “survival” Vietnamese. It’s a tonal language, which means that it’s difficult to understand and to be understood. But it does use the roman alphabet, so even walking in the street and reading shop signs can be language practice.

My research project at the university has progressed at a fairly leisurely pace, occasionally halted by power shortages, and little glitches like locked laboratories for which I have no key. The aspirations of the uni students here are striking, many expressing a desire for post-graduate study, especially overseas. One concern is that this younger generation has no personal memory of hardships in the years following the war, so this may lessen their desire to return after overseas study and contribute to the continuing development of Vietnam.

A second concern is that the hierarchy within some public and research institutions may limit the implementation of new ideas from these young, fresh graduates, who may then be lost to the private sector. It is my privilege to rub shoulders with these uni students, and I’m convinced that in the energy and enthusiasm of its youth lies Vietnam’s greatest potential.

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