I took a break to get out of Hue and travel with MiML: met him in Sai Gon; 10-hr bus ride each way (on what’s supposed to be a 6-hr trip) to mountain resort town of Da Lat to walk in cold, drenching rain for bad overpriced food at a Westernized Vietnamese resto; back to Sai Gon for flight out to Ha Noi; scramble around HN to get tix and catch overnight train out to Sapa to trek around hilltribe minority villages; overnight train back to HN where we experienced 3 tense customer-service-related confrontations in less than 24 hrs (does nothing to improve negative stereotypes/impressions of the north); evening flight to Da Nang to be with fam and go to the beach; day trip to aunt’s burial grounds in rural village outside of Hue; day trip to Hoi An for souvenir shopping; back to Da Nang for fam time (which included watching UP, but unfortch not in 3D); back to Hue with a pit-stop in Phu Bai (Grandpa’s home village) to visit the Ngo house of worship. In in all, the main impression from my travels with a Westerner here is that people tend to stare, stalk you with offers for rides and services, or worse, openly discriminate against and/or try to swindle you. I am sorry to say that the mixed race/ethnicity thing here still rubs many people the wrong way.

Upon return, I shot at an old covered bridge where a couple of women recited folk poems they’d composed and at a forest preserve / temple grounds. I also visited the galleries of Le Ba Dang and Diem Phung Thi. The former’s art I’m drawn to:

Right before I left for vacation, I had a chat with a broadcast journalist who mentioned two topics of interest, both intriguing possibilities for future fieldwork. One centers around a controversy over tourism development plans for an islet (called Con Hen) on the Perfume River. The place is culturally significant in that it is the hub of production / distribution for two (of my favorite) gastronomic specialties of Hue: com hen and che bap (rice w/ clams & corn pudding?). In terms of regional identification, consider them the poor Vietnamese man’s escargot and crème brûlée. A while ago, the local gov’t had given the go-ahead to developers to evacuate people on the islet and to erect tourist lodgings. The city papers and various citizens protested and nothing’s moved forward since. Potentially rife with illuminating tensions in regional politics and brewing out of the classic discourse on tradition/modernity, the situation would make for an intimate, microcosmic study that reverberates with circumstances of development nationwide.

Another story that piqued my interest was an account of a Buddhist monk who’d gotten permission fr the gov’t to fix up and maintain a couple of forest preserves (he’s a collector and cultivator of orchids) in the nearby hills. The sticky part is that he decided to build a temple on these grounds, which was not within the bounds of the agreement w/ the gov’t. Now with increasing sensitivity on the part of Vietnamese officials towards religion (particularly with the recent Bat Nha Monastery case), this scenario indexes something more complex with regard to the ambivalent relationship of the state and religious institutions.

The thought of following these topics in Hue excites me for several reasons. The city holds a special position in nationalist rhetoric because of its former status as the royal capital, the center of intellectualism and culture. Complicating matters is the history that the last kings of the Nguyen dynasty in Hue were supposedly French puppets, betraying the cause of national independence (on which the current regime bases its autonomous pride). Since the toppling of the House of Nguyen, officials in Hue have scrambled to re-elevate their city’s status in the nationalist imagination. Their approach has been to promote Hue as the bedrock of traditional culture in Viet Nam (sustained by UNESCO designation as a World Heritage Site and by the tourist-attracting biennial Festival modeled after French celebrations of cultural preserve). This summer, for me, has been an exploration of an idea of Hue culture (through the perspective of working artists and poets) on video. I hope to extend this investigation by returning in the coming years. After all, it is the place in Viet Nam with which I most identify, through the backgrounds of my mother and grandfather. Among the major setbacks is that the topics I’ve mentioned are time-sensitive and have already come and gone in the public eye. In addition, discussing politics explicitly here is quite difficult. I’ve been told by one of the artists I’m following that people in Hue don’t pay attention much to, don’t like to get involved in politics. Well, well…

Politicking is pervasive. I became quite anxious and frustrated recently after a longtime American researcher in VN reminded me to be careful with my tapes and to make copies since the Foreign Affairs Offices that have to review materials before they’re approved for departure fr the country are notoriously nit-picky and have been known to reject a collection of recordings wholesale for one segment of “sensitive” material. After considering various methods for making copies and “smuggling” tapes out of the country I’ve decided to just forgo the FAO checkpoint and deal with authorities at the airport. Crossing fingers…

With one week to wrap up I am furiously hoping for major Eureka! moments.