The Phnom Penh Post
Mon, 16 September 2013
There was a time when it was possible to buy genuine wartime propaganda posters in Vietnam.
Most date from what the Vietnamese call the American War, and one example, a large diptych of two women, adorns the wall near my desk.
The serene-looking woman on the left, a porter for the Viet Cong, wears a dark shirt and carries a pack of heavy rifles on her back; it is dated 1975, the year the war ended.
On the right, a younger, more coquettish woman wears a stylish blue ao dai dress and carries a bunch of red flowers; it is dated 1995, almost a decade after the doi moi economic reforms were introduced.
The picture is called Calendar Girls, Then and Now (Beauty and Strength).
For reasons that will become clear, it is better not to reveal the artist’s name in case he might be persecuted by the authorities for his work.
That kind of thing is happening a lot in Vietnam these days, especially to artists and writers, academics and journalists, and most of all to internet users.
Read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/columns/vietnam%E2%80%99s-thought-control
