Development has brought many changes to Vietnam in the 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Vietnam has been transformed since the end of what people there called the war of resistance against America and what Americans call the war in Vietnam. Life expectancy has soared. Poverty has plummeted. Economic opportunities abound. NPR’s John Ruwitch visited and spoke with young people there. They reflect the generational changes that have come with development in the half-century since the war ended.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Bui Ngoc Cam Phuong is a 19-year-old college student in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. On the side, though…
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CI PI: (Rapping in Vietnamese).
RUWITCH: …She has a budding music career.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CI PI: (Rapping in Vietnamese).
I like to do, like, experimental rap.
RUWITCH: She goes by Ci Pi, her initials.
CI PI: My lyrics is all about what I’m thinking as a young people, as a young adult in Ho Chi Minh City – Saigon.
RUWITCH: Chaos permeates her music, like the city she lives in, she says, and some teen angst.
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CI PI: (Rapping in Vietnamese).
And I got so many tasks in mind as a young people. What should I do? Yeah, many choice in life, and that’s all I write about.
RUWITCH: Youthful rebellion is nothing new, of course. But that question – what should I do? – is one that more and more young people in her generation are able to ask. Ci Pi says her grandparents were swept up in the war. They didn’t have a choice. And her parents came to the big city, like many, at a time when Vietnam was clawing its way out of poverty.
CI PI: I feel like our generation, like, we do not have an exact route to follow. We can do whatever we want if – just if we have enough resource.
RUWITCH: The hard part is figuring out what she wants, though.
CI PI: Do I want the success of being famous and being a star? Or should I be a smart student and work in a literature field?
RUWITCH: Whatever path she takes, Ci Pi says laziness isn’t an option.
CI PI: Yes, because our country is still developing.
RUWITCH: I heard that same sense of responsibility, that patriotism, in a back alley in Hanoi, the capital, where I grabbed coffee with the man behind one of Vietnam’s best-known Facebook pages.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Vietnamese).
RUWITCH: He’s 32. And he doesn’t want me to divulge his name because what he publishes is sometimes controversial, and he doesn’t want to jeopardize his day job in software.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Vietnamese).
RUWITCH: The page is called Tifosi. It’s Italian for a passionate fan, as in a soccer fanatic. There are lots in Vietnam. In fact, he started out posting about soccer. His page took off, though, when he shifted to politics, society and history.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Vietnamese).
RUWITCH: He says it’s a passion, a hobby.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) I want to write content that is positive and that can cheer on and motivate people.
RUWITCH: His stuff often aligns with the government and can be ultranationalistic. In one article, Tifosi supported the right to eat dog meat because it’s a tradition here. In another, he criticized what he saw as fawning reverence by a Vietnamese singer to Queen Elizabeth after her death in 2022. In the past, some of Vietnam’s more notable blogs were critical of the authorities. Many bloggers have been silenced or jailed in a rolling crackdown. The man behind Tifosi says different opinions are fine, but there are limits.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you can fabricate things. It doesn’t mean things can be distorted. There’s freedom of speech, but you have to say the right things. You have to be accurate.
RUWITCH: Tifosi, he says, reflects something real in his world.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) My friends, family, co-workers, everyone has a pretty positive view of the state.
RUWITCH: That may be widespread, but it’s hard to gauge. The authorities are becoming adept at guiding public opinion online and snuffing out criticism. Tifosi’s creator says the police and security agencies think he’s a positive force. Many others clearly do, too. The page has more than 300,000 followers and counting.
RUWITCH: John Ruwitch, NPR News, Hanoi.
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