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City Guide - Ho Chi Minh City - Culture | ||
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Culture For a city the size of Ho Chi Minh City, there are surprisingly few major outlets for cultural performances. There are a number of small theatres, where smaller companies or groups visiting from the provinces perform. The Opera House, Dong Khoi (tel: (08) 829 1249), has regular performances and occasional shows by international classical artists. The large Hoa Binh Theatre, next to the Quoc Tu Pagoda in District 10 (tel: (08) 865 5196), has a few small theatres in the complex, and may have a number of different shows in one night. The Gia Dinh Theatre, 475 Bach Dang, Binh Thanh District (tel: (08) 841 2045), puts on minority music or dance shows and the Ben Thanh Theatre, 6 Mac Dinh Chi, District 1 (tel: (08) 822 1900), hosts drama from visiting groups. There is no central ticket agency to purchase tickets for performances and this has to be done in person at the relevant venue. Music: Vietnamese music is somewhat discordant to the Western ear but excellent performances are held nightly in some of the restaurants. Vietnam House, 91/3 Dong Khoi (tel: (08) 829 1623), and Blue Ginger, 37 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia (tel: (08) 829 8676), are good examples. Occasional performances are held at the Conservatory of Music, 112 Nguyen Du in District 3 (tel: (08) 829 8646). Theatre: Vietnam is famous for its water puppets and the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre in Hanoi regularly tour worldwide. Ho Chi Minh City has its own makeshift water puppet theatre, the Ho Chi Minh City Puppet Band, 28 Vo Van Tan, District 3 (tel: (08) 825 8496), with daily performances at 0900 and 1400. The Opera House (tel: (08) 829 1249), on Dong Khoi, District 1, has regular dance, music and acrobatic performances. Dance: Dance shows are less popular than in Thailand or Cambodia but performances can be seen at some of the restaurants throughout the city as well as at some of the theatres mentioned above. There is a particularly good show during dinner at the Cung Dinh Restaurant (tel: (08) 829 2185), in the Rex Hotel. Binh Quoi Tourist Village (tel: (08) 899 1831), just outside the city on the Saigon River, has nightly dance shows, the highlight of which is a re-enactment of a minority wedding. Film: Ho Chi Minh City has a few cinemas but only one has recently begun to show English-language films. This is CLB Phim Tu Lieu, 212 Ly Chinh Thang, District 3 (tel: (08) 822 2324). Only a handful of films for the international market have been filmed in Vietnam and one of these was the acclaimed 1995 film, Cyclo, directed by the French-educated Tran Anh Hung and filmed in Ho Chi Minh City. The first American film to be made in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City since the war was Three Seasons (1999), directed by Vietnamese-American Tony Bui. Cultural events: The most important event in the lunar calendar is Tet, the celebration of the New Year. Preparations are made for the coming year, houses are decorated with peach blossom and particular attention is paid to the family altar. New Year occurs on the first to seventh days of the first lunar month (between late January and early February) and the celebrations begin at the stroke of midnight. In the past these were particularly noisy as the New Year was marked with huge firecrackers. These were banned in 1995 so drums and tape recordings of fire crackers have replaced them. Literary Notes: Ho Chi Minh City has appeared as the backdrop for a number of books because of its rich French colonial and wartime history. Perhaps the most famous is The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene - the story of an American helping to establish a Third Force, while the French fight against the Vietminh. Greene's novel was written as a result of his years spent in Saigon. Anthony Grey's 1982 novel, Saigon, relates the story of Joseph Sherman who arrived in the city as a teenager in 1925 and, drawn back again and again, finally left on the last helicopter out in 1975. This epic novel was written despite the author never having visited Vietnam but he captures the city perfectly. 'The white stone wharf, when it appeared, took him by surprise. It ran beside a broad, shaded boulevard of feathery pepper trees, and the sudden sight of European-style buildings made him reflect that the jungles, fields and villages through which they'd been moving for the past few hours had remained unchanging throughout many centuries. But there without doubt were the elusive twin spires of Saigon's cathedral that he'd seen from far off, stationary now and clearly visible, standing sentinel over the wide tree-lined avenues.' The British Labour MP, Chris Mullin, a long-time friend of Vietnam and once a war correspondent there, covers post liberation Saigon in his 1986 novel The Last Man out of Saigon. It tells of a CIA man, masquerading as a journalist who stays on after the fall of the city to destabilise the new regime. His cover is blown and he spends time being re-educated and working as a rice-farmer. Here he learns that there are two sides to any story and to any war. |