Vietnam: Rising Dragon by Bill Hayton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There’s an excitement and energy to Vietnam that’s palpable — you feel it the moment you step out of the airport. With 60 percent of Vietnam’s population under 30 and 85 percent under 40, it’s a vibrant, pulsating society. It’s the kind of place where you can see big changes in just a few years and it’s been fun to watch the development of an emerging economy. In the seven years between my first and second visits, the differences are unmistakable. One thing I’ve noticed — and the book touches on this somewhat — is the way society is moving “from outside to inside.” In older neighborhoods, you still see many shops “on the street” (the sidewalk is constantly blocked by old ladies selling noodles and young men repairing motorbikes). But in more modern neighborhoods, such as Saigon’s district 1, clear sidewalks line indoor shops and restaurants.
While preparing for my first trip to Vietnam back in 2007, I searched for books about the country. I’d say 95% were either travel guides or dealt with the Vietnam War (or The American War as it’s known in Vietnam). But I wasn’t interested in that. I wanted to know about modern Vietnam, its culture, economy, and cuisine. I found nothing at the time. It wasn’t until recently, having visited Vietnam several times and spent months living in Saigon and Da Nang and traveling the countryside, that I came across Hayton’s book, published in 2010. Having had some firsthand experience, the book fit with what I had seen but more importantly, filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge.
The style of the book is a bit dry and the author gets so bogged down in detail that I often felt as though I were slogging through a textbook. But like a textbook, there is an enormous amount of information here, information that I haven’t found anywhere else. For that alone, it’s worth a read.
Vietnam’s modern history is fascinating. What’s most interesting about Vietnam today is the fast growth occurring in a culture that combines communism and capitalism. There is a constant push and pull with the ruling party relaxing restrictions where it makes sense, even if it compromises their stated ideology. Seemingly, the ruling party would rather compromise on communist ideology than to cede power.
I was also surprised to learn of the complex interplay between party and government. While the government is responsible for implementing and enforcing laws, the directives come from the Communist Party itself. The author gives many examples of this fascinating back and forth. It was also curious to see that, while Vietnam is not a democracy, there is a deliberate effort to make government representative of the people (women, ethic minorities, geographical regions) and these voices are listened to — to an extent.
Many other topics are covered here, mostly the problems experienced by many emerging economies: exploitation of natural resources; government and police corruption; suppression of dissent; and censorship of the press and social media. And while the book was written in 2010, many of these problems persist today. For example, a recent check of Reporters Without Borders Freedom Index (a measure of freedom of information in a given society) still has Vietnam near the bottom of the list.
Vietnam is an exceptional country with kind people, beautiful landscapes and wonderful cuisine. Hayton’s book has given me an even greater appreciation of the obstacles the Vietnamese people have overcome and what challenges still lie ahead. I wish them all the best and look forward to watching what changes the next few years bring.
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