The article was written in 2014
In a get-together of my highschool gang, a classmate said that she wwould like to to open a “Cong” (Vietnamese short way for “Communism”) cafe in Saigon and wondered if the idea was possible. What came to my mind at that time was “Excuse me? A communist-styled decorated coffee shop in Saigon? You must be kidding me.”
Established in 2007, from a small shop at 157D Trieu Viet Vuong, “Cong” cafe has quickly expanded across the city. It has become a style of drinking coffee among young people in Hanoi. And with the opening of its 9th shop, “Cong” cafe should be regarded as a success story of franchise in Hanoi after the notorious failure of “Tonkin” coffee.
Coffee there tastes like anything but special yet it costs you at least 35k for a small cup which I’d better call “gamelle” (cà mèn). Tea? You can find lots of places that can make better tea. So, what draws people to “Cong”? The answer seems to be lying in the antiques -propaganda posters, black-and-white photos, red cushions with phoenix and peacock patterns, military stuff like soldier’s hats and mess-tins – which are all intentionally scattered around every shop of the chain, attempting to bend space and time, to bring the customers feelings of the past.
And if you have time living in Hanoi, just ride a scooter around the city, you will see the “Cong” franchise was not one and the only case. Lots of shops are selling hand-made quilts, knitted sweaters, hand-embroidered table-cloths. Restaurants whose names shamelessly show their marketing tactics are serving dishes that my mother would kill me if she knew I spend several hundred thousand VND eating just because those dishes were what she, as well as hundreds of families in the North Vietnam, had during the subsidy period of Vietnam’s economy or time of hardship.
Well, what can I say? Hanoians are missing their past. They are nostalgic.
The questions I would like to ask are why now?
“Nostalgia” is simply defined as “a feeling of sadness mixed with pleasure and affection when you think of happy times in the past” (OALD). The definition refers to mixed emotional aspects of nostalgia and especially its subject – happiness which has already gone. So, at this point we should ask ourselves what should be considered “happy” about the themes of the wartime and the subsidy period which the shops and restaurants try to convey.
To those who are unfamililar with Vietnam’s contemporary history, “subsidy period” or “thoi ky bao cap” refers to the 1976-1986 phase in which the government’s “ruinous command economy” was imposed on the South as well as the North (Steinglass 2006). It is the decade when the country was dependent on Soviet bloc subsidies; food, goods, and services were purchased with coupons or food stamps issued by the government; and malnutrition was rampant. Basically, it was the time of anything but happiness. So, why is “the subsidy period” theme?
I think it is because like many things are changing in life, somehow the feeling of nostalgia in the modern time, in Hanoi’s case specifically, has been different. It is not simply about a past that is irretrievable. Rather it is “a longing for the fantasies and desires that were once possible in that past.” (Back 2002:547). In other words, “nostalgia” in its modernist sense is a longing for a way of longing for what can no longer be possible.
Looking back Vietnamese history, what can I see is the war years before 1975 which were of course defined by hardship but people then were full of hope as well. They were given a projection of a reunification of the country. During the post-reunification period (1975-1986), although “bao cap” was associated with scarcity and poverty, it seemed that people considered it a “period of transition to socialism” (Tuyet L. Cosslett and William R. Shaw 1987), or a utopian society where everyone could enjoy equally social welfare.
After the introduction of “doimoi” (Vietnamese word for “reforms”), Vietnam has been struggling to switch to the free market. It took the country more than two decades to become a surging economy with “a growing middle class, equipped with shiny motorbikes and mobile phones, that is investing frantically in real estate and the country’s […] stock market” (Steinglass 2006). The late 1980s, the 1990s and probably the 200os (until 2006 specifically) witnessed booming foreign investment, fruitful diplomatic relations and thus the population was immersed in a projection of a bright future, a dream of “sailing out to the sea.”
So, it is not difficult to see that hopes, fantasies and desires were filled up the periods. Meanwhile, since the late 2000s, Vietnam has entered a phase of instability: economic downturn, political crisis (i.e. human rights, corruptions, insufficient management…) and deteriorate moral values. Never before have Vietnamese people seen, read and heard so much about big state corporate going bankrupt; local authorities abusing their power and position to milk money from the common people; young girls posting photos of their bodies on Facebook just like showing a new shirt for comments. The country as a whole has experienced a serious confidence crisis.
And when we suffer from certain psychological ailments like negative mood, doubts and the feeling that life is meaningless, nostalgia can act as a defense mechanism. That’s part of results of a number of studies conducted by Routledge C. and other researchers from North Dakota State University. Routledge (2011) believed that nostalgia is positively associated with a sense of meaning in life and it helps bolster the optimistic attitude towards life when people have to face mental exhaustion. Consequently, people turn to their memories as a saviour. They find peace, joy or a sort of mediation in objects from the past – objects that remind them of a period that they were able to dream and hope for better things.
It explains why such “brand” like “Cong” makes huge profit these days. The old come to such places to summon positive memories or to celebrate their escape from hardship. The young buy the feelings of their childhood. (Or just to be cool.)
Actually as far as I am concerned, Hanoi is not the only place where the wave of past is sweeping over. Against the context of economic dowturn, we can see nostalgia everywhere, taking various forms. It can be felt in media: films themed nostalgia are rarely flops: Korea’s “Sunny” or “Architecture 101” scored big box office when released in 2011 and 2012 respectively; or the Reply series (2012) became the king of rating for Korean cable TV dramas. It can be seen in the return of vintage fashion on prestigious catwalks or look-books across the world.
Come back to the question of my classmate: would “Cong” work in Saigon? (Gosh. I am a truly nostalgic freak when using SG instead of HCMC). I think it is 50:50. From the perspective of nostalgia, a big No. Because “Cong” is more likely a mode of nostalgia of people living in the North Vietnam, who have experienced or are more exposed to the historical stages that “Cong” represents. It’s, however, not a part of memories of people in the South; even if it is, it might be associated with negative things. But no one can be 100% sure of anything in doing business. Perhaps its alien feature can wave the magic wand.
Reference
Bach, J. (2002). “The Taste Remains”: Consumption, (N)ostalgia, and the Production of East Germany. Public Culture 14(3): 545–556. Accessed 14 April, 2014 from http://is.muni.cz/el/1421/podzim2011/FAVz028/Bach_The_Taste_Remains.pdf.
Cosslett, T and Shaw W. (1987).Vietnam Studies. Accessed 17 April, 2014 from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/vntoc.html.
Routledge C. et al. (2011). The past makes the present meaningful: nostalgia as an existential resource. Accessed 17 April 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21787094.
Steinglass M. (2006). All that is solid. Accessed 17 April, 2014 from http://www.viet-studies.info/kinhte/TrienLamBaoCap_BostonGlobe.pdf.
By Thu Ngo