A comment in David Biggs’s, generally very engaging, 2010 book Quagmire. One part early on seemed to clang like a cheap scooter hitting the railings of an old iron bridge… Biggs writes:
“Before Eiffel made millions of francs operating the Eiffel Tower, he had already made a fortune exporting hundreds of ironwork segments for colonial bridges and public buildings, including Sài Gòn’s General Post Office and market halls still standing today. The estimated cost for his spans in 1881 was eight million francs, approximately eight times the cost of building the Eiffel Tower in 1887”
and in a footnote immediately following Biggs refers us to a text called Les Travaux publics et les voices de communication en Cochinchine, by Cochinchine francaise (Saigon: Imprimerie nationale, 1880), p143.
So, I was thinking that does not sound quite clear, and had enjoyed the extensive background by Tim Doling debunking Eiffel’s involvement, at least as architect of the Post Office, and his documentation about two more likely candidates, Vildieu and Foulhoux. Nevertheless, Effel’s Cochinchina company did build some things, as Tim explains, there were:
“numerous structures in Cochinchina between 1872 and 1889. These included, amongst others, railway bridges (Bình Điền, Tân An and Bến Lức viaducts on the Saigon-Mỹ Tho railway line), road bridges (Pont des Messageries maritimes, Pont de Cholon/Pont des Malabars, Pont de Ông Núi, Pont de Rạch Lăng, Pont de Bình Tây, Pont de Rạch Gia, Pont de Long Xuyên), markets (Long Châu, Cao Lãnh, Ô Môn, Tân Quy Đông and Tân An), filter wells and canal/creek towpaths, as well as the imposing headquarters of the Halles des Messageries fluviales on the Saïgon riverfront – see https://gustaveeiffel.com/ses-oeuvres/asie/”
Yet, of course even if Eiffel was not the architect, I wondered just what Biggs’s 1880 reference that supported his statement might say. Could it show Eiffel supplied some bits for the post office? I suspect that would mean some spans were shipped by Eiffel years earlier as the PO was built in 1887 I think – so Biggs’ source cannot really support that part unless the spans were just lying about for 7 years! What was the pre-order time for huge chunks of metal to be sent from France…? Is this of any interest, or is Biggs using his hat for a megaphone here?
And where are the market halls? I have now tracked down this 1880 text and am crawling through its arcane phrasings and the documented expenditure on various items such as Police stations, gendarmerie Soc Trang, Prison Central (the notorious one in Saigon presumably), and much more… One Eiffel item does seem to be mentioned as the record list includes 4k (I assumed piastres, but it seems to be francs) in 1871 for pont sur l’arroyo chinoise a Cholon. p55, but this would have to be planning as the bridge did not open for ten more years. Yet more promising is that in 1877 some 14k fr were allocated for the Hotel des postes and the comments column mentions Foulhoux as architecte, chef de la section des bâtiments civil. No other references to the post office that I can see. I reckon Eiffel, on balance, was looking elsewhere. Nice bridge though, this by Eiffel.
Trying to read in the library but looking out the window at the reminder that this is no ordinary library experience.
A few parts from a recent text: Sophie Fuggle & John Hutnyk (2022) “Saigon’s penalscape: interpreting colonial prisons.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 23:3, 443-458, DOI: 10.1080/14649373.2022.2108208
At the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, there is a photo of the old French colonial prison, the Maison Centrale de Saigon, once located on the street known as Rue La Grandière, now Lý Tự Trọng. This prison was notorious for its brutal treatment of those who resisted the colonial occupation, with several early communists executed in its courtyard, among whom one is now honoured with a commemorative statue, standing defiantly in that same courtyard. The former prison site today houses the General Sciences Library, a building in a 1970s style that is quaintly and quietly modernist, yet still imposingly functional, as a library should be. Having Lý’s statue stand in front of the library acknowledges the French colonial past of Ho Chi Minh City even as its architectural heritage and urban infrastructure is renovated, replaced, or rebuilt (Kim 2015; Harms 2011, 2016; Doling 2019) This is part of the story of the infamous extensive prison system that operated as part of France’s hundred-year occupation that, across the city, is told in complex and variegated ways via purpose-built memorial museums.
…
Maison Centrale was the departure point for many of those exiled to Côn Đảo. The journalist Jean-Claude Demariaux writing for La Dépêche d’Indochine in 1939,10 describes how he arranged to visit a prison guard for an “aperitif” in order to ensure a decent view of the prison courtyard on the morning of a transfer to the islands. Memoirs such as that of Bảo Lương (real name: Nguyễn Trung Nguyệt), related by marriage to Tôn Đức Thắng, tell of waiting to see what their fate would be, securing cigarette butts from the French prisoners held far more comfortably upstairs (Tai 2010, 150) and otherwise enduring torture and unsanitary conditions. The French admitted overcrowding in the prison as early as 1905 (Doling 2015b), though it was still in operation during WWII and not demolished until 1968.
…
While the War Remnants Museum and Museum of Southern Vietnamese Women both lay emphasis on the extensive network of colonial prisons, the few sites that remain within the city are largely unknown and unexplored by international tourists and domestic visitors alike. The former French Police Station on Rue Catinat, renamed Đồng Khởi, now houses the offices of the Department of Culture, Information, Sport and Tourism. Formerly this building was the sinister Police headquarters in which Vietnamese revolutionaries were subject to interrogation and torture. It was used in the same way by the Japanese during WWII and then again by the French on their inglorious return and the RVN Government, as Interior Ministry, until 1975. The French called the headquarters their Direction de la Police et de la Sûreté and it was known in Vietnamese as the Bót Catinat (Doling 2014b).
…
Across from the “hideous pink cathedral” of Notre Dame, as mentioned in Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American, it is where Inspector Vigot had his office and past which the narrator takes daily walks, heading “back by the dreary wall of the Vietnamese Sûreté that seemed to smell of urine and injustice” (Greene 2002 [1955], 42). Apparently, the dungeons have been flooded, but they were significant enough to warrant a commemorative plaque and feature in the memoir of Nguyễn Thị Bình, known as Madame Binh, the National Liberation Front delegate to Paris and head of the Provisional Revolutionary Government. Madame Binh tells of being beaten and interrogated within the headquarters. Followed by several years in Chí Hòa, she was released only after the defeat of the French at Điện Biên Phủ (Nguyen 2015, 100–104). Her younger brother Nguyễn Đông Hà survived seven years in Côn Đảo’s tiger cages.
…
[B]uilt in 1968, opened 1971 and only after 1975 inherited and maintained by the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Doling 2015b). Nevertheless, the library does become a part of the story of resistance that shapes the penalscape in Ho Chi Minh City. A small plaque acknowledges the site of the former Maison Centrale de Saigon, pointing to the guillotine and brutal French colonial rule since its inauguration in 1865-66, and the long history of resistance within the prison, exemplified by young fighters and tragic martyrdom. We started this paper at Lý Tự Trọng Street renamed to remember the Vietnamese revolutionary who was held in the prison before being executed by the French at the age of 17. The prison was demolished in 1968 but had been slated for closure since the opening of Chí Hòa in 1953.
More here: Sophie Fuggle & John Hutnyk (2022) “Saigon’s penalscape: interpreting colonial prisons.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 23:3, 443-458, DOI: 10.1080/14649373.2022.2108208
“Page no.297: ‘Een Jonk van Palimban.’ (Junk from Palimban on present day Sumatra, Indonesia). A scene that took place near Pulo Condore / Con Son Island an Island off the South Vietnam coast. Men with swords on the junk loaded with spices chase others off the boat, into the sea or the small sloop moored beside it. A larger sailing vessel in the background, anchored just off a coastline. Etching on a verge type handlaid paper. Description: This print originates from the 1698 Dutch edition of William Sewel’s translation of William Dampier’s travelogue: ‘Nieuwe Reystogt rondom de Werreld’ (A New Voyage Round the World), published in the Hague by Abraham de Hondt. Artists and Engravers: Engraver Caspar Luyken (based on monogram C.L. in some of the plates in the originating work).”
The report on this 1965 anti-war protest is marginally better than most current press release churnalism, of course it favours the Police and the future PM McMahon (who eventually presides over troop withdrawal), but its easy enough to read between the lines and see this was the start. So, a welcome find. At this time a Gallop Survey showed more than 50% of Australians supported the Menzies Govt’s decision to send troops to Vietnam (in April 1965 – before that only military advisors [and probably special ops had been there – see ‘The Sullivans’]). The first anti-War teach-ins were held in July that year.
“60 arrested in Vietnam war protest (Canberra Times, 22 October 1965) SYDNEY, Friday. — About 60 people were arrested tonight during a demonstration against the Vietnam war in which more than 400 people threw Sydney’s peak hour traffic into chaos with a sit-down across Pitt and King Streets. At one stage, some people feared that the demonstration would develop into a riot. Scores of uniformed and special police were rushed to the area at the height of the demonstration. Police cordoned off one-way streets as 15 radio cars and five police vans surrounded the demonstrators. Earlier, police and demonstrators ex-changed blows in the streets while others were dragged to police vehicles. Some people, caught in the melee, rushed at demonstrators and wrenched their banners from them, tearing them to shreds. The New South Wales Police Commissioner, Mr Allan, called for an immediate report on the incident. It probably will be ready for him late tomorrow. Police said late tonight that most of those arrested had been released on bail. They would appear in Central Court on Monday. Peak hour traffic. The few who had not been bailed out would spend the night in police cells at Central, Darlinghurst and Regent Street police stations and would appear in court tomorrow. The demonstration began about 5pm as hundreds of workers left their offices. Many had trouble getting through the placard-waving, chanting crowd, and some were still caught there as police reinforcements arrived. The Minister for Labour and National Service, Mr McMahon, was leaving the Commonwealth Bank Building on Martin Place, where parliamentary offices are located, as the demonstration began. The demonstration began peacefully, but soon home-going city traffic was banked up to Circular Quay in the north and the Central Railway Station in the southern end of the main city area. Demonstrators paraded along the footpaths. They carried posters, on which were written anti-American slogans, and photographs of Vietnamese civilian casualties. They marched into Pitt Street during the peak hour and were blocked by police. … Some demonstrators sat and lay across the roadways. They still held aloft their banners, and chanted slogans protesting the Vietnam war. Fights broke out, and extra police moved in. Many people were arrested by police and loaded into vans. They were taken to Central, Darlinghurst and Regent Street stations. Mr McMahon was reported to have spoken to a demonstrator who carried a banner which read: “How can the Vietnamese be aggressive in their own country?” There was a brief exchange and Mr McMahon appeared to offer to shake hands. The demonstrator walked away. Scores of leaflets were handed out by those taking part in the protest, but most were thrown away. After the area had been cleared the leaflets littered the ground. Demonstrators included members of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, the Communist Party, the ALP youth body, women’s organisations including the “Save Our Sons” Movement and university students. Militant members of trade unions, including some officials, were reported to be among those who chanted, “One, two, three, four, We don’t want war . . . Five, six, seven, eight, End the war, negotiate.” Some chanted, “American casualties, one in 20, Australian casualties, one in 10.” Militant action. Most placards were directed against American policy in Vietnam, although some attacked the Australian Government’s policy on conscription. A spokesman for the demonstrators said tonight that the demonstration was the forerunner of more militant action by the group. Until now they had been prepared to hold peaceful demonstrations in the Sydney Domain and other areas, but in future similar demonstrations were likely, he said. While demonstrators paraded, about a dozen sup- porters of the Australian- Vietnamese policy waved American and Australian flags as a counter protest.”
Fighting the lurgie seemed the right time to read Tim Page’s book on train trips in Vietnam 20 years after his war photo stint – the Dennis Hopper character in the Coppola film “Apocalypse Now” was based on him – at the Directors Cut Premier I had a freebie ticket* and sat with Tim and his assistant, who woke him up for ‘his’ scenes. Page died in August this year. The book is a travelogue by someone who knew their way around and/or was really just out and about to have a look for himself. There’s a link to a Tiếng Việt article here and one to an article by Sarah McLean who, until it closed approx 2010, ran the Indochina memorial media foundation Page helped set up here.
* I’d got in late I think as a wait list ‘return’ ticket, which I now imagine might have been his ‘plus one’ that he was not bothered to fill as its, frankly, a shoddy film whose only redeeming feature is that it exposes the insanity of US revisionist film history, and he’d have known that before I had.
Look out for the work of Édouard de Saint-Ours in the future. In a fascinating paper last night he showed many early photographs from Vietnam including most strikingly, this marvellous picture (below) of the Singapore-Malay Saigon-based opium trader Ton Kin Sing by Paul-Émile Berranger in 1859. This guy was disliked by the Chinese in Cho Lon, but set himself up as a broker for deals with the French – a proper comprador, but I was so impressed by his reek of confidence. The paper on colonial photography was a synopsis of the phd underway by Édouard de Saint-Ours at St Andrews, but given here in HCMC yesterday. I had to leave a little early, but Édouard explained the photograph was taken aboard a French ship – floorboards, a sail behind him. Would love to know what the book he holds was – probably a ledger, but it looks to have a musician on the back. Amazing. (Photo is in a private collection, I don’t know the details of that as I had to leave before the end of the talk, but I will be in touch with the author)
‘Robinsonades: pertaining to allegories from the East India Company in Ceylon and other islands, from Marxism to Post-structuralism, and in which, dear reader, a 300-year-old adventure book may still have something to say’ in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2020, 21:2, 279-286, DOI: 10.1080/14649373.2020.1766236
A book written at the start in Germany after finding the letters of Elsie and Bronislaw Malinowski had been published – and able to mention how Malinowski’s copy to Elsie attributes ‘more than half’ the labour on the book to her. Rare occurance, not on the cover.
This was my third single author book (Bad Marxism) but the first one has sold better over time, based on hanging out in Calcutta in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I had given up on academic work, though was still devoted to the writings of Zawar Hanfi on Heidegger and of course Marx.
The middle book of the set is Critique of Exotica, the product of a reading group at the Charterhouse Hotel in Manchester with mates who also published Dis-Orienting Rhythms (perhaps the favourite title I’ve com up with – after Rumour, which I did not identify as a title at first, as a friend, Matt, saw it as a part of the draft first para and he said ‘is that gonna be the title’. Yes, as it turns out. Critique though is a great title too, inspired varipusly by Kant, the anthro journal Crit of Anth and Gayatri Spivak’s Critique of Postcolonial Reason – which had come out he year before.
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A Opera-play Người Cầm Lái (April 2022) presented Ho Chi Minh as the helmsman. By ‘The People’s Public Security Theatre, it celebrates ‘the beloved President’s 132nd birthday (1890-2022) along with the theatre’s 40th founding anniversary (1982-2022)’ (Nhan Dan 2022).
In 1927, in Duong Cach Menh (part of which is recently translated here), Bac Ho refers to to the Party as the necessarily firm hand on the tiller of the revolution (page 86 Selected Ho Chi Minh).
The trope has history of course can be sought out in many literatures – see Homer, Virgil – but this is also a venerable tradition in communist histories Lenin, Stalin, Mao. Perhaps worth documenting:
The year before Ho Chi Minh described the Party as giving the necessary steer, but while he had already been teaching the course for a year, in 1926 a poster by Mitrofanov described Lenin as the Helmsman (корmчии) of the Soviet state (Media Storehouse 2004):
But perhaps my favourite of Lenin is a 1932 lithograph picturing him at the helm of a red-sailed ship (must be a pirate ship as I see some renegades there too, so the date might be wrong as this implies pre- 1929 and Look and Learn, where I’ve nicked the image, was a British children’s mag from 1962 onwards – look and get things distorted is of course a staple of all English history curricula):
5234061 (colour litho) by Russian School (20th century); Private Collection; (add.info.: Portrait of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), depicted as a helmsman steering a ship with red sails, representing the USSR, 1932.); Look and Learn / Elgar Collection.
Let us not think this was not a wider party thing in the USSR though – Stalin, in 1933, was depicted on that same ship:
In China, Quan Gian for the Hong Kong based China media Project, tells us that Mao was already described as the “great helmsman,” or wěidà de duòshǒu (伟大的舵手) in 1949. Quite possibly earlier.
‘on February 21, 1950, the People’s Daily published a verse by the poet Tian Jian (田间) that praised both Stalin and Mao. Written in a time of deep friendship between the CCP and the Soviet Union, the poem was called: “Two Good Helmsmen, in the Same Boat” (两位好舵手，同御一条船)’ (Quan 2020)
but earlier Lenin and Stalin were also called helmsmen in China, according to Quan, a search the archives of the People’s Daily, launched 1946, shows ‘that “helmsman” Lenin was referred to as well as Stalin. Lenin was the helmsman. Stalin was the helmsan. And Mao was of course the helmsman. In all instances they were referred to as the duoshou (舵手)’ (Quan 2020).
There was a 1940s Chinese Communist Party song – “You Are The Beacon” (你是灯塔) that refers to Mao as helmsman: The lyrics went: ‘You are the beacon, shining on the ocean before dawn. You are the helmsman, piloting us forward.’ (Quan 2020)
and a cultural revolution era revolutionary song, ‘“Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman” (大海航行靠舵手), written by Wang Shuangyin in 1964’ (Quan 2020). You can find that here:
All good. But…
I think it might also be possible that Ho Chi Minh was referring to a folk lyric he remembered when he referred to ‘Người Cầm Lái’ in Duong Cach Menh. Not my area of expertise at all but I imagine him critically reworking the (somewhat problematic) tradition here. The lyrics refer to the need for stability (we can keep the reference to chồng dated to the times, though today sometiems also…):
Chồng chành như nón không quai – Rocking like a conical hat without a chin strap
Như thuyên không lái, như ai không chồng – A boat without a rudder, she has no old man at home.
Much as I would like to provide, I do not have a reference for this – so, kindly please, I ask for help, anyone?
July 1st, Ho Chi Minh City – 76 Hai Ba Trung – After a fire that started in an picture framing shop*, a large part of the house of where former Indian National Congress leader and then Second Imperialist World War (WW2) Indian National Army leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose last stayed in Saigon was severely damaged. (There’s Vietnam.net news footage below, after my photos). All of the roof seems charred and some metal structural supports are in place and most of the right side part of the building – largely separate – is gutted. The left side of the building seems to have intact rooms, though the roof is clearly all fire affected. I don’t want to pry, but its possible to see from the street, despite a flimsy wire barrier, some important family materials were lost – you can see the charred remains of a framed picture of a deity among that wreckage.
There had been in the past calls for the Indian Government to do smething to preserve this important site of heritage significance, though no doubt controversial for some.
* no coincidence at all that my first trade was as a picture framer
Here you can see that the roof burned, but a lot of the right side of the building itself was saved by the prompt arrival of fire brigade crews (see the news video at the end, the brigade were there within minutes).
Admittedly, my camera skills failed here today, as it was peak hour traffic on a busy road, so I did not have time to check or to climb over the barrier to get a better shot. Not even sure I should – there are personal effects here perhaps. Still, not identifiable at least in my dodgy images (Huawei, no filter)
The right side of the building is pretty much wrecked as we see here. The roof of the main part of the hours seems saveable, or at least a new metal support exo-skeleton has been fitted. No doubt many original fittings and fixtures have been tragically damaged beyond repair.
Happily the back of the building seems to have largely been spared, and today – 6 weeks after the fire, the driveway is still a thriving street food spot, with at least 6 different vendors and a dozen or so 4 seater tables providing alfresco, smokey aroma, dining.
The news report does not mention that this was the house where Netaji stayed. It does say the fire started from an infrared malfunction, that the fire threatened a nearby hostel, and that personal effects were damaged – and that it started in the art shop. Of course I am curious – this is a set back for any restoration, and so much of the old heritage buildings of HCMC are lost – though just down the street a little is the old opium factory that’s been retained and converted to upscale restaurants, in a twisted heritage gambit too – even the sign that indicated it was an opium factory is gone now though, even if the iconography on the gate remains obviously poppy (see Tim Doling’s posts on this at http://www.historicvietnam.com/wang-tai/).
For Subhas though, it is a major setback as he was promising to return to live here soon, or so ‘they’ say.
75 years of Indian independence suggests it is time for the India Govt to step in and fund a restoration.
Have this in my hand, having helped translate a part of it, cannot recommend it more highly. The full Đường Cách Mệnh trans will follow next year, also with Leftword. Only the first third of that essay is here, but lots of other important pieces. See Leftword for copies.
I do not want to attract new madness, the old madness does well enough. Here, a summary of various items of fun fact* where *I use the term in the sense of fake news facts*:
Much respect to Netaji, I do of course wish (any of) this was true.
However, some years ago, on the trail of Subhas’s house here in HCMC, which we found, which still exists, though in a dilapidated state, someone was in touch and linked to a number of photographs of an Indian looking gentleman who is pictured at a Chinese pro Vietnam ceremony (can be discounted, read the ‘mobile phone photo story abdout ‘Evidence shows’ – link below) and a picture of the delegation to Paris a few years later allegedly as a member of the talks, with *confirmation* by the famous Madame Binh – head negotiator. Well, most likely not, even if the person does seem to have the correct features, but all other accounts suggest a plane crash. Though Taiwan airport logs no such crash – during a war, go figure – thus pouring aviation fuel on the rumour mill.
Me, personally, I am sure Subhas will return in the next few weeks and reveal that it is true he has been trading Cocaine in Vietnam, then living in China before walking across Tibet with Vikram Seth. Since then he has been living all this time as a sadhu in Varanasi and other parts of U.P., perhaps. Ha!
More likely is the French story that he died in Prison – the notorious Police Bot Catinat (lock up mentioned in Grahame Green’s Quiet American book) is not far from his house, and its the more likely tale really.
Indeed, probably worth citing the entire post as, well, surely we can only wish this were all true, what a hero (somewhat unfortunately its only in The Wire, ah well):
“He lived incognito to perform some covert activities in Asian countries. He led an Asian Liberation Army which fought in the Korean War of 1952. The Chinese army that attacked India in 1962 was led by him. He wanted to emancipate India from the western influence but Indians could not recognise him, so he ordered the army to retreat. In Vietnam, he was guiding Ho-Chi-Minh in his fight against US imperialism. He went to Paris in 1969 to mediate for the Vietnamese in the ‘Paris Peace Talks’. Before that, he visited Tashkent to help draw up the Tashkent Pact between India and Pakistan on January 10, 1966. Lastly, he turned his attention to his native state and was in north Bengal in 1970-71 guiding the ‘Mukti-joddhas’ in their liberation war for Bangladesh.
Me, I most like the story of him beating the black hole monument plaque with his slipper, as mentioned in my article https://www.academia.edu/17780537/THE_BLACK_HOLE in *Strangely Beloved* by the wonderful Nilanjana Gupta.
Thanks to Sarunas for the latest diversion into this quick sand trinketry.
For several years I have been taking people to see the house in which Subhas Chandra Bose stayed in Vietnam before allegedly crashing on the airport in Taiwan (no recorded crash etc) …
At present though the House is desperately in need of renovation before we lose it forever. Not only important because its the last place Bose stayed etc… [before he became a Sadhu in Varanasi where he still lives on, as some people say, though some also say he was Ho Chi Minh’s advisor in the Paris peace talks etc etc… ha! myth and miracles] but because the building on a prominent street in HCMC is an example of architecture not much found and the character of the city needs to preserve something other than French colonial and high rise glass. As I said, its now a bit of a wreck, though still lived in, it is apparently still owned by descendants of the fellow who invited Bose. As you can see in the pics, taken by various freinds on visits, the yard has become home for street-food cafes and the front is covered in hoardings for a surely fairly easily removed flower shop (with due compansation of course).
I imagine bose in teh hexagaonal building in the back, making plans for a resurgent INA and getting the Brits out of India once and for all.
Background you say? There are roo many things – do a search. Here are a couple of things to start…
In 2020 Shrawanti Saha added some great detail in her FB post on the house and its owner (it is still in the family I believe): “
Netaji – the symbol of courage, valour and patriotism, my mind takes me back to my holidays in Vietnam couple of years back. While browsing through the various museums, war remnants, palaces, French colonial landmarks and the food stalls lining the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, (Saigon), I had the good fortune of visiting the mansion, where Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, was last seen in Saigon in 18th August, 1945 before he mysteriously vanished from the face of earth. This sprawling villa in the posh ‘white town’ of Saigon belonged to Leon Prouchandy, one of the most prominent and affluent Indian Tamil, originally from Pondicherry, living in Saigon.
Like many Indians living abroad, he too, supported Netaji’s bid for armed liberation of India and donated handsomely to the fund of Indian National Army. This mansion on Hai Bha Tung Road, Ho Chi Minh City, once 76 rue Paul Blanchy, Saigon, used to be Prouchandy’s abode before he gave a portion of it away to serve as the secretariat of Indian Independence League. This was the mansion, where Prouchandy bade adieu to Netaji before flying out in the Japanese plane on the fateful morning of 18th August, 1945. It is said that the two spent the previous night together discussing about his final destination and the whereabouts of the cash, jewellery and gold donated by the Indians to INA. Soon after the 2nd World War ended and Japan surrendered, the British authorities arrested Prouchandy infront of his entire family from this same mansion.
It took me little time and effort to spot this once palatial villa on the busy Hai Bha Tung Road as I could never imagine a place of such historical importance could house dirty shacks selling momos and street food, the sprawling lawns used as parking spaces for two wheelers and the porch in front could have a florist shop!! It was painful to see how this historic building is in a dilapidated state and lacks minimum maintenance.
However, in case you are still wondering about the whereabouts of Leon Prouchandy, then you sure are in for some shock. He was imprisoned and subjected to inhuman torture to extract information about Netaji and his treasure trove. Those 3 months of barbaric torture left him shattered and broken. He had lost his memory, senses and speech, when he was brought back to Pondicherry, where he lived another 23 years of his life in a vegetative and debilitated state. This was the price Leon Prouchandy, paid for his patriotism and supporting Netaji Bose. Thus one of the prime financiers of INA died a death of anonymity.”
OK, John again now: My own earlier post on this was to promote/critique the film The Forgotten Army :
“I know its a dangerous thing to even mention Subhas as it seems to get me entangled in long ‘conversations’ with those who think he’s due to return any moment – a sprightly 123 year old jogs past and I wonder, doesn’t he look a little… – but I want to write something about “The Forgotten Army – Azaadi ke Lite”
“The Forgotten Army’ is the dynamic story of Lt. Sodhi and his daredevil band of men and women who fought a heroic battle for the independence of India as part of the Indian National Army which was forged out of British defeat in Singapore during WWII and led by the charismatic, indomitable Indian leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose”
Starring Sunny Kaushal, Sharvari Wagh,
I am not sure how to get into it, but I’ve collected Bose trinkets since 1987 – when he will have been 90, so might still have turned up at one of the expectant vigils – cue every Sadhu spotting hyper-mystery mulcher ever. I do at least have the chance to sit and write this, or at least sketch a plan, in the last house he lived in here in Sai Gon (as it was then, Shashwati Talukdar) before, probably, being carted off to the nearby, still extant, police lock-up (though not a lock-up anymore, and the dungeons are totally flooded, thanks Tim Doling). Many thanks also to Joe Buckley for first taking on the mission to find the place when I was stuck in District 7.
Now, how to track the INA through the Malay Peninsula and up to Imphal. Planning random trips in lockdown may be a little perverted though. Challo Delhi!
You like unrequited love stories? This series has it too – Shah Rukh Khan’s influence perhaps 🙂
I could not find a single volume biography, which seems like a gap, but this special issue of Anthropologica from 1993 is a welcome find. Since it is hard to get hold of the articles, I’ve embedded the files for easy access. Read and be inspired. (more pdfs in the screenshot at the end, if you want them email me)
On the morning of December 17, 2021, the 2nd International Conference on Innovations in The Social Sciences & Humanities 2021 – ISSH 2021 was opened at Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU).
The conference was co-organized by TDTU with international partners including: University of Melbourne (Australia), Purdue University (USA), Moscow State University of Economics (Russia), University of the South Pacific (Fiji), Jadavpur University (India), Pratt Institute (USA) and Tricontinental Institute for Social Research.
In addition to the delegates who are experts from the United States, Europe and Australia, ISSH 2021 Conference also had the participation and presentation of delegates from Asian countries such as: Vietnam, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines,… With the diversity of delegates and research topics, the academic discussions at the Conference shed light on the reasons why there should be new research methods related to the field of social sciences and humanities.
The highlight of the ISSH-2021 Conference is that the inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach to social sciences has been widely used in research. The appropriateness of the inter-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary approach to the social sciences has been reflected in new research results focusing on four areas: Tourism, Communication Anthropology, Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work. The research topics are considered from many perspectives: Culinary tourism, whose main purpose is to discover food, is of great significance in a world where hunger, deprivation and migration are on the rise; Industry 4.0, digital technology and access to “smart cities” for all social classes; Issues of education, migration, population, poverty, disadvantaged people, middle class, tourism, … affected by COVID-19 are considered from many different approaches and presented at ISSH 2021.
Compared to the 1st ISSH conference organized in 2019, the number of research papers presented at ISSH 2021 had doubled. The conference program took place on December 17 and 18, 2021 with 11 discussion sessions and 75 research papers presented and discussed.
The hosting of ISSH 2021 shows that TDTU has been trusted and chosen as a bridge for international research forums in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Dr. Tran Trong Dao – Acting President of TDTU delivering the opening speech.Assoc. John Hutnyk – President of the Conference speaking at the opening session.Prof. Jonathan Beller – Pratt, New York presenting at the conference.Live discussion at the conference venues.Organizers of the conference taking photos.
Vietnam’s Party leader honoured with Lenin Prize of Russian Communist Party
Wednesday, 2021-12-15 21:50:01 Font Size: |
Nhan Dan
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (R) and KPRF Vice Chairman Leonid Kalashnikov at the Lenin Prize presentation ceremony in Hanoi on December 15 (Photo: VNA) Font Size: |
NDO/VNA – General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong was honoured with the Lenin Prize by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) at a ceremony held in Hanoi on December 15.
On behalf of the KPRF Central Committee, Vice Chairman Leonid Kalashnikov presented the Vietnamese leader with the noblest prize of the KPRF and the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union.He affirmed that the prize demonstrates the respect for and recognition of the prominent contributions by General Secretary Trong, a brilliant politician highly valued in Russia and the world, as well as his unceasing efforts to solidify the Vietnam – Russia relations.Vietnam’s success is a vivid illustration of the fact that socialism has been materialised, Kalashnikov said, stressing that the KPRF always attaches importance to the traditional friendship with the CPV and wishes that bilateral ties will be enhanced further, helping to promote the Vietnam – Russia comprehensive strategic partnership, for the sake of the two peoples and for regional and international peace and stability.For his part, General Secretary Trong described the Lenin Prize as not only a recognition for himself but also the KPRF and Russian people’s respect for and sentiment towards the Vietnamese Party, State, and people. It is also a demonstration of the special long-standing ties between the CPV, the Vietnamese people and the Communist Party and people of the Soviet Union in the past and the Russian Federation at present.He also highly valued Russia’s achievements in promoting national development and raising its stature in the international arena, along with the growth of the KPRF.He thanked the enormous, wholehearted, and effective assistance that the former Soviet Union and today’s Russia have given to Vietnam. He pledged to join the KPRF and Russian partners to keep strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries and the friendship between the two peoples.
These are the abstracts and agenda for the 2nd International Conference on Innovations in the Social Sciences and Humanities 2021 (17th-18th Dec 2021). Some 75 papers are included, with half from scholars in Vietnam, the rest from 25 other countries. Of course, as the conference is also online, which means something of a juggle in scheduling, the conference traverses time-zones as if they were almost invisible, porous borders – as really, to some extent, aren’t they all – but nevertheless, we think a global conviviality can prevail. The conference is on zoom and in person at Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 17-18 December 2021 (next week as I write) and participation is free – on filling a registration form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd3x0wkn-5B-8RLVK_tFlgkHiOkJJ665yiuI6YgYwh9Et8tAA/viewform). J
In which I talk to my class about the content of the upcoming conference at TDTU – ISSH2021.tdtu.edu.vn
‘wipe out the vestiges of petty-bourgeois ideology and the influences of bourgeois ideology, and in particular, firmly oppose individualism, the ideological source of revisionism. If there are communists who become revisionist it is because they are afraid of the hardship of the revolutionary struggle, of sacrifices, and only want to live an easy-going life, consequently they get addicted to bourgeois habits, ways of living and ideology: for these persons, the noble and fine communist ideal has disappeared [and] they only dream of the Western bourgeois way of living, and consider it as the model, their highest objective of struggle, they tremble with fear, compromise with and then ideologically surrender to the imperialists and reactionaries’ (Le Duan, speech to the Dec 1963 Vietnam Workers Party Central Committee, in “Selected Writings”, Hanoi: the Gioi Publishers p. 155-156)
“The Party’ s leadership constantly rests upon the principle of collective leadership. Personal arbitrariness is totally alien to its nature. No individual even one endowed with exceptional gifts, can ever understand and comprehend all things and events in all their aspects and ceaseless changes in form. Hence the necessity of a collective intellect. Only collective decisions taken on the strength of a collective mind can avoid subjectivism, which leads to errors with often dangerous consequences. Collective leadership is the highest principle in the Party’s leadership. This by no means lessens the personal responsibility of the leaders. At present, some comrades in a number of leading organs are not paying due regard to the principle of collective leadership. On the other hand, certain comrades rely on the “collective” to look after everything, and put the flame on the “collective” for every one of their own errors and failures without admitting their individual responsibility. We must put an end to this state of affairs.” Le Duan ‘The Vietnamese Revolution’ (n.d. but 1969-70 approx) in “Selected Works” 1994, p.316
Looking forward to continuing to explore the city one great meal at a time. Here are some of my notes on La Manufacture d’Opium, at 74 Hai Ba Trung – and a bit about Subhas Chandra Bose at the end..
The stylised opium poppy design in the entrance arch for Number 74 Hai Ba Trung signals, almost like a guilty secret, that this was the site of the French Opium Factory in Sai Gon/Ho Chi Minh City, from 1881.
The Opium Trade was a vicious French colonial policy, of which Ho Chi Minh famously mentions in his Declaration of Independence in 1945:
“for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.
In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.
They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up three distinct political regimes in the North, the Center and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our national unity and prevent our people from being united.
They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly slain our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in rivers of blood.
They have fettered public opinion; they have practiced obscurantism against our people.
To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium…
Not that surprisingly, this opium history in HCMC has been erased over time – ever more so, it seems. The latest update even removed the name plate that mentioned “La Manufacture d’Opium” (without any context). The restaurants inside seem to erase more and more indication of what this was. When I first visited there was a sign at least, now, like so many places where this trade went on, there is no sign.
Tim Doling writes: “It was built in 1881 after the Cochinchina authorities took back the opium franchise from Wang Tai http://www.historicvietnam.com/wang-tai/ and was significantly expanded in size in the early 1900s, when the opening of the new Yunnan railway line gave the French a new cheap and plentiful supply of raw opium from China”
There is much more to dig out on this place. which of course I hope to do – this is a holding post for that work. Anyone got stuff please send. Anyone want to visit and explore – some fine dining options even, get in touch. Some of it looked a little run down 2 years ago:
before the most recent update. Photo: John Hutnyk
To its credit, one of the restaurants in the complex does keep a little history on its website:
As soon as Indochina was conquered, the French understood the financial benefits they could reap out of the opium trade. Usage was already widespread in the local community.
In 1861, two Frenchmen acquired the rights to trade and they quickly became very prosperous. By 1881, the Governor of Indochina decided to exercise direct control over the refining and sale of opium in the colony. The concession had passed from French to Chinese hands and there were security concerns over the situation.
The refinery – La Manufacture d’Opium – was build that year. You can still admire the old logo, an interlaced wrought iron O & M, in the main gate as you enter the courtyard from Hai Ba Trung Street as well as the stylised carved opium poppies above the entrance.
The administration, La Régie de l’Opium – the building still stands at the end of Ham Nghi Street, facing the river – controlled the sales via approved distributors who sold the goods in stamped brass boxes. Prices were set by decree.
This revenue generated a large part of the colony’s budget – up to 37% in 1914.
The opium refined in Saigon came mostly from India. Only a very small amount was grown in the colony.
As early as 1907, a decree was introduced that forbade the opening of new opium dens but it seems that production did not actually stop until 1954.
For the next 20 years, the area became the red light district of Saigon. In 1975 the buildings were split into housing for Customs Department officials. They still lived here when we opened in 2006.
And just nearby, the last refuge of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
Just up the road from the Opium factory, there is another site of interest. I have been collecting material and visiting the house that Bose stayed in here in Saigon at the end of the second global imperialist war. Its a bit dilapidated but still owned by the Indian grandson of the guy that made it available to Bose. I think it probably that Bose could have stayed in the hexagonal guest room at the back. The likelihood of it being torn down in favour of a glass and chrome skyscraper is high unless some dosh is found to rip off the horrible hoardings on the front – though it is not that offensive that the courtyard has become the home for about 6 street food cafes, some of which are very good – others do specialties that I don’t rate but some do – those huge snails do not seem that appetising to me :)/ There is also a shrine to some other soldier, from a later period in the back part of the driveway heading towards the servant’s kitchen. Whoever actually lives in the house seems to be struggling to keep things going, and the condition is very basic and run down, though well secured. From here Bose either was flown to Taiwan and the plane crashed on the tarmac – there is no record of any crash. Or, he was taken to the nearby Bot Catinat (Police station, notorious for its torture dungeons) and killed, which seems the more likely. Other, wilder, stories say he became an advisor to Ho Chi Minh and is even pictured in the delegation to Paris!! I think that is a stretch, despite the mysterious Bengali-looking man who was in the inner circle for the right time. Others of course ‘found’ him in Benares as a sadhu and still others were awaiting his return, at least as late as 1995, in Calcutta – probably still are. We can discount most of these latter fantasies. None so far can really be confirmed. Shashwati Talukdar is making a film on all this and I took her to the house 3 years ago to film. Its interesting that this is not renovated, despite being only a few doors up from the Opium factory and its set staging of colonial grand exotic theme restaurants, with no real remaining evidence that its the opium factory except for the undeniable opium decorations in the main gate. You can see some snaps from visits above:
Now, I know its a dangerous thing to even mention Subhas as it seems to always get me entangled in long ‘conversations’ with those who think he’s due to return any moment – a sprightly 123 year old jogs past and I wonder, doesn’t he look a little… – but I also want to write something about “The Forgotten Army – Azaadi ke Lite”
“The Forgotten Army’ is the dynamic story of Lt. Sodhi and his daredevil band of men and women who fought a heroic battle for the independence of India as part of the Indian National Army which was forged out of British defeat in Singapore during WWII and led by the charismatic, indomitable Indian leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose” Starring Sunny Kaushal, Sharvari Wagh,
I am not sure how to get into it, but I’ve collected Bose trinkets since 1987 – when he will have been 90, so might still have turned up at one of the expectant vigils – cue every Sadhu spotting hyper-mystery mulcher ever. I do at least have the chance to sit and write this, or at least sketch a plan, in the last house he lived in here in Sai Gon before, probably, being carted off to the nearby, still extant, police lock-up (though not a lock-up anymore, its the Ministry of Culture – and the dungeons are totally flooded, thanks Tim Doling). Many thanks also to Joe Buckley for first taking on the mission to find the Bose place back in 2017. Now, how to track the INA through the Malay Peninsula and up to Imphal. Planning random trips in lockdown may be a little perverted though. Challo Delhi! You like unrequited love stories? This series has it too – Shah Rukh Khan’s influence perhaps
This little finale though, about the owner of the building where Bose stayed, from Shrawanti Saha. It is poignant and needs to be followed up – perhaps a visit to Pondicherry at last.:
“As the country today celebrates the birth anniversary of Netaji – the symbol of courage, valour and patriotism, my mind takes me back to my holidays in Vietnam couple of years back. While browsing through the various museums, war remnants, palaces, French colonial landmarks and the food stalls lining the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, (Saigon), I had the good fortune of visiting the mansion, where Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, was last seen in Saigon in 18th August, 1945 before he mysteriously vanished from the face of earth. This sprawling villa in the posh ‘white town’ of Saigon belonged to Leon Prouchandy, one of the most prominent and affluent Indian Tamil, originally from Pondicherry, living in Saigon.Like many Indians living abroad, he too, supported Netaji’s bid for armed liberation of India and donated handsomely to the fund of Indian National Army. This mansion on Hai Bha Tung Road, Ho Chi Minh City, once 76 rue Paul Blanchy, Saigon, used to be Prouchandy’s abode before he gave a portion of it away to serve as the secretariat of Indian Independence League. This was the mansion, where Prouchandy bade adieu to Netaji before flying out in the Japanese plane on the fateful morning of 18th August, 1945. It is said that the two spent the previous night together discussing about his final destination and the whereabouts of the cash, jewellery and gold donated by the Indians to INA. Soon after the 2nd World War ended and Japan surrendered, the British authorities arrested Prouchandy infront of his entire family from this same mansion. It took me little time and effort to spot this once palatial villa on the busy Hai Bha Tung Road as I could never imagine a place of such historical importance could house dirty shacks selling momos and street food, the sprawling lawns used as parking spaces for two wheelers and the porch in front could have a florist shop!! It was painful to see how this historic building is in a dilapidated state and lacks minimum maintenance. However, in case you are still wondering about the whereabouts of Leon Prouchandy, then you sure are in for some shock. He was imprisoned and subjected to inhuman torture to extract information about Netaji and his treasure trove. Those 3 months of barbaric torture left him shattered and broken. He had lost his memory, senses and speech, when he was brought back to Pondicherry, where he lived another 23 years of his life in a vegetative and debilitated state. This was the price Leon Prouchandy, paid for his patriotism and supporting Netaji Bose. Thus one of the prime financiers of INA died a death of anonymity.”
photographs by Elizabeth RileyPhotos: Joe Buckley
More opium architecture:
An additional note to follow – up on Duong Tôn Đức Thắng, a building from 1885-1887 redesigned following the French architect Alfred Foulhoux wbut previously owned by Maison Wang-Tai, and in the new building decorated with further stylised opium poppies as described in Saigoneer.
The idea of reparations going from Vietnam to the US seems obscene unless we really think international solidarity.
Compared to prison memoirs, accessibility to the American reconstruction of the war is abundantly available in a series of blockbuster films (besides Rambo, Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), there are too many to list, but we consider the Deer Hunter and Good Morning Vietnam (get refs) as indicative. As mentioned in the case of documentary films such as the 2017 Burns and Novick series The Vietnam War which played to large audiences in the US, but was not popular in Vietnam (as mentioned again in our text below). There is a Vietnamese television series on the war that runs for some 50 plus episodes, so far to our knowledge not taken up by the US networks. We also see a continuity here with Spike Lee’s 2020 cinema effort, Da 5 Bloods, where still-anonymous Vietnamese are subject to another fictional defeat and we see a ‘self-reparation’ pay-out of Black US servicemen via a recovered CIA covert ops treasure – the irony of reparations going to US Black Americans, while perhaps admirable within the US racial narrative, is an abomination given the US administration’s refusal to pay the Paris Accords’ sanctioned reparations to Vietnam for the war. And in any case, a box of gold bars buried in an area of the Mekong Delta, subject to flooding rains and movement of land through shifting sedimentation and silt, could hardly be so easily ‘found’ 40 years later, using metal detectors that are themselves obscene in the context of land mines. It may be that this Spike Lee aside should only be a footnote, but the point is that the penalscape (Fuggle 2019: 31) is bound up with the image of the war and how it is renewed along the same demarcation lines even in 2020.
Promoting Participation in Local Natural Resource Management through Ecological Cultural Tourism: Case Study in Vam Nao Reservoir Area, An Giang Province, Vietnam
Le Hue Huong, Bui Loan Thuy, Nguyen Thi Phuong Linh
Theodor is in grade 2 of primary (7 years old) and they study Ho Chi Minh thought. Here is an example of their little parables about Bác Hồ (Uncle Ho):
My rough translation is:
“Security like that is excellent*
Uncle Ho’s security unit at the battlefield.
The unit has a new soldier. It is Le Phuc Nha, an ethnic minority San Chi soldier.
The first day he stood guard in front of the camp house of Uncle, soldier Nha was both proud and nervous.
This Brother watches the road leading to the house. Observing, suddenly he saw from a distance a tall, skinny old man, wearing rubber sandals.
Nha at first did not react, the old man took it as greeting, nodding, he said:
– you are the guard here?
And saying that he went to go into his house.
Before he could go inside, Nha quickly said:
– Please show me your papers!
The old man happily said:
– Here they are.
– You must have a different additional paper. There is a new paper you need to pass here.
At that moment, the company commander ran up, flustered. He said to Nha:
– Uncle Ho is here. Why didn’t you let Uncle come into Uncle Ho’s house?
As I was chatting to Tony who wanted an update, here it for economies sake for the family and friends too: we are in week 12 of homeschooling. Heaven forfend, help the kids. We sailed past the ‘we have this’ phase into stir crazy part three in and out the other end of ‘this is how it will be forever’. Playing the Animals ‘We Gotta get Out of This Place’ over dinner. Vietnam = 0 deaths, under 300 infections found, yaaay, and all of those traced to a couple of folks returned from pommyland, one airline pilot who went clubbing!! Nevertheless, great effort and a system that works – go figure, communism for all, I say – and we hope it will just be a few weeks more before the schools welcome us back, otherwise, its forever and, well, at least life is cheap here. On the other hand, life is cheap here. Thankfully some factories and businesses have been paying wages and there’s a lot of govt support, but marginal, part-time, street-level workers, waste-pickers., lottery tix people, etc, must have it tough, so very, tough times for many people, but I am still surprised, a little, since not all that many are visibly losing it. People sit around as casual as ever in the smaller outdoor street cafes that are still functioning in a minor way; for the bigger cafes – and in our area, every second house is a small cafe or foodie joint – in terms of the near-subsistence level businesses here must be a lot of pain – 80% of shops still closed (though the guy selling Security System’s can’t be an essential service can he? I mean, everyone is at home, and the restaurant tips are empty. Who needs security gadgets right now?). There was a moment when we could think, ah, it is just like a long long staycation, – endless Tet – but its harder to concentrate on anything the longer this goes on without a clear outcome/prognosis. I guess we have a lot of people starting to construct these. Home kit versions mostly – and often prognosis by numbers. And Guesswork. When I do get a moment to think work things, apart from just getting the few articles out with others, the analytic side is a minefield of doom and chaos. Again, maybe in some ways, Vietnam should be ok because not so many foreign students come here compared to say, Australia, UK and US uni’s, who are gonna suffer extreme measures – part inflicted by the ‘crisis’, partly by the bodgy silver budgie management types that will cut to the bone to save their skins. Especially UK ones who recently spent tonnes of money on tarting up their facilities to attract more students. Expect a huge crash in the higher education sector there. That, plus travel, are going to be a long time coming back. Venture capital will no doubt be looking to invest in remote digital services for rich folks on islands. If they can secure private armies to defend their fibre optic links and helicopter/drone Amazon deliveries, their life will be the same – well, wall-to-wall Rolling Stones ‘at home’ videos are the saddest part of it. Quite a long way from the Honky Tonk, eh Mick.
Trinketization 
