Youth Culture in Saigon; An Outsider’s Perspective

By Cyren Wong

Photos by Lim Fei Xiang

It took me ten minutes just to come out with the opening sentence of this article. That’s when I began to realise the immense task that was going to be writing about the youth culture of Saigon. The problem, I belatedly realised, was quite simply that it is impossible to make general statements about the diversity and multiplicity of the culture and lifestyle of Vietnamese youth. Indeed it became a personal fault of mine that I had even sought to do so in the first place, and this was perhaps Saigon’s own way of responding to such an effrontery, that I had even dared to take such an audacious tone in the first place. As such, I will begin most simply and humbly with the following sentence, the one that took over ten minutes just to come up, and that is- I shall be writing about the youth culture of Saigon.

I shall be writing about the youth culture of Saigon, something which – as you will undoubtedly realise – is not an easy task at all. Youth culture in Saigon, much like the culture of youth all across the world, is extremely varied and diverse in its composition. As such, writing about anything became extremely difficult when I started experiencing trouble finding an anchoring point to focus on. I suppose I could start talking about the things that the youth of Saigon have in common with each other, the education system for example, and how students go about negotiating student life amongst the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City, but that would not even begin to cover to wide scope of differences between public and private universities. Structured classes are held at both public and private universities – meaning that students are required to go to university at 7.30am for their classes, breaking only for a short period of two hours during lunch, and ending their day late in the afternoon after their remaining classes. This gives tertiary education quite the high school feel. Also, unlike the public universities, which require students to sit for an entrance exam- which they must pass in order to enrol- private universities are more than willing to accept students whose parents can afford to pay their relatively exorbitant fees! Indeed, unlike our own home country of Malaysia – where private universities are often held in greater regard – it would seem that a certificate or degree from a Vietnamese public university holds more merit for a student who wishes to further his or her own career within the country.

students of VNU undertaking in co-curricular activities during lunch break

But perhaps what was most eye-catching for an outsider like me was the way youth in this country seemed to gravitate towards parks. Playing in parks seems to be quite common amongst the youth in this country. One of the more popular games I observed amongst the youth here is a sport called “da cau” – a game which involves the systematic kicking of a feathered shuttle cock back and forth between a group of people; it is often played in groups of four to five, not only in the park but in many of the more spacious streets and alleyways of Saigon. Indeed Saigon by night seems to have a flurry of activity as youth take to the streets, either tossing about luminescent Frisbees or launching mini LED lit ‘helicopters’ into the air. In the more upper-scale parks located near malls like Parkson Grand in the Bin Thanh market, small groups of teenagers practice and show off their skateboard stunts to any pedestrian interested enough to watch.

Unlike Malaysia or even Chiang Mai, clubbing is not a staple activity of the youth because club entrance fees are considered very expensive for the average youth’s allowance, and clubs seem to be mostly frequented by the extremely rich or wealthy. The youth enjoy drinking though, and many of them drink communally over hot-pot dinners. Another interesting thing to note is that there seems to be no legal drinking age in Vietnam.

boys just wanna have fun

Certainly, there are various things I could say about the youth culture in Saigon, yet not much without repeating what my fellow travellers have already written. It is as such that I would like to conclude by saying that out of Saigon’s population, I seem to notice that there seems to be an extremely high number of young adults –many of whom are parents as I observed in the park – and can perhaps only speculate that it is because of this that there seems to be little of a gap between the young and the old. Both can be seen participating in the same activities and indulging in the same sports. However, what is perhaps most surprising is the way the youth of Saigon, the future of Her people, have managed to articulate themselves so well and so vibrantly within the structure of communism which still looms overhead through the statues of Ho Chi Minh, and various other local icons that constantly keep watch of the public spaces of Vietnam.