Vietnam+Paper



Vietnam and America are both geographically and culturally as different as any two countries can possibly get. They are on opposite sides of the globe. Vietnam is not as technologically developed as the United States is and is more forused on retaining it's traditional culture. My contact from Vietnam is my grandmother. She was born and raised in Vietnam and left only to escape the country during the Vietnam War. She was living in Saigon. She gave me their traditional dress, the Ao Dai, as a symbol of that country, and //The Story of Tam and Cam// as her story.



The Ao Dai is the traditional Vietnamese Dress. It consists of a 'dress' with a high collar, long sleeves, and a high slit up to the hip, and loose black or white pants underneath. It is famously known to "cover everything but hide nothing." It is a dress that flatters every figure and accentuates the waist and tiny bodies of most Vietnamese women.

Historically, the dress was influenced by the Chinese and was worn, at first, by only the nobility. In the 1700's, the king proclaimed that all should wear the Ao Dai, and it is used today for formal occasions and as a school uniform. Traditionally, young girls wear white to symbolize purity, young and unmarried women wear pastel colors, and married women wear bold colors, such as red. The Ao Dai represents femininity and invokes nostalgia among many Vietnamese for their traditional homeland. Throughout Vietnam's wars and changes, the Ao Dai has never changed.

My essential question was really why a dress was chosen to represent Vietnam. My grandmother chose this image to represent Vietnam because it describes the people of Vietnam. The people of Vietnam are very beautiful and very graceful. They also are modest and are very old-fashioned in their thinking. For example, having a boyfriend at a young age is looked down upon. Ao Dai used as school uniforms help to teach the girls modesty and how to be feminine.

The story she sent me, //The Story of Tam and Cam,// is very similar to a story we have in America, //Cinderella.// The story is not originally from America, however. It originated in Greece, but versions can be found worldwide. It is essentially the same story line as //Cinderella//, but there is more violence, and the evil stepmother actually kills Cinderall three times. Each time, she comes back as a different animal or person. This suggests that the Vietnamese believe heavily in reincarnation. They are a mostly Buddhist country, so this makes sense. In the story, the character of Cinderella does nothing wrong to the stepmother, so she gets reincarnated each time she is killed. Each time she is reincarnated, she still works hard at whatever life she is given. This really emphasizes how the Vietnamese are. There is a huge importance set upon hard work. Hard work is necessary to achieve or get anything.



Because I wanted to choose a symbol of the United States that was parallel to the symbol given to me by my grandmother, I decided to use a cowboy hat. The cowboy hat is very quintessentially American. Although very few exist now, they were the adventurers and heroes throughout the majority of our history. Cowboys (and cowboy hats) represent bravery and the raw, dangerous nature of our country. The United States is a country that is constantly at war and cowboys are no exception. While their main job was to deal with cattle on farms, they often were involved with violent events like shootouts. To Americans, cowboys represent justice. They are the people who kept the Wild West safe and legal (mostly).

Since we have an American version of //Cinderella,// I figured I would choose that story to contrast it with the Vietnamese version. In the American version, there is no killing. The worst the stepmother does to //Cinderella// is make her clean up the house. In the end, Cinderella marries the prince and lives happily ever after. This story mainly emphasizes perseverance, a value very much appreciated in the US. The United States is all about persevering in order to bring yourself to a higher position in life, which is exactly what Cinderella does in this story.

These two symbols represent radically different things. The Ao Dai represents peace and tradition, while the cowboy hat represents war and justice. I think this says volumes about the differences in culture between the US and Vietnam. While the Vietnamese are by no means a peaceful or war-free nation, they are much more reluctant to go to war that the United States is. They will only intervene if it directly affects them (Ex. The Vietnam War). The US, however, will fight pretty much any country it wants, no matter the cause. The US and its power and land are directly related to war. As far as the stories go, the US censors more than Vietnam does, so the US story is more peaceful. The values told in the story are both very characteristic of each country. The US is perseverance and Vietnam is hard work.

The Vietnamese are a very hard-working group of people. They are also very strong when they need to be. I believe that this is their gift to the world. During their history, they were also able to fight off both the Chinese and Americans in order to defend their country. The Vietnamese strive to do as much as they can and believe that one can accomplish anything if one works hard enough.