Valentine's Day wins hearts and minds in Vietnam
HANOI - Vietnam's upwardly mobile urbanites are
putting their hearts into Valentine's Day, the latest
Western obsession to be snapped up, city residents
and shopkeepers said Tuesday.Garlands of fresh
roses, boxes of Belgian chocolates, even drippy
Hallmark greeting cards are being exchanged like
never before in the communist state, where a strong
work ethic and commitment to the nation was
thought to take precedence over displays of
affection.
"The holiday was nothing some years ago," says Dong Hai
Anh, who coincidentaly turns 24 on Valentine's Day.
But Vietnam's ideologues are well-versed at taking
snippets from foreign cultures and nurturing them with
Vietnamese sentiment.
In recent weeks, Vietnam has splashed out on Christmas
complete with a round-bellied Santa, millennium New
Year's Eve madness, and the most commercialized-ever
Tet, Vietnam's lunar new year.
Hai Anh said she now receives loads of attention ever
since her friends learned her birthday is February 14. "I
don't get many roses anymore," she sulks. "They're way
too expensive on my birthday."
Flower sellers and other merchants, of course, are the
biggest winners in Vietnam's latest flirtation with Western
tradition.
Wholesale prices for roses jumped 600 per cent by
Tuesday over normal rates, according to the Tuong Vi
flower shop in Ho Chi Minh City.
"We are doing very well," says Tuan Anh, owner of the
Hanoi shop Wonders, where Hallmark Valentine's Day
cards fly off the shelves.
Tuan said young people, mostly students, are paying a
dollar or more per card, equivalent to a day's wage for
most Vietnamese.
The nation's tightly controlled media has jumped on the
bandwagon, with top newspapers publishing elaborate
spreads on Saint Valentine, new gift-giving trends, even
how to mend broken hearts.
"That's not our holiday," gripes Mrs. Toan, a middle-aged
housekeeper in Hanoi. "People just want an excuse to sell
things."
And people are buying it. Vietnam's per capita income is
roughly $400 per year, and far less in the countryside,
where buying chocolates for loved ones is a remote
fantasy.
But both the capital Hanoi and Vietnam's economic hub
Ho Chi Minh City are seeing genuine purchasing power,
with per capita GDP topping $1,000 per annum.
"People have expendable income now," Hai Anh says.
"They're more prosperous and want to give and express
love to those around them."
City dwellers also have wider access to information,
particularly through the world wide web, says shopkeeper
Tuan Anh.
"They understand from the Internet and mass media a bit
more about Western culture and they think it's cool," he
says.
"It's changing the atmosphere a bit."
Deutsche Presse Agentur - February 14, 2001.
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