Lisa B W Drummond

ABSTRACT In March-April 2007, a group of six Hanoi-based artists staged an exhibition of entitled “Hanoi 5000 Hoan Kiem Lakes”. Its purpose was to explore young people’s visions of the future of their city and to stimulate discussion of the city’s development from a non-planning perspective. To prepare for the exhibition, the artists undertook a survey among the youth of Hanoi, distributing a one-question questionnaire and interviewing on and off camera over 250 young people, randomly and selectively sampled in parks, on sidewalks, outside universities, and in university and school classes. Participants were invited to a workshop held by the artists at the exhibition to talk about how ideas get translated into art. This exhibition provided a timely
intervention into debates over the landscape of Hanoi, what urban public space is and what it should be, and how non-technical, non-specialist views of the city can be incorporated into urban aspirations, thus acknowledging and encouraging the visions of the young people who will be the city’s future leaders.

Summary. This paper contributes an initial venture into thinking about the uses of the terms ‘public’ and ‘private’ space in the context of Vietnamese urban life. It is argued that these terms, while they are critiqued and debated in Western academia, still retain substantial descriptive power at an everyday level. In non-Western societies, however, these terms may be more difficult to apply and the paper provides an empirical section which argues that the boundaries between
public and private spaces are fluid and routinely transgressed, as in Western societies, but for reasons and in ways which are distinctive to the Vietnamese situation. The paper concludes by
noting that Vietnam is experiencing both a divergence from the Anglo-American urban experience, in that Vietnam displays a resurgence rather than a death of streetlife and a convergence
with it in the construction of ‘pseudo-public’ leisure spaces. Local specificities must therefore be acknowledged when using these otherwise useful Western terms in non-Western contexts.

In March-April 2007, a group of six Hanoi-based artists staged an exhibition of entitled “Hanoi 5000 Hoan Kiem Lakes”. Its purpose was to explore young people's visions of the future of their city and to stimulate discussion of the city's development from a non-planning perspective. To prepare for the exhibition, the artists undertook a survey among the youth of Hanoi, distributing a one-question questionnaire and interviewing on and off camera over 250 young people, randomly and selectively sampled in parks, on sidewalks, outside universities, and in university and school classes. Participants were invited to a workshop held by the artists at the exhibition to talk about how ideas get translated into art. This exhibition provided a timely intervention into debates over the landscape of Hanoi, what urban public space is and what it should be, and how non-technical, non-specialist views of the city can be incorporated into urban aspirations, thus acknowledging and encouraging the visions of the young people who will be the city's future leaders.

Summary. This paper contributes an initial venture into thinking about the uses of the terms 'public' and 'private' space in the context of Vietnamese urban life. It is argued that these terms, while they are critiqued and debated in Western academia, still retain substantial ...

... She has given many seminar and conference presentations in Singapore and the United States. Page 10. viii List of Contributors Thu-hUONG Nguyen-vo is Assistant Professor in Asian Languages and Cultures, Asian American Studies, and Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA. ...

On the eve of doi moi's twentieth anniversary, this group of papers examines the impact of 'economic renovation' on the lives of Vietnam's women. Economically, the transformation is unarguable. Socially, the impacts have been as deep, but more uneven and possibly less ...