A Little Talk About Haiphong, My Hometown

I was born and grew up in Haiphong, a city in North Vietnam. When I turned 11, I moved to Saigon with my mom and came to the United States at 15. At that time, Haiphong had stayed the same as nowadays. Everything happened so slowly and so dull that sometimes I asked myself. “I don't know when this port city will be able to 'pop' up like Saigon?”

This is the house where I grew up.

I think Saigon is Vietnam’s most prosperous, prosperous, significant, and bustling city. Bitexco Tower was once considered the highest tower in Vietnam until it was usurped by Landmark 81; Nguyen Hue pedestrian street, the entertainment place of Saigon people every evening; Independence Palace, a historical witness who has witnessed many changes of the times; Thu Thiem tunnel, which gives me a "strong feeling" every time I go down; Zoo and Botanical Garden, a unique and unique zoo in Vietnam; Dam Sen, the only place to hang out when you don't know where to go; Notre Dame Cathedral, where Christians and pagans come to pray; Ben Thanh market with four doors forever represents the symbol of Saigon; Turtle Lake, which witnessed many love stories blossoming of couples. And much more than that. It is no coincidence that Saigon is known as the pearl of the Far East. Then I see that Saigon will forever be Saigon. Never stop and constantly change to keep up with the times. Even if the city changes, the most beautiful things, from the people to the culture of Saigon, remain unchanged.

The more I love Saigon, even though I was not born and raised there, looking back at Hai Phong, I don't understand why it is beautiful or if there is something special for me to love it. I was looking for a book by a specific author that wrote about memories or stories revolving around a particular place, a certain history, or something of Hai Phong. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it. In the moments before Hai Phong began to change his life, the only place that I saw was a sign of wealth and luxury—Parkson Plaza on Le Hong Phong Street. Alas, whenever I had time, my mother took me there on weekends to play. Going from the first floor to the fifth floor must be filled with fashion stores; I later realized how expensive it was. Or there are stores that sell jewelry or toys at sky-high prices. Looking at them, I saw that this is the most beautiful place in Hai Phong because it is rich. For the rest, no place impresses me in Haiphong.

But now that I sit down to write about Haiphong, I suddenly realize an unprecedented absurdity, why only consider Parkson Plaza as the unique place of Hai Phong when it was the "late birth" child of the city? It's not just Parkson, but the whole of Le Hong Phong Street represents the luxury, civilization, and wealth of the big cities of Vietnam, but I ignore the so-called things that makeup Hai Phong City, so it's true that I didn’t have a deep impression with this city. Why could many Vietnamese authors write so well about Saigon and Hanoi? Because they ignored the modern, the things that belonged to the future that everyone can see to focus on the things that no one knows or already know but forget to arouse passion and pride for the city they are attached to. These are stories about a certain neighborhood, very idyllic prose, the beauty of people or the ancient features of a certain place in the city, the chatter passed from person to person from the pubs about a certain event in history, or even just the author's very ordinary memories of an object, everyday story, or food. All combined, plus the research that helped them write works praising the city.

I heard someone say that you don't have to be born and raised in a city to feel the city; as long as you live long enough and love that city, you are a resident of that city. Or another idea is that when you come to that city for tourism or passing, something hits your mind so hard that it makes you fall in love with that city at first sight. I still remember in the book Paris by Night 106, a very popular variety show Vietnamese diaspora, with the theme of “Silk,” writer Nguyen Ngoc Ngan talked about the birth of the very famous poem "Ha Dong silk dress" by poet Nguyen Sa, a big poet in South Vietnam before 1975. Poet Nguyen Sa was from Hanoi, and in 1946, he and his family evacuated to Ha Dong, a place famous for silk, when the French returned to Vietnam. During the three years he was here, he witnessed the silk production. Later, when he passed the French Baccalaureate (high school diploma), he became a professor of philosophy in Saigon. Writer Nguyen Ngoc Ngan said that because Nguyen Sa was a teacher, he saw female students come and leave school in long dresses every day. His time in Ha Dong was so emotional that in 1957 he wrote the poem "Ha Dong silk dress", which musician Ngo Thuy Mien later set to very famous music. Only with a touch of Ha Dong silk that poet Nguyen Sa can compose such a famous poem, let alone a child of Hai Phong; being only interested in Parkson Plaza is an excellent regret because Hai Phong is a hundred thousand times more beautiful than this. If I work hard to learn and observe everyday things along with my memories of this city, I think I and many other children of the Red Flamboyan city will also feel and love this city more.

In 2019, I returned to Hai Phong for the first time after four years in the US. Four years was not a long time. Some people have traveled for more than twenty years to visit their homeland. It could be because I missed my family that I came to visit. But it was strange; why was Hai Phong so different when I returned? It was no longer a dull, bland, unmarked city in me, but it had changed to become a city like what I had hoped for when I was still there. I wanted it to be like the magnificent Saigon, and now it was becoming like that, of course not compared to Saigon. Suddenly, I felt a little nauseous. You should be happy right? This was the Hai Phong that I always wanted. There are two reasons that I feel sad. Firstly, I blame Hai Phong for why when I was there, the city didn't develop like it is now, but when I left, it was like a hundred flowers blooming. Second, I didn’t recognize Hai Phong anymore. It seems that it has lost the familiar features of the city of Red Phoenix that I had been attached to for 11 years. It was so strange. The familiar streets suddenly changed direction, the shops I used to visit suddenly disappeared, coffee shops and milk tea shops have replaced the shops of the past, and the places that once represented Hai Phong are now a thing of the past. But hey, I consoled myself. Now that times have changed, Hai Phong must also transform to continue walking. You can't just stay in one place forever. It is strange to me, but to my family, it is very normal because they are the ones who directly witnessed the significant change in Hai Phong. As for me, I seem to be a bewildered golden deer standing in the middle of a familiar and unfamiliar city.

In 2022, I returned to Haiphong after the Covid-19 pandemic raging everywhere. I just came back for the first time three years ago, but why did it feel so long? I have to admit that Covid-19 made things slow down terribly. Both literally and figuratively. Literally, it shut everything down. The economy went downhill, and people were unemployed and had to live in poverty, with tragic losses. The figurative meaning was that time slowed down. I noticed that time went by very slowly during the pandemic because I didn't do much during the pandemic, only in the house. I couldn’t go far. But also because returning to 2022 alone instead of going with my mother in 2019, I felt closer and more in love with Hai Phong city because, for the first time, I got to do something that I had never done when I was in Vietnam that I have done many times in the US. It is the initiative to go alone.

I thank Grab, a transport service like Uber, very much for letting me go to the places I want to go in the city so I can walk to other places. Strangely, I didn't feel tired at all. I feel thrilled. I walked along the banks of Tam Bac Lake on Nguyen Duc Canh Street to feel the heat of the summer to see the red phoenix trees that were blooming every time I did writing describing "burning fire beams" (reflecting on ridiculous rumbling. For example, if the fire beam was different from the burning tree?) Just walking along the shores of Tam Bac Lake alone makes many memories come rushing back in a moment.