Ho Chi Minh's Life after Death
Ho Chi Minh or Bust || Vietnamese Socialist Realism
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The image of Ho Chi Minh is omnipresent in Vietnam. Posters, official paintings, busts and statues of Ho interpellate the passerby visually. These representations of the dead leader keep him alive. Through official art and political propaganda he is made to speak from death, a ghostly voice that resonates throughout contemporary Vietnam. In Vietnam's current transition to market economy reforms and "market socialism" the image of Ho and the uses to which it is put are evermore open to interpretation: what is his legacy in Vietnam today? The debate is open. |
Vietnamese Socialist Realism: Ho as the Benevolent Leader
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Ho Chi Minh is often represented as a benevolent leader in Vietnamese official art. He is depicted as a caring, older family member ("Uncle Ho"). He guides the people on the basis of revolutionary simplicity and moral virtue. Ho's simple taste in clothing and personal lifestyle, and his closeness to the values and concerns of common people are emphasized.
In these representations, Ho Chi Minh's "accessability" becomes a model for the construction of a socialist utopia based on the "family bond" between the Party and the people it guides toward socialism.
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