10th anniversary of normalization

Festival Commemorates Decade of U.S.-Vietnam Relations

By Elizabeth Farabee and Katie Xiao
Washington File Staff Writers
July 11, 2005

Washington -- Tourists at the Smithsonian Institution were greeted with an unusual sight over the weekend as visitors emerged from the Vietnam Festival wearing wide rimmed conical-shaped hats made of bamboo and palm leaves, the traditional headgear of Vietnam.

The Vietnam Festival, organized jointly by the Smithsonian Institution's Freer and Sackler art galleries, the U.S. Department of State, the Embassy of Vietnam and the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council, was held July 9-10 to celebrate a decade of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam.

Vu Xuan Duc, an exhibit organizer for the festival, delighted many visitors with a complimentary non, the Vietnamese name for these hats, and patiently explained the traditional role that this lamp-shade-like headpiece has played in Vietnamese culture.

“Vietnamese women have traditionally worn the non because Vietnam is a country with sunshine all the time,” he said as he selected a non from the neatly stacked pile behind him and placed it on a visitor’s head. He demonstrated how the hat could be used to provide shade from the sun or shelter against the rain.

By midday, the hats were all gone.

Since the establishment of formal, diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam in 1995, the United States has planned educational events such as this festival to expose Americans to the diverse culture of Vietnam. Visitors from both Vietnam and the United States took part in the weekend’s festivities.

Huong Nguyen, a student at Smith College and native of Vietnam, visited the festival with two friends she met through a flourishing network of Vietnamese living in the District of Columbia (D.C.). She was elated to see public displays of Vietnamese culture in the United States.

“It was amazing to see pictures of Vietnam here in the U.S., here in D.C.,” Nguyen said. “It’s also amazing to see a lot of Americans wearing Vietnamese hats today.”

The festival featured a powerful photography exhibit entitled “A Decade of Reconciliation, Cooperation and Progress 1995-2005.” Touching images showed Americans and Vietnamese -- former foes -- working together to rebuild a country ravaged by war and starting a new chapter in their historic relationship. 

The pictures presented a wide range of subjects, from U.S. and Vietnamese diplomats trekking across rice paddies, to Vietnamese women waiting to welcome the first U.S. commercial passenger jet to land in Ho Chi Minh City since the war ended -- United Airlines Flight 869 on the night of December 10, 2004. Photos of American and Vietnamese doctors working together to rehabilitate victims of chemical agents and landmines were also particularly moving.

Another picture showed the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Douglas “Pete” Peterson, walking out of Hanoi Cathedral with his Vietnamese bride Vi Le. Others presented images of the talks and gestures of goodwill that led up to normalization of relations, ultimately culminating in the unveiling of the State Department seal by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, to open the first American Embassy in Hanoi.

Ambassador Peterson -- a former Air Force pilot who was incarcerated as a prisoner of war for six and one-half years -- is shown in the village where his plane was shot down, shaking hands with his former captor.

Although themes of war and peace were prominent in the festival, they were hardly the centerpieces of this uplifting and forward-looking event. 

In addition to the photography exhibit, the festival marked the opening of a Vietnamese ceramics exhibit, a collection of approximately 20 works highlighting the uniqueness of Vietnamese handicrafts. This exhibit will remain on display indefinitely and is part of efforts to bolster the Freer Gallery’s Southeast Asian collection.

Visitors also had the opportunity to learn about traditional Vietnamese prints and bamboo flutes through a set of interactive demonstrations. Both a master printer and a flute-maker were on hand to answer questions about their crafts.

Youthful interpreters, many the children of diplomats, translated for the artists the requests and questions from visitors. With their bilingual skills, these interpreters were indispensable to the festival, bringing across the skill and expertise of these renowned Vietnamese artists, many who had been perfecting their craft since childhood.

The demonstrations facilitated cross-cultural communication as artists educated the audience about traditional arts forms and also learned something about American culture firsthand. Le Dinh Nghien, an artist who learned the craft of printmaking from his grandfather, commented, “America is peaceful, and the relationship between people and people is very friendly.”

After witnessing these master artisans at work, children were inspired to create their own Vietnamese artwork in the form of to he dolls, traditional figurines made from colored rice dough.

Two visitors from North Carolina, 10-year-old Anna Bridges and 11-year-old Samantha Metzner, said they came to the festival because they “didn’t know very much about Vietnam and … thought it’d be interesting to know the culture.” They left the rice-doll-making exhibit with hands brightly stained tomato red from the dough.  

The festival was planned months in advance by the public affairs, development and design offices of both the Freer and Sackler galleries.

The Embassy of Vietnam helped to select the types of arts showcased and chose the traditional arts most in danger of extinction. “The rice-doll making and woodblock printing are simple and modest traditions, but they are also precious ones,” said Frank Proschan, a folklorist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Finally, a set of performances showcased the diversity of traditional Vietnamese dance and music. The artists performed royal court dances, as well as rarely seen dance rituals of the country’s many ethnic minorities. The spell-binding and unique harmonies of the dan bau, a Vietnamese monochord, and the traditional gourd lutes of the central highlands and northwest region of the country enchanted visitors, whisking them to faraway hills and lush forests brimming with wildlife.

In store for the future is a Vietnamese film gala this winter as well as the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which will feature the culture and history of the Mekong River region. An expected 250 artists from Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and southern China will travel to Washington for this event.

The artists who are a part of the current festival will travel to New York and San Francisco as part of their U.S. tour and then depart for Canada.