The Book
Saigon is the city of the yellow anguish, a languidness that possessed the 'French and American' Europeans that lived in Vietnam. At night, in front of a drink, the memories of flowery young girls in their traditional costumes surrounded by the thick smells of the ngoc man cooking, the feverish sounds of the city's motion piercing through the humid heat of the Asian nights hauntingly reappear. A city of contrasts, Saigon has lived through dramatic changes: the turbulence of the South for which it was renowned was replaced by the terrible coldness of the North and the joyfulness of the city was imposed a rigid doctrine. Saigon became Ho Chi Minh City and a new city was created. But although appearances may change, people remain the same. So what came of those changes? A few red flags... and a number of Japanese motorbikes.
The Author
Klaus H. Carl is German. It is in this particular light that he offers the reader a clear view of this city, far from the post-colonial romanticism of the French or Americans. The text is accompanied by a great number of pictures, offering with great simplicity and tenderness a glimpse of Vietnamese emotion. The look of the artist is rid of the weight of history and meets a city who refuses to forget its name: Saigon.
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