Robert Templer

Shadows and Wind attempts at a comprehensive view of post-war Vietnam, exploring its political, social, and cultural landscapes. The intent is obvious, but the outcome is not so convincing. I picked this book up to prepare for my trip there next week as I wanted something that was not about the war, and the book being one of only a handful of such available in English, I gave it a go. Templer covers a lot of ground -- memories of the war, literature, religion, AIDS, drugs, architecture, food, the Vietnamese Communist Party, the country's unique relationship with China, the Viet Kieu (Overseas Vietnamese or the "boat people"). The range of topics is remarkable and provides ample interest for many including those whose idea of Vietnam begins and ends according to Hollywood. His main thesis is that Vietnam is in some kind of an identity conundrum, torn between loyalty to what it stood for and stood against in history (exemplified by its political elite) and eagerness to embrace capitalism and new ways of doing things. He takes pains to show in every example that Vietnam, for all its apparent show of "openness" is still very much run by the remnants of the old cadre -- corrupt, obsolete, ill at ease with what is new and "Western", a political elite clinging tenaciously to power and an ideology that has practically lost ground in the consciousness of its youth, who make up two-thirds of its population.

While Templer writes well for the most part (he was a journalist of Agence France-Presse), he is careless in some, lazy even, with generalizations like "Young Vietnamese defy categorisation." (p.339) He seemed to know Vietnam, but only based on what can be gathered from secondary sources and selectively too, in order to support his hypothesis -- his writing is very much that of the typical Western expert who comes and lives for some time in these small countries and makes it a living to dish out criticisms from an i-know-it-better-than-these-locals perspective. All this is not to say that I didn't learning anything from this book, just that I'm taking it all in with a grain of salt.… (mais)