Hanoi, Vietnam – Last fall, Vietnam opened a new sprawling military museum here, and among thousands of artifacts in the four-story building and a courtyard filled with tanks and planes, an exhibition quickly became the star attraction: the flag of South Vietnam.
The government considers the yellow banner with three red stripes as a sign of resistance to the communist regime, violating laws on dissent incentive. With a few exceptions, it is not displayed.
Reactions to rare observation quickly became viral. Young visitors to Vietnam Military History Museum published photos of themselves next to the flag with deep gathers, thumbs down or fingers in the middle raised. While the photos attracted unwanted attention, the flag was not written from a wall and folded in a window. The content of social media features coarse hand gestures has been cleaned from the internet.
But the phenomenon persisted.
The flag of the former Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi Vietnam Military History Museum. The yellow flag with three doubts was used by the southerners aligned in the United States during the Vietnam War, and its display prompted derogatory comments on social networks.
Several weeks ago, the schoolchildren who were on tour made a duty to check the flag. Every few minutes, a new group collapsed around the banner – also known online under the name of “Cali” flag – holding the middle fingers or crossing your hands to form an “X”.
In Vietnam, Cali – sometimes written as “Kali” – has long been a reference to the Vietnamese diaspora in California, where many Vietnamese -American still pilot the southern flag to represent the fight against communism and the nation they have lost with war.
People who live in Vietnam, however, are more likely to consider it as a symbol of American imperialism, and as a nationalist feeling here has swollen in recent years, evoking the Golden State has become a kind of stenography to criticize these adversaries.
“They use it as a label against anyone who agrees with state policy,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a researcher at Singapore Yusof Ishak Institute, known for his political and socio-economic research on Southeast Asia.
There have been other signs of growing nationalism in the past year, often in response to perceptions of American influence. In addition to the animosity towards the “Cali” flag, a university supported by the United States in Ho Chi Minh Ville was attacked for suspicions of foreign interference. And a budding Vietnamese pop star who had been competing on “American Idol” was saved on social networks last summer after images of his song in the American commemorative service of an anti-communist activist surfaced.
Vietnamese nationalism said Giang, is reinforced at all levels by the rule to a party in the country.
School groups visit the new Hanoi Vietnam Military History Museum. The museum contains exhibitions, photographs, maps and models of scale on armed resistance over time, of the armed struggle for the independence of France with arms used during the Vietnam War.
The government controls education and the public media; Independent journalists and bloggers who criticized the government were imprisoned. In addition, the party’s ability to influence social media accounts has improved in recent years, especially among young people in the country.
Since 2017, the Vietnamese authorities have employed thousands of cyber-hobby cyber-on-lines, forming a military unit under the Ministry of Defense known under the name of Force 47. In 2018, the country adopted a cybersecurity law which allowed it to demand social media platforms to eliminate any content which it considers anti-state. The resulting unilateral discourse means that opinions that do not align with official propaganda often attract harassment and ostracism.
Sometimes the government also used this power to try to slow down nationalism when it becomes too extreme – although the ban on posts on the South Vietnam flag has made little enthusiasm at the museum.
Some visitors who made hand signs said they expressed their disapproval of a diet which, according to him, the oppressed Vietnamese. A teenager was deployed and held the national flag – red with a yellow star – for a photo.
“It is difficult to say if I agree or in disagreement with coarse gestures,” said Dang Thi Bich Hanh, a 25 -year -old coffee director who was one of the visitors. “The gestures of these young people were not quite correct, but I think they reflect their feelings by looking at the flag and thinking of this part of the story and the previous generations had to last.”
A bust of Ho Chi Minh at Thanh Van school in the province of Bac Kan, in northern Vietnam. Each public service and public school in Vietnam contains a photo or a figure of Ho Chi Minh, a revered historical figure which has become a nationalist symbol in the country.
Before leaving, she took a selfie with her adult raised on the folded fabric.
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Five years ago, when a student from a rural region of the Mekong Delta obtained a full scholarship at an international university in Ho Chi Minh City, it seemed to be a dream come true. But last August, when the school was taken in the growing wave of nationalism, he began to fear that his association with Fulbright University Vietnam can affect its security and future.
“I was afraid,” said the recent graduate, who asked for anonymity for fear of compensation. He had just started a new job in education and avoided mentioning his Alma mail to colleagues and to wear shirts marked by the name of the school.
“You had all kinds of stories. Especially with disinformation spreading at the time, it had negative impacts on my mental health. ”
The attacks included allegations according to which Fulbright, which opened in 2016 with partial funding from the United States government, cultivated Western liberal and democratic values which could undermine the Vietnamese government.
The nationalists criticized any possible suspicion of anti-communist tendencies at school, as not to show in evidence the Vietnamese flag at the start. Even the slogan of the graduation of last year, “intrepid”, aroused suspicion that students could plot a political movement.
“You can certainly see new heights of nationalism, and it is difficult to measure,” said Minh Hoang, diplomatic historian and university professor.
Crowds during the military parade of April 30 in Ho Chi Minh City marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
Hoang said online allegations – none of which was true – led to threats of violence against university, and some parents have retired their children because of them. Several students said that their affiliation had attracted hatred speech to foreigners and suspicious issues from family members and employers.
The academics said that the Vietnamese government had probably acted quickly to close the counterou against Fulbright in order to prevent the anti-American feeling from harming its links with the United States, its greatest trading partner. But some of the original accusations have been propagated by the state media and the robots associated with the Ministry of Defense, referring to a schism within the party.
Hoang has said that although nationalism is often used as a Union force in Vietnam and beyond, it also has the potential to create instability if it goes beyond the government’s estimate or control. “For a long time, it has been the official policy of making peace with the Vietnamese overseas community and the United States,” said Hoang. “This wave of online ultra -nationalism is therefore considered by the Vietnamese state as useless, inaccurate and, to a certain extent, go to official instructions.”
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Last summer, images of Myra Tran singing at the Westminster funeral from Ly Tong, an anti-communist activist, surfaced online. She had obtained a certain degree of renown by winning a singing reality show in Vietnam and appearing on “American Idol” in 2019, but she received a hard conviction of online nationalists and state media when the video of several years ago has become viral.
Facebook and Tiktok users have labeled Tran, now 25 years old, like Traitor, Anti -Vietnam – and Cali.
Controversy has prompted a wider movement to find other Vietnamese celebrities suspected of conspiracy against the country. Internet Sleuths traveled the web for anyone, like Tran, appeared alongside the South Vietnam flag and attacked them.
An entertainment writer at Ho Chi Minh Ville, who did not want to be identified for fear of being targeted, says that, as young Vietnamese people, young people have become more nationalist online, musicians and other artists felt pressure to actively demonstrate their patriotism or risk the anger of the cancellation of culture.
He added that the control of symbols like the South Vietnam flag gave those who have links with the United States more reason to worry about being attacked online or losing job opportunities. This could discourage Vietnamese who live abroad – a demographic population that the government has long sought to attract in the country – to pursue business or careers in Vietnam.
Vietnamese crowds evolve the Wall of the American Embassy in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, trying to go to a helicopter collection area just before the end of the Vietnam War on April 29, 1975.
(Neal Ulevich / Associated Press)
“There was a moment when the artists were very cold and negligent, even if they know that there was this rivalry and this story,” he said. “I think everyone becomes more sensitive now. Everyone is nervous and tries to be more prudent. ”
Tran was the victim of online intimidation and cut out in a music television program for his “transgression”. She has apologized public apologies in which she expressed her gratitude to be Vietnamese, denied any intention to harm national security and promised to learn from her mistakes.
Two months later, Tran was allowed to occur again. She returned to stage during a concert at Ho Chi Minh-Ville, where she cried and thanked fans for having forgiven her.
But not everyone was ready to excuse it. From the crowd, several viewers have rété and shouted to Tran to “go home”. Videos of the concert sparked a fierce debate on Facebook among the defenders of Tran and his criticism.
“Young patriotics are so chaotic now,” complained of a Vietnamese user after denouncing the hatred that Tran receives online.
Another blow: “Then return to Cali.”
