Cerrar

shaped by the hardships of war


Written on May 30, 2008 – 5:15 pm | by ashanshi57b

In the two decades since Vietnam began implementing its economic reforms, the nation’s poverty rate has been cut in half, and per capita income has doubled in the last five years.

The black-clad sales staff, looking fresh off a fashion show runway in Milan, offer a pair of golden, spike-heeled shoes for $765.

Milano’s best customers, Anh said, think nothing of dropping $5,000 on a handbag and a pair of shoes.

Not long ago, displays of wealth were frowned upon in Vietnam. Those tire-sandaled troops who bested the French colonial army and outlasted the Americans embodied frugality and egalitarianism. The revolutionary government snatched up the assets of the wealthy and redistributed them to the poor.

“Members of the new generation want to enjoy life and pamper themselves with luxurious things,” said Nguyen Thi Cam Van, 39, who has purchased five $1,000 handbags at Louis Vuitton.

Those working low-wage jobs find the new lust for luxury hard to stomach.

“I sold a $4,000 leather jacket recently,” said Do Huong Ly, a stylish young saleswoman at the Roberto Cavalli shop in Hanoi. “Our customers want people to know that they are high-class.”

As the country begins to embrace private enterprise, its nouveaux riches are snapping up shoes at Gucci, replica handbags at Louis Vuitton and watches at Cartier, offering proof of how much the country has changed after decades of war.

One of her friends has 50 gucci replica handbags, Van said. “I think five is enough.”

They indulge their urge to splurge at Dolce and Gabbana, Burberry, Escada, rolex replica watches,panerai replica watches, omega replica watches and the like.

Vietnam’s older generation, shaped by the hardships of war, finds itself at odds with younger Vietnamese over the new consumerism.

Across the hall at the Milano store, the display last year featured a $54,000 Dolce and Gabbana dress, one of just three in the world, according to marketing director Dang Tu Anh, who represents both stores.

Some of Vietnam’s shopaholics are young people who work for multinational corporations but still live rent-free with their parents. Others work for powerful state-owned companies and many have made fortunes in Vietnam’s small but booming private sector.

“If I can afford to buy something nice, it makes me feel proud,” said Van, who works at Siemens and also consults for a Vietnamese import company. “It lets you show people your taste and style.”

At the new Gucci shop in Ho Chi Minh City, the flip-flops are among the economy items.

“If they can buy something luxurious, it proves they have money,” Anh said. “And that’s good.”

“Now the younger generation in Vietnam is racing for materialistic enjoyment,” said Huu Ngoc, a 90-year-old scholar and author. “Individualism is destroying our cultural identity. We may become richer but lose our soul.”

But since the late 1980s, a government that once micromanaged all economic affairs has been introducing free-market reforms and courting foreign investors, and with them have come new western styles and attitudes.

Van, for example, enjoys pampering herself at the salon with massages and manicures. But she lives in fear that her father, a college professor, will learn about her five louis vuitton replica handbags.

The war generation wasted nothing and always saved for the future, convinced that catastrophe lurked around every corner. But opinion surveys show that the 60 percent of Vietnamese born after 1975 are very optimistic about the future - and determined to enjoy the here and now.

The others, Anh said, were worn by film star Nicole Kidman and Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl.

Still, most workers in this nation of 84 million people still earn just a dollar or two a day toiling in the farm fields.

“The rich are getting richer, and the rest of us are struggling to make ends meet,” said Dao Quang Hung, a Hanoi taxi driver. “The money they spend on a Louis Vuitton bag could buy several cows for a farmer’s family and lift them out of poverty.”


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