Motorbikes against Ho Chi Minh? Or the icons of a social transformation in Vietnam

Abstract

The motorcycle is an unavoidable item in contemporary Vietnam. Since the renovation policy (Doi Moi) in 1986, it became the most visible good of consumption. This article questions the utilitarian and symbolic use that is made by the urban populations of two major cities of the country: Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This article addresses the question of the new values and social transformation within the post-socialist society in Vietnam, as seem to symbolize the social behaviours related to the use of motorbikes. Amongst others, it analyses the use of the motorcycle as a place of intimacy in a society where the State still widely shapes the private and public spaces. Actually, the motorcycle establishes a sphere of intimacy in the way people have appropriated the object in their social practice. The author also describes certain ritual phenomena associated to the use of motorcycles, such as the illegal races, which contribute to the construction of the masculine identity.