“People want good graffiti”: Tensions, contradictions, and everyday politics surrounding graffiti in Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract

AbstractGraffiti has become an omnipresent feature of urban landscapes, with sprawling words and images on public and private surfaces triggering heated debates on the meaning, implications, and legality of these urban inscriptions. Yet, to date, there has been little academic research conducted on graffiti and street art in the Asian context, and none that we could find on the burgeoning scene in Vietnam. In the context of a socialist state, with little tolerance for public dissent, we investigate how, and by whom, graffiti is created, and to what degree it transgresses public space norms in the country’s capital city, Hanoi. We analyse how young graffiti writers negotiate the social, physical, and cultural boundaries which serve as either deterrents or catalysts for graffiti creation, and consider whether strategies of compliance or everyday resistance are employed in order to create their work. With the effects that globalisation and urbanisation have had on the Asian region, and the tactics citizens employ to negotiate state‐imposed censorship and restraints having been studied closely, we position our work within these broader debates.