Normalising Ho Chi Minh in Vietnamese cinema, 1990-2020: Ideology, popular appeal, and the market economy
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The article discusses the representation of H Ch Minh in modern Vietnamese cinema from 1990 to the present. The first feature film on H Ch Minh's life was produced only in 1990, 31 years after his death. Since then, 6 more films have appeared. I explore the reasons why there were no feature films about H Ch Minh before 1990 and why they eventually began to appear. I address the filmmakers attempts to reintroduce H Ch Minh, especially to younger generations who know of him only through propaganda depicting him as a celibate paragon of virtue and through viewing his embalmed body in the Mausoleum he had objected to. I argue that these cinematographic projects to promote H Ch Minh to younger Vietnamese have done very little to develop, or even maintain, his personal cult, a cult that the state endeavours to exploit to (re)establish its connection to the people, to overcome a prolonged crisis of legitimacy, and to garner popular support for the continuing leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The market economy and openness to the world have inevitably undermined the H Ch Minh cult and ideological constructs supporting it.
