body space

The concept of body space appears to be quite different in Vietnam. It is of course rather difficult to say if this is intrinsic to the whole country, or more specifically to Saigon. One place this concept becomes glaringly clear is when one is at the market. Ben Than market is a rather touristy market. If you are a westerner, many of the sellers will tug at your arm, tap your shoulder, etc. in an effort to direct your attention towards their products. Child beggars are also quite likely to tap you to solicit funds. Furthermore, as you are getting on and off the bus the person in charge of collecting fares will generally pull or push you to make sure that you exit or enter the bus at the appropriate time--this is especially important given that the bus tends to continue to glide forward rather than stop completely.

This concept of personal space was most glaring when I went to a roller disco a few days ago. The first time we went the experience wasn't particularly remarkable. What stood out a little bit was the layout of the place, for around the center ring there was a series of concrete slopes that one could go up or down if one had sufficient momentum. I highly doubt these would even begin to pass safety standards in the U.S. The other slightly intruiging thing was that many of the individuals who frequented the roller rink were simply sitting around the edges and smoking. The second time we went to the rink, we made the mistake of going at 8 on a Sunday evening--apparently the most popular time of the week. The rink was absoultely packed. The skaters were extremely good, and because of this attempting all sorts of stunts--skating backwards, doing jumps, even forming large chains that would whip around the egde of the rink at a terrifying speed. Some of these individuals were also smoking while skating. What made this scene all the more terrifying was that the skaters appeared to view it as acceptable to use the others around them for impromtu balance support. Now, all of the people in our group are good enough to stay standing while making our way slowly around the rink. However, we are certainly not stable enough to remain standing when someone either crashes into us or pulls onto our shoulders from behind. In fact, at times it felt like these young skaters were targeting us as the only westerners, for they thought it was amusing to see us fall. Then again, we were going much slower than the others in the group. A final interesting note from this evening was that at one point strobe lights started up and people formed a ring around people who were dancing on a small platform in the center of the stage.