Nguyen Van Huyen Museum
Today, we visited the Nguyen Van Huyen Museum, a privately-run museum in the suburbs of Hanoi established by Professor Nguyen Van Huy. This new museum depicts the family history of Professor Huy using a selection of biographical narratives, photographs, documents and objects setting out the lives of his mother and father.
Interestingly, the house is dedicated to memory and uses family memory to frame the changes taking place in Vietnam society. Entering the museum, visitors are greeted with a large family tree with family photographic portraits. As Jo pointed out, the images of hairstyles of the female family members show the influence of French fashion in Vietnam and capture a particular epoch of colonial rule in the country.
Outside the museum is a small but significant garden, in which plants from the family's village are cultivated. Again, the sensory aspects of gardens acts to anchor the museum to homeland and provides, as Professor Huy commented, a point for connectedness, whereby visitors often recognise the plants as growing in certain areas of Vietnam.
The museum provides a compelling example of the role of memory in Vietnam society; the reconstruction of family histories in an era when this is now possible.
Graeme
I find the development of private museums where the messages have previously been so centrally controlled a fascinating concept, particularly balancing the desire to tell other stories with broader community expectations about what is and isn't appropriate for a museum to say. It seems like it would be a fine line to walk.
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