Harbin to Hanoi: Colonial Built Environment in Asia, 1840 to 1940

10. Colonial Hanoi: Urban Space in Public Discourse

10 Colonial Hanoi Urban Space in Public Discourse Lisa Drummond A few short years after the conclusive French conquest and occupation of the imperial citadel in Hanoi, the urban development of this new, soon-to-be capital became a priority for the colonial administration and a key concern of the civil population. The self-designated spokesperson for that small but fast-expanding European community, the editor of the first French language newspaper, l’Avenir du Tonkin, made urban commentary an integral part of this new medium. Successive editors continued this role, using the paper and its Chronique Locale1 column, as well as front page columns when the occasion demanded it, to voice criticism and confidence in the growing city and its rapidly developing landscape. In particular, the editorial voice of the paper served to reflect back on itself the preoccupations of the European community, to reprimand and criticize behavior unbecoming on the part of the French and the Vietnamese, to laud the administration and the community on their successes, and to negotiate this strange new landscape which was to be, and so evidently was not, a French city. L’Avenir’s editors attempted to explore and explain, often to deplore and disdain, the ways in which Vietnamese Hanoians occupied the city, shaping a landscape both exotic and repulsive. Many early editorial descriptions of the city, reflecting, perhaps, the young and pioneering spirit of the founder of the paper, tended to boosterism, emphasizing progress and development, praising new public works and buildings. Despite such editorial enthusiasm, it quickly becomes apparent, in the pages of l’Avenir, that on a daily basis, Hanoi was for the French a space to be endured more than enjoyed: dangerous, smelly, and backwards. The Chronique Locale, in addition to charting the European community’s social calendar, praising and 208 Lisa Drummond critiquing the administration, and commenting extensively on new urban developments of the expanding city, also emphasized the everyday inconveniences and outright dangers of the new colonial city. Sudden deaths of Europeans were chronicled at length, attempting to pinpoint the dangerous phenomena in this new tropical environment ; sightings of stray dogs were reported, fires, their causes and their damages were recounted in great detail, along with frequent and often scornful accounts of the dirty and smelly Vietnamese quarters of the city. Over time, and as the editorship changed, the tone of urban commentary darkened significantly from its initial youthful enthusiasm to emphasizing the dangers and inconveniences of life in Hanoi. The streets and the Vietnamese areas were clearly spaces in which the Europeans felt insecure and at risk. But this unpromising base was also the platform from which a grandiose colonial city would be constructed. So the streets, the landscape, Hanoi itself, simultaneously held both problem and promise, were both incomprehensible in the present and integral to the future. The discourse of public space in the colonial period is thus bifurcated between danger and desire—the dangers lurking in the city, which had to be avoided and eradicated, and the desires for grandeur and modernity, which must be embodied in the urban landscape.2 This chapter, based on research from a larger project on attitudes towards public space in Hanoi from the colonial era to the present, explores this dichotomous discourse, as evident and as evolving during the early colonial period in Hanoi. The news media, while reflecting individual opinion, also reflects as well as forms common ideas about the character of public space and specific sites, and everyday conversations and actions. As part of that larger project,3 I read these editorial columns for insight into public opinion (as the authors attempted both to convey and to form it), for a sense of the daily experience of Hanoi as it became a colonized and colonial city, and for a sense of how resident subscribers to the French paper might find their experiences reflected through these commentaries on the minutiae of urban colonial life.4 Here, I examine the discourses circulated in l’Avenir on the urban landscape of Hanoi, analyzing the editorial commentaries on urban development, the state of the city, Vietnamese behavior, and the use of public space by both communities. I also briefly discuss some of the initiatives undertaken Colonial Hanoi 209 by the French authorities to respond to the city they encountered and its urban practices, and remake it into the city they desired. Dangerous Streets Several phenomena show themselves...