Argh! A Pirate's Life for Me!

The Vietnamese are master pirates. I’m not talking about Jolly Rogers or the Gulf of Aden here; I’m referrinig to the Vietnamese’s ability to copy seemingly any consumer product you can think of. The streets of Hanoi and Saigon are filled with knock-off brand-name clothing. Prada, Gucci, Lacoste, Adidas, Nike; you name it, it’s there. Some of these copies are exceedingly good. One Adidas tennis polo I bought was copied down to the tag explaining how to wash the shirt. The only thing that tipped me off that the shirt was a copy was the fact that the word “washer” was misspelled and the Vietnamese sizing (last check I don’t wear a 3X).

Vietnam is renowned for its DVD piracy. I’ve been able to find nearly any title you could want. A friend of mine “in the business” told me that all the DVDs come from China. They might all come from the same factory, too. The reason I think this is because any copy of a film or TV show is the same throughout the city. For example, the copy of The Matrix you buy on Pham Ngu Lau Street will be identical to the one you buy on Hai Ba Trung. This isn’t always good, because if that copy is a bad one, say the soundtrack is a second off from the video, then every copy of The Matrix in Saigon, if not all of Vietnam, may be similarly flawed. This having been said, may I recommend to future visitors of Saigon to avoid purchase of Saving Private Ryan, for precisely the reasons explained above.

The Vietnamese flair for copying continues to the world of art. There are dozens of art studios in Saigon that produce nothing but copies of other famous paintings, some of which are quite good. Imagine if some of these artists actually put out original works – Vietnam could have quite the art scene.

Watches are another pirate favorite. There are so many fake Omegas, Longines, and Rolexes floating around the country that I couldn’t find a watch that wasn’t a knock-off. Even in Cao Lanh I had to settle for a watch with “Valley Jewelers” on its face, probably an overrun from some specialty order.

The watch dilemma is a great example of just how commonplace piracy is in Vietnam. So accessible are pirated goods that most Vietnamese don’t actually understand what a brand name is. To my students, “Armani” is just a cool word you put on a shirt. Of course you wear a “Rolex” watch - that’s the word you put on watches. No doubt you wear a massive Hugo Boss belt buckle - what else would you use to keep your pants up? The idea that these names represent high quality or a special kind of style is completely lost on the majority of Vietnamese.

Of course, there is one arena where the Vietnamese are too good at piracy: the classroom. My students, in spite of their beginner-level English, will lift anything from the Internet – Wikipedia, newspapers, professional reports – and call it their own. They always seem shocked when I catch them. One of the other Fulbrighters taught a lesson on poetry, and for homework asked her students to write a simple poem, something like an acrostic or a haiku. Bear in mind that these students had just learned what rhyme was, rhyme not being common in the mostly monosyllabic Vietnamese language. Next class she received several works from the likes of Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes. Some of this blatant cheating comes from an overwhelming fear of failure. Students would rather cheat than risk a failing grade. Some of this cheating comes from apathetic or overworked teachers who allow such behavior. Also not helping matters is the fact that the university itself is massively involved in piracy. All my university’s texts are photocopied. With counterfeit goods being the norm, and universities being some of the greatest perpetrators of piracy, I can’t help but see my students’ behavior as a mere reflection of their society.