Couple loves to travel, travel all over Ho Chi Minh City to paint signs for street vendors

Young couple love to travel and enjoy experiences at street vendors

Recently, a video of a young couple repainting a sign for an elderly street vendor in Ho Chi Minh City has attracted the attention of the online community. This clip received 16.6 million views, 1.6 million likes, and more than 9,000 comments expressing their excitement and emotion at the young couple's actions.

The owner of the clip, Nguyen Phan Thanh Phuong (25 years old, living in Ho Chi Minh City), is currently an architect and art teacher, shared: "Currently, 'Drawing Happiness' has 2 members, including me and Nguyen Phu Thinh, born in 1994. Thinh is a reporter collaborating with some local newspapers and working in communications for a Vietnamese mobile network. Phuong and Thinh are also taking on freelance design jobs."

Passionate about traveling and exploring , Phuong and Thinh often go to the Central provinces to experience the culture and people of these lands. Phuong shared that in each place, the young couple connects with interesting friends, does meaningful things and learns many interesting things.

The couple has made many trips to different provinces and cities in the S-shaped strip of land.

Born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Phuong is familiar with and enjoys hanging out at street vendors. Thinh is from Quang Nam and currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City. Knowing Phuong, Thinh also "infected" with the passion for experiencing street food.

According to Phuong and Thinh's observations, street vendors in each region will have different characteristics. For example, in the countryside, the couple encountered many grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters selling many types of goods on shoulder poles, a very traditional and very Vietnamese cultural feature. Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City, many carts are made of aluminum, iron or stainless steel, more suitable for the modern and bustling life of the city.

Traveling around Ho Chi Minh City to "collect" smiles

Sharing the reason for traveling around Ho Chi Minh City to paint free signs for street vendors, Thanh Phuong said: “The idea of drawing came about by chance, when we were walking on the street and saw many street vendors of elderly people, people with disabilities without signs or old, faded signs, we found it difficult to read and did not know what those vendors were selling to support.

These carts are mostly owned by aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters in difficult circumstances, some families only live on that cart but often sell very slowly, sometimes only earning 100,000 - 200,000 VND per day. We think that producing a signboard will be somewhat difficult for these circumstances. Therefore, we came up with the idea of drawing and decorating those carts to make them stand out, attract more customers to sell more, and partly help these circumstances."

*Phuong and Thinh while drawing the signboard for Mrs. Sau's vermicelli soup cart*

The couple often takes advantage of their free time, in the evening or on weekends, to paint signs for street vendors. Instead of walking around the streets, the two young people choose to "collect" smiles. Thanh Phuong shared: "All the steps from cleaning to coming up with ideas are challenges for us. When we find the old men and women who agree to paint, we only have about 30 minutes to 1 hour to complete the painting, because the old men and women still have to sell at other places. As for the local shops, the time is more flexible, we have about 2 to 3 hours to chat and come up with ideas to make the work."

*Young couples often choose Acrylic colors, paint pens,... with the criteria of high applicability, flexibility, can be painted on many materials and must be durable in both sun and rain.*

Up to now, the two young people shared that they have had many beautiful memories and received a lot of love. Phuong was most impressed by the time she drew for Hoang and her mother.

“We are very impressed by the spirit and great emotional strength of a mother, caring for and patiently teaching a 21-year-old 'child' with the mind of a 4-year-old child because of the effects of Agent Orange. Every day, Hoang goes with his mother to sell to help her earn money to 'mum mum' (eat), while sitting selling, he listens to Buddhist scriptures and recites Buddha's name. When we interact with him, we see that he is very obedient and understanding, that really touches our emotions", the young girl confided.

*Phuong and Thinh while drawing a sign for Hoang and her son*

Phuong said the couple made this journey by chance, both hoping to be able to paint and draw many more street vendors, to "absorb" for themselves good stories, positive life experiences from the grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Both hope this journey will be extended, not only in Ho Chi Minh City but also to connect with young people with a passion for fine arts in other places, contributing to spreading more positivity and love.

*The young couple "absorbed" positive stories and smiles from street vendors and spread them to everyone.*

*The couple received a lot of love from the street vendors whose signs they painted.*

*Not only introducing products with drawings and words, the young couple also recorded positive messages to convey to buyers.*

Sharing her thoughts on social media, Phuong realized that the audience for social media is quite young, mostly students who are still impulsive. Social media has both good and bad points. If the young generation is exposed to many negative videos and harmful trends, the consequences will be huge.

Therefore, the young couple wishes to contribute to building a positive social media culture, through videos that can convey faith, optimism, joy, sympathy and sharing to everyone. Through that, hopefully today's young generation can open their hearts to love more, connect more, and 'join hands' to help more people.

Photo: NVCC

Source