Photo book preserving the heritage of Ho Chi Minh City

Pictures in photo book.

This is a 168-page bilingual Vietnamese-English photo book, which includes more than 300 rare photos of the development stages of Ho Chi Minh City, covering the history - culture - society of this land. Typically, through photos taken from above, readers can see the whole land, thereby visualizing the overall development of the city, starting from the early urban images associated with the landscape of rivers, trees...

At the same time, readers will also admire architectural works such as administrative buildings, schools, hospitals, bridges, roads, ports, wharves, factories, plants, hotels, traditional markets, churches, communal houses, pagodas, means of transport, etc. through the development process. In addition, there are also images preserving cultural features in urban life such as traditional weddings, funerals, traditional opera, folk games, horse racing, etc.

Through this book, the image of the Ao Dai costume is also recreated, with many interesting details. For example, before 1945, many women wore black Ao Dai to carry goods to the market to sell, sometimes wearing Ao Dai to go to the rice fields. In 1937, the "Concours élégant - Saigon" contest at Ong Thuong Garden (today's Tao Dan Park) can be considered the first Ao Dai beauty contest in this city. Ms. Nguyen Thi Lieu (born in 1912) in Hoc Mon was the winner of the beauty pageant that year.

The book also takes readers to explore the culinary specialties of Ho Chi Minh City, from luxurious to popular. Luxurious cafes in the city appeared very early, notably Café Lyonnais, Café Paris, Café de la Musique, Grand Café de la Terrasse, Café des Fleurs... At the same time, there are also indispensable street vendors, noodle carts, and drink carts serving customers on the sidewalk... with attractive dishes from the South, stretching back to the previous centuries. Through vivid and impressive images, we can partly feel the interesting sidewalk culinary identity of the most vibrant city in the country.

Aiming to preserve and promote cultural heritage values, maintain ancient traces and spread heritage values in today's life so that Ho Chi Minh City can continue to develop more strongly in the future, through this book, Ho Chi Minh City General Publishing House, Xua va Nay Magazine hopes to contribute to the collection of research documents and visual materials about Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City, and thereby enrich Vietnam's cultural heritage.

Article and photos: QM

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/tap-sach-anh-luu-giu-di-san-cua-tp-ho-chi-minh-a186910.html