Hot Time In Saigon

Nguyen Quang Huy sees a lot of Viet Kieu in his bar, the Hot Club. "The younger ones we can get on with," he says. "It is the older ones who are difficult sometimes, with their memories of before." He is leaning against the counter, drinking a Corona and watching one of the bands he is promoting. They begin with a love song. Huy frowns. "Now that could be a problem for us if the police come in." The song is by a Vietnamese band in the U.S. "Not allowed here." More than anything, Huy wants to make money. Fast. "Business is good. Artists paint so many pictures. Why? To make money. Singers write songs--to make money. With money you can live." Huy wanted to study in the U.S. but couldn't get a visa. He says it doesn't matter much. "I can get what I need from the Internet." The bar is doing so well that he plans to open a second one. He's hoping to begin shooting music videos of his best acts. "You know the real problem with Vietnamese bands?" says Huy. "They don't smile. When an American band is onstage, everyone is smiling." Sure enough, the guitar, bass and keyboard players look as if they are waiting for a bus. Huy drains his Corona. "I have to teach them that."

It is a whole new world. Vietnam's younger generation has escaped from under the very eyes of the government, which didn't even see them going. The party's authority no longer crosses the generation gap, and a huge empty space has opened up in society for youngsters to prosper--or self-destruct. A 15-min. cell-phone call in Saigon costs the same as a single hit of heroin in one of the city's public parks.

The rain held off over the weekend. Lien and her fiance went out for dinner with some friends to a restaurant where the waitresses sing as they deliver the food. Xuan ducked work in order to spend time with his soon-to-be wife--his first holiday since 1996. Nhung was onstage in the Long Phung Culture Center, singing the songs of Trinh Cong Son to a rapt audience. And Huy was back in the Hot Club, coaxing another new act, looking for that smile.