#themeo

would it surprise anyone that my after a while of not posting my comeback post would be another vietnamese pop punk song?

a high-spirited, vital, and zealous song, "CHUNG CƯ," or "apartment" uses the apartment complex as a microscopic stage to meditate on the ongoing loss of community and interrelatedness in our prevailing late stage capitalist world. pop punk is the perfect genre to do so with its resistance of oppressive institutions. if there is anything to get my spirits up, let it be this song's energetic and dynamic electric guitar riff.

the song starts "Sáng sớm bên kia nhà, Chỉ thấy có ông mặt trời, Xung quanh là bao căn nhà, Hàng trăm dân cư mà chẳng quen biết ai," or "In the morning, in the apartment next to me, all I see is the sunrise. There are over a hundred tenants but no one knows each other." these lines bring to the center the declining sense of community and familiarity in our immediate communities. why have we have lost the connection in the people directly around us, in a physical sense? i relate a lot to this song in the context of my own life as (1) i live in an apartment complex and (2) for as long as i've lived in this complex, i really have not had a conversation with anyone. i will admit this is partially my fault but when i visited viet nam last summer, i was able to witness how much of a role neighbors play in people's daily life. in viet nam it is normal to go over to your neighbors and casually ask for a meal when you're too lazy to cook. people rely and lean on each other. they gossip, they talk shit, they talk with each other. they laugh, they cry, they mourn and grieve together. they are a community together.

then comes the chorus: "Một mình trong chung cư, Ta lãng quên bao chuyện ngồi hàn huyên bên nhau từ bao giờ, Người ở trong chung cư, Chẳng thấy ai nói lời chào thăm nhau đã hơn vài năm nay," or "Alone in this apartment complex, we have forgotten how to talk to one another, oh person living in this apartment complex, we have never asked about each other." as bright as this song is, it really does the work of mourning what we have lost to late stage capitalism. that is we have lost interpersonal connections with the people around us. what this song does beautifully is offer us a simple solution to the waning sense of connection: asking someone how are you? as cheesy and corny as this sounds, what the song is urging us to do is to start trying to connect with others the best way we can and that is to talk and converse with our neighbors and the people around us.

i end this post with this question: what else have we lost to late stage capitalism?

afterword

i hope this post encourages you check out THEMÈO. if not, i hope this post offers you some insight into the diverse musical landscape in viet nam. 

as always, thank you for reading. i greatly appreciate your time and attention. 

with warmth,

phim