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Gone are the environment-friendly bicycles that used to roam by the thousands on the streets of Saigon and Hanoi as thousands of motorcycles now rule the streets, noisily honking their way beside brand new BMWs, Lexuses and Mercedes Benzes. I am taken quite aback by what I see here. Once touted as a mecca for workers, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is as capitalist as Cebu or even more as it grows in leaps and bounds following its adoption of so-called economic reforms in 2001 that brought it ever closer to the capitalist world.
Hanoi?s polloi (Greek for ?people?) are apparently living in two worlds, being run by a socialist workers party while living as consumers in a market-propelled economy. I am told that there are more cellular phones here now than in the Philippines and Vietnam would have probably outpaced us in the number of texters if not for our burgeoning population of overseas contract workers. Dusty because of the cold, dry winter weather, Hanoi, the nation?s capital is bustling with economic activity not just in the number of building constructions and the opening of new banks and ATMs but also in its underground economy of hawkers and sellers of everything including imitation North Face bags (which should be aptly be called North Fakes). This emerging economic powerhouse is China all over again ? even in the world of archaeology, which is the reason I am here.
It?s my sixth day here in Hanoi on my first trip to Vietnam to attend the 19th congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association (IPPA). I am here to join over 300 archaeologists from 29 countries ringing the Asia-Pacific region on a weeklong conference with over 300 paper presentations plus a tour of archaeological sites nearby. I will be presenting the results of five phases of excavations in Boljoon, Cebu today, (thank God for cheap airfare and subsidized hotel accommodations). IPPA, after all, happens just once every three or four years. The last one was in Manila in 2006.
If there is one thing to learn from socialist countries like China and Vietnam, it is the fact that while adopting the capitalist framework for economic growth, they have not lost sight of the pursuit of knowledge about the past buried beneath future building sites. The opening day of the conference, for example, was devoted to Vietnam?s projects within the city of Hanoi, with archaeologists tracing the remains of old Vietnamese dynasties now long gone and buried beneath city streets that are slowly giving way to high-rise buildings.
Warring dynasties are being unearthed which have nothing to do with the socialist world ? in fact they represent the exact reactionary opposite, the feudal era. And yet Vietnam is pouring its resources to excavate this important part of its thousand-year history. This is akin to the hundreds of excavations carried out by China to trace its old dynasties, the most famous of which is the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang with its hundreds of life-size terracotta warriors, a project that continues to this day.
Cebu, on the other hand, has so much of its past buried beneath over a meter of its old downtown and yet nothing much has been done to study the area before more and more building constructions will forever erase traces of the pre-colonial past. The last one was in 1967-68 by the University of San Carlos. Now that Parian will be exchanged for some city property in Pasil, whatever the plans are for this once swampy Chinese enclave of Spanish-era Cebu, it is imperative to conduct a full excavation of this site. This can help build a clearer picture of the life?and death?of the city?s first pure Chinese migrants whose offspring eventually became the pillars of the island?s economic development. This is a challenge not just for the city government but for those intent on restoring Parian?s old glory. If a museum were to be set up near the Parian Heritage Monument in the future, the artifacts buried nearby will be its best source for a permanent exhibition.
The district where Parian is located is older than its Spanish period vintage or its now long-gone church. Who knows how far back in time old Parian, or old Cebu for that matter, really goes? Unless systematic and large-scale excavations the way of Vietnam and China are carried out, well, we can only keep on guessing.
