Public and the City Hall

Public and the City Hall

In its early days, the City Hall waged irritation among indigenous citizens due to its high construction costs and design motifs. Local press even attacked the building with negative connotations as “grotesque” and “bad taste”. Native inhabitants received the building poorly as they regarded the architecture and its details as incomprehensible symbolic allegory. The references to a superior French Republic carved in the exterior did not seem to convey their underlying meanings to a common Vietnamese citizen. This might be due to the fact that any information about the French Revolution was eliminated from history classes of contemporary citizens.

Reference:
Wright, Gwendolyn. 1991. The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism. Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

Vu Ha My