My Saigon. The top photo is stamped Restaurant The William Tell in French. One of many excellent French restaurants back then, though my favorite was the La Castille. The photo bottom left shows The Continental Palace where Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American. A German bought it after the war and enclosed the area downstairs which ruined the daily pastime of drinking while watching the pretty girls flow by on their bicycles wearing white Ao Dais. Saigon, Paris Of The Orient. The right photo depicts the Caravelle Hotel.
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The Indochinese Peninsula, which comprised modern-day Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, used to be under the control of French colonists. After the French established their industrial and military operations in the region, they also sought to gain from a limited but lucrative smokeless industry: tourism.
In this assortment of tourism brochures, posters and booklets, viewers can observe a range of design trends ranging from the early 20th century to the 1960s. Travel posters from the eras under French occupation emphasized on the peninsula’s exoticness to attractive wealthy holidaymakers from France who wanted a taste of “romance, thrill, beauty and historic lore.” From the vine-enveloped walls of Angkor Wat to southern Vietnam’s luxuriant river system, Indochina was heralded for its pristine landscape and cultural riches.
In the 1960s, the target demographic turned from rich French tourists to Vietnamese and Americans, judging by the change in language used. The Vietnamese language was featured prominently on the travel posters, a testament to the rise in wealth among locals, who became the gazers instead of the gazed. Design-wise, posters in this period showed influences of art deco and mid-century modernism in the use of san serif fonts, geometrical shapes and bright colors.
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