Regain Eternal Spring for the People

During the Vietnam War a large amount of propaganda material was produced to encourage anti-American feeling amongst the Vietnamese people. This piece, made in 1975, celebrates the end of the conflict and was made while the artist attended the Vietnam College of Fine Arts from 1974 to 1979. In this piece, painted vividly in water color, wearing a traditional Vietnamese ao ba ba, a female soldier holds up a white orchid flowering after a long winter, glad of the arrival of spring, and victory. In the Vietnam War many women joined militia groups and engaged in guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines or assisted with logistical operations such as maintaining roads, or setting up and staffing radio broadcasts and print works. This fighter has a gun strapped across her back and a flak jacket. Never in fact printed as a poster, being painted at a time when supplies were extremely limited, it is a valuable piece offering an insight into the conditions of that time. (SK)