It was a jarring experience to find this image of my family members at my great-grandfather’s 1970 funeral in Saigon, Vietnam. I was captivated by the photo's spontaneity and beauty. The best kind of beauty is the kind that does not know it is beautiful. There is a certain kind of unrest and melancholy that this image instills in me. It is the way that my great-aunt stares intensely at the camera in an all white ao dai paired with black shades, she unintentionally portrays a swagger that is unbeknownst to herself. The fact that most of my family members are uniformed in white leads me to believe that there is a sense of strong community and familyhood in the act of attending a funeral.
Funerals in Vietnamese culture are a big deal, as they can last for several days of worship and prayer. Family members traditionally wear white to express their mourning for their loved ones. According to my aunt (who appears as one of the small children in the front row), there is a superstition that if “proper actions aren’t taken, it is believed that the person’s ghost will remain on earth and possibly even cause harm to the family.” Vietnamese culture is one that is deeply rooted in tradition and symbolism. The importance of wearing white in Vietnamese funerals roots from the Chinese belief that white is the color of death and mourning. White is traditionally an association of holiness and purity, and this fact makes it all the more intriguing when put into a mournful attire. As my family members clasp their hands together in prayer, they pray for the soul of the dead to lead onto an ideal afterlife. It is important to note that my family is Buddist, and the idea of a soul bound for reincarnation is relevant to the nature of the funeral. In the book The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair writes that “when Kazimir Malevich was completing his White on White series, he wrote:
[T]he blue of the sky has been defeated by the supremacist system, has been broken through and entered white, as the true, real conception of infinity, and this liberated from the color background of the sky… Sail forth! The white, free chasm, infinity, is before us.”
The conception of a soul bound for infinity after death has great correlation to the choice of an all white ao dai. To preface, ao dais are a traditional Vietnamese dress that is worn by both men and women. Although, in most scenarios, women are usually the ones that wear ao dais. Ao dais are a long tunic with long side slits that create a front and back panel. Additionally, the mandarin collar and body hugging bodice, paired with palazzo pants are reminiscent of the garment’s Chinese and French influence. While ao dais are mostly worn during special occasions, what makes this photograph even more special is the fact that one of my great-aunts features in this image single handedly sewed all of the white ao dais that the women are wearing. It is undeniable that the ao dai in this funeral circumstance is utilized and adorned as a form of uniform. The uniformity of garment choice bonds family members together in moments of peril.
“In many instances ingroup acceptance may influence the selection of and purchase of clothing based on friendship. The clothing selections indicate ingroup acceptance and affiliation.”
The concept of the homemade ao dai builds upon the narrative of cultural signifiers in 1970 Vietnam. The pattern for a well-constructed ao dai is not one that is open for reinterpretation. Most, if not all ao dais follow a very traditional and basic format of garment construction. Iterations of ao dais are mostly distinct by choice of print, color, or material. Ao dais could be viewed as a systemic uniform of the Vietnamese people. The ao dai is distinguishably Vietnamese due to the unchanging shape and silhouette of the dress. The ao dai is not considered fashion, but strictly tradition. This idea is further elaborated in the book The Face of Fashion - Cultural Studies in Fashion.
“Symptomatically, the term fashion is rarely used in reference to non-western cultures. The two are defined in preposition to each other: western dress is fashion because it changes regularly, is superficial and mundane, and projects individual identity; non- western dress is costume because it is unchanging, encodes deep meaning, and projects group identity and membership.”
The ideal Vietnamese female form is displayed through the cut and shape of the ao dai. In order to achieve the ideal ao dai look, a woman must first have a slim and slender body, that yet is curvaceous in all the right places. The tightly fitted tunic top suggests a youthful, yet sexy body of woman. While the long, flowing palazzo pants paired underneath creates a more shapely silhouette from the hip. There is an infantilized and sexual nature to the ao dai that is curbed under the sign of “cultural.” The ideal Vietnamese beauty has been deeply ingrained in the fabric of Vietnamese culture that there is little to no discourse about challenging the traditional aesthetic.
‘“Journalist Nguyen Hoang Nam has observed that the meanings associated with the ao dai have “been perpetuated by countless puppy-love, maudlin poems and novels that engraved, for the most part, the traditional Vietnamese concept of female beauty: innocent, frail, chaste, shy, and soft-spoken. The ao dai conjures up romantic images of a Vietnamese past that is pure and untainted by war.”’
The overall construction and appearance of the ao dai leaves a different perception depending on the viewer or wearer. There is an inherent dichotomy between the functionality and restrictiveness of the ao dai. It is important to note that ao dais are always constructed with silk or translucent woven fabrics that have little to no stretch. Ao dais must be custom made to perfectly fit the curves of the wearer's particular body shape. The long tunic that hugs tightly around the chest and waist leaves little room for the body to fluctuate in weight. Meanwhile, the flowy palazzo pants underneath convey a sense of freedom of mobility and movement. The relaxed and draped style of the bottom half of the ao dai is contrasted with the restricted bodice.
The image of The White Funeral leaves behind a narrative that is unique to the Vietnamese woman’s experience, and provides context of what is culturally significant and important in 1970 Saigon. One can gather underlying notions of standards of beauty and womanhood through the traditional dress of the ao dai, and its correlation to conventional Vietnamese funeral wear and beyond.
References:
Clair, St Kassia. The Secret Lives of Color. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2017.
Goes into detail about the meaning of white in a cultural and psychological context. This is intertwined with the all white ao dai funeral wear.
Miller-Spillman, Kimberly A., and Andrew Reilly. The Meanings of Dress. New York, NY: Fairchild Publications, 2001.
Allows readers to understand women’s bodies as an image of society, as giving visual expression to sociocultural values.
Craik, Jennifer. Cultural Studies in Fashion. London and New York, NY: Routledge, 1994.
The purpose of non-Western dress is put into context with its Western counterparts. Tradition is what separates a non-Western dress from what is considered “fashionable.”
Lieu, Nhi T. “Remembering ‘The Nation’ through Pageantry: Femininity and the Politics of Vietnamese Womanhood in the ‘Hoa Hau Ao Dai’ Contest.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 21, no. 1/2 (2000): 127–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/3347038.
Good visual description of the Vietnamese ao dai and its general origins. Also gives context to the Vietnamese female body ideals in regards to the ao dai’s silhouette.
Malarney, Shaun Kingsley. “The Limits of ‘State Functionalism’ and the Reconstruction of Funerary Ritual in Contemporary Northern Vietnam.” American Ethnologist 23, no. 3 (1996): 540–60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/646351.
Gives more cultural context to the Vietnamese culture and funeral processes in conjunction to Vietnamese history.
Nguyen, Lana, and Joanna Ha. 1970 White Funeral Interview. Personal, October 28, 2022.
My aunt is one of the small children in the image taken. She has first hand experience regarding the functions and culture of Vietnamese funerals.
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