Bluejake

I spotted this piece in Hoi An, a popular Vietnamese village a few clicks south of Danang. The title of the post might be a slight exaggeration-- I did see one or two crappy tags and one lousy throw-up in Saigon, and a few cartoony-scribbles on a mailbox in Hanoi. Still-- there isn't much here, and I'm not surprised. In my limited travels in Asia, I've noticed that there's very little native graffiti-- in places like Tokyo, what graf exists is normally perpetrated by foreigners.

My explanation: in societies that value authority, graffiti is a much more serious transgression than in societies that don't. So in places like America, where respect for authority (and by extension, property) is low, graffiti prevalence is high. In many Asian countries, Confucianism, with its strong deference to authority, is at the very root of the culture-- so it's not surprising we don't see a lot of art around here. In Vietnam, it's even worse, because Communism adds another layer of authoritarianism to the mix-- further disincentivizing artists from doing their work. I haven't been to China, but I expect that it would be similar-- I fully expect Beijing to be buff city.

An interesting fact: societies that are very high on the authoritarian index sometimes see more graffiti than societies in the middle. Iran, for instance, is said to have some graf. So does Baghdad. It's mainly political sloganeering, of course-- but there's probably some art-graf mixed in there. My guess is that when you really clamp down on freedom of expression, that energy has to pop out somewhere. And honestly, even if it can get you killed (as it can in North Korea), spraypainting a wall might still be safer than handing out political pamphlets, or making a speech.

Here's a quick sketch to guide graffiti expectations during your world travels. Let me know if you find any countries that don't fit the model.

Update-- Jason writes:

I've also been curious about the impact of culture and government on the acceptability/attractiveness of graffiti writing. The Times ran a piece a few weeks back on the exploding art scene in Hanoi, which includes a shot of a pretty boldly tagged wall there. From what you saw it sounds like that might be one of the few, though.

When I was in China last year, I didn't see much graffiti. The one bit I caught was under a bridge in Suzhou. It does seem that the folks are less conservative the further you get from Beijing, so I bet you're right about finding less in the capital than elsewhere. Then again, Zhang Dali got his start in Beijing, so who knows?

You can see my shot of the tags in Suzhou here...

Thanks, Jason. After you wrote I checked out that article and tracked down the graf wall it mentions-- it was in an alley about ten blocks from my hotel. Some colorful proto-graf-- the sort of stuff you see when teenagers are first learning to use cans (see the shot below, and more on Flickr.) That's a good metaphor for all the graf that I've seen here-- it shows some promise, but it's still in a embryonic stage. I do like your point about the local influences of authority-- and I think that you're right-- it does vary from place to place, within a country and even within a city.

Other factors that might influence the prevalence of graf: availability of materials (paint, brushes, etc), cost of materials compared to local income, artistic traditions within a culture, prevailing laws (punishment/fines/imprisonment/lashing?), etc.