Spot the disney

# 01 Suoi Tien Theme park

The first place I spotted is this cultural theme park in Ho Chi Minh City. Being known as one of top 10 most exotic theme park in the world, this is a bigger and better theme park out of the two in the city. Featuring cultural theme of Buddhism as well as Vietnam's four sacred animals, the dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix, areas of the park have been designated for the different animals and zones. Eg: Giant dragon underground aquarium, Unicorn palace and garden.

 Its strategic location at Suoi Tien area matches it's fairy tale theme well, as this is a place that gathers sacred legends and is the home of Fairy stream where fairies can be spotted.

All the names of the attractions and restaurants are given a name complementing the theme like  the entrance named as fairyland gate, the thousand trees and hundred fruit gate open air restaurant which has a Buddhist cultural meaning behind. The parades, mascots are also according to the cultural theme, such as Golden Monkey (孙悟空) & Dragons. (as seen below)

These satisfied the first dimension of Disneyization- theming.

 Map of theme park


This unique theme park only supports attractions for entertainment and leisure, they also have food and beverages services, as well as accommodation such as open air camping. They also supports educational programs such as one of its attraction is animal conservation, as well as study of plants like the many gardens and nature areas preserved and they caters to the needs of learning more about the culture, animals and plants. Last but not least festivals such as fruit festivals are held and celebrated in the park, as well as events like private weddings are held. This is a place with hybrid consumption where they do not just cater to one form of consumptions, but to many different kinds and are still evolving and being introduced into the theme park concept. 

Wedding held at park

Live crocodiles farms and conservation

Dragon statues made by fruits for festivals

Roller coaster overseeing part of the park

 Souvenir shop

What will a theme park be without a retail shop for people to bring back a tangible item of their experience there? Yes, no doubt, the third dimension merchandising can also be clearly portrayed in this place. Souvenirs and products such as mugs, shirts and stationaries printed with Suoi Tien theme park logo serves as tangible merchandise goods for their theme park. These goods are specially produced under the license of the company and mass produced for sale, but not anywhere else outside its territory. Four sacred animals look-alike goods are also being produced to match the theme of the park and tangible for the fond memories spent there.

Certainly those mascots in performances and parades are not real dragons, superpower monkeys or fairy god mothers in your fairyland. They are just part of the performative labor for the audience, they are only humans like you and me. But they are indeed part of the front line service crew whereby they have to put up a staged front for the audience like pretending to be the holy pig saint by wearing its yellow robe and putting on a pig nose. They are deliberately staging a mood, in Suoi Tien Theme Park case, the festive mood, with all the traditional cultural dances and holy statues people looked up or prayed to during festivals. 

This can be a big question mark to the authenticity of such performances, yet it can be preserving its culture and tradition in some way by tangibilizing them so that they will not be lost over time and sharing its culture to more people. It also supports the comfortability of the guests which sometimes will appreciate staged fronts more than the wild, authentic change that they cannot adapt to.

#002 Mekong Delta cultural performances

This was an real life experience I had on my study trip to Vietnam. We were brought to this cultural village in Mekong Delta via a boat. Upon arrival we were brought to different huts featuring different cultural activities like coconut sweets making workshops, honeycomb tasting to watching this cultural music performances by the locals of Mekong. (different theme for different huts) We could experience food tasting, shopping, boat taking to home stays with the locals, which this cultural village had offered a hybrid of consumption.

 Merchandises such as these handmade local themed souvenirs are sold. Featuring the local products and matches their cultural theme perfectly.

 Freshly, handmade coconut sweets are packaged and sold instantly after being made during the workshops.

I bought one of them which looked like two monkeys holding a heart with I love you home, which reminded me dearly of my fond memories in Mekong. 

The ladies would put up a song cum dance performance while the guys would play instruments. After they put up the show, they would offer you fruits and a flower basket for one to put tips. In other words, one is obliged to giving tips! They continued to do these to every group of visitors that dropped by their huts. The song item was supposed to be their traditional dance and songs, yet they were on performative labour as they repeated their song items to every batch of visitors all the time.


Credits:
http://www.his3site.com/2008/06/suoi-tien-theme-park.html
http://www.vietnamhost.com/suoitien_park/thefour.html
Photo courtesy to respective owners