Le Van Minh, a former officer in the South Vietnamese air force, was sent to a government camp where he and others were sometimes chained together and forced to pull a plow. As the headquarters of the ruling Communist Party and as the seat of government, Hanoi is the epicenter of political power in Vietnam, while the south, the country's rice bowl and its economic engine, conducts much of the nation's business. If Hanoi can feel a bit provincial and sleepy, there's an unmistakable verve and economic drive in Ho Chi Minh City. For example, when they wanted to try allowing overseas Vietnamese to own houses in Vietnam, they launched the pilot program in Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi women generally wear more modest clothes and less makeup, while southern women cut their traditional ao dai dresses to be tighter and more revealing.
Many northern women consider cosmetic surgery to be a southern extravagance.
Meanwhile, it's all the rage in Saigon, where clinics have waiting lists of patients wanting nose jobs and breast enlargements. Our inherited characteristics make us more delicate and moderate. We don't need to be extravagant to beautiful. Our idea of beauty is more traditional and natural. And so it goes, this family sniping.