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Modernity, Imperialism and the Pleasures of Travel: The Continental Hotel in Saigon

2008; Routledge; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10357820802492198

1467-8403

Srilata Ravi,

Philippine History and Culture

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. See Denby, 1998 Denby, Elaine. 1998. Grand hotels: reality and illusion: An architectural and social history, London: Reaktion Books. [Google Scholar] and Walter, Fitchett, Meade and Lartéguy, 1987 Walter, Marc, Fitchett, Joseph, Meade, Martin and Lartéguy, Jean. 1987. Palaces et grands hôtels d'Orient, Paris: Flammarion. [Google Scholar]. 2. See the Continental hotel website at http://www.continental-saigon.com/content.asp?langset=fr&cat=1, accessed 17 December 2007. 3. See Peleggi, 2005 Peleggi, Maurizzio. 2005. Consuming colonial nostalgia: The monumentalisation of historic hotels in urban South-East Asia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 46(3): 255–265. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. In his study of the restoration of colonial hotels in Southeast Asia since the 1990s, Peleggi notes that two factors are at work: the first operates in the material domain where architectural enhancement aims to achieve a semblance of authenticity, and the second, in the imaginary domain, where myths about the hotels' past are used to justify "monumental" status and to serve as marketing strategies. 4. A detailed development of the tourist/traveller binary foregrounded in Paul Fussell's Abroad: British literary traveling between the Wars (1980) critique of travel writing has not been problematised in this study. For the purposes of this paper the terms "traveller" and "tourist" have been used interchangeably. This assumption follows from the analysis of Buzard, who observes that the traveller/tourist is constantly fluctuating between his desire to be a detached observer and his desire to take part in the spectacle offered to him. See Buzard, 1993 Buzard, James. 1993. The beaten track: European tourism, literature and the ways to culture, 1800–1918, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. I acknowledge the importance of gender in identity formations but consider that a serious exploration in this context is beyond the scope of the present study. 5. In the absence of hotel records, much of what we learn about the hotel is from Philippe Franchini's autobiography, Continental Saigon (1976). The book deals mainly with the experiences of young Philippe, son of a Corsican father and a Vietnamese mother, in colonial Saigon. It contains very few factual details about the day-to-day running of the hotel. In fact Continental Saigon contributes more to the mythologising of a colonial institution in very much the same way that writings of the French colonists and travellers did earlier in the century. In this essay page numbers refer to the 1995 edition of the book. 6. The colonial era of the hotel can be divided into "heroic" and "imperial" periods. In the early years of its existence colonial adventurers, eccentric travellers and royal tourists constituted the rich clientele of the Continental. The visits of such mythical figures as Marie David de Mayrena, roi des Sedangs, in 1888 amplified the aura of mystery, exoticism and adventure that the hotel projected (Franchini 1995 Franchini, Philippe. 1995. Continental Saigon, Paris: Ed Métailié. (First published 1976) [Google Scholar], p. 54). In the 1930s Mathieu Franchini replaced the rustic or "heroic" era created by the hotelier Frassetto and "La Societé des Grands Hotels" with an imperial ambience that offered his guests modern comforts as well as Parisian pleasure and sophistication (Franchini, 1995 Franchini, Philippe. 1995. Continental Saigon, Paris: Ed Métailié. (First published 1976) [Google Scholar], p. 101). 7. Franchini's biography does not provide details of the buyer. However, the author claims that he is not sure whether the name of the company involved in the liquidation of the hotel's assets was "Dupond" or "Durand" (Franchini, 1995 Franchini, Philippe. 1995. Continental Saigon, Paris: Ed Métailié. (First published 1976) [Google Scholar], p. 284). 8. "As I pass, I recognise the dark shape of the cathedral, indifferent to changes in time. Here is the Central Post Office … on the front wall of the building a giant clock continues to mark time. Then, here is the famous rue Catinat, which had become rue de la Liberté after French colonisation and is re-baptised today as rue Dong Khoi. In those days, it used to be bordered by chic cafés and renowned bars amongst which was the bar at the Continental hotel. One used to mix with the most elegant women of Saigon here" (my translation). 9. The establishment of the Théâtre Municipal in 1911 launched a new era of colonial entertainment and the hotel became home to "les broussailleux" (Frenchmen living in the provinces) and other officials living outside Saigon who came to the city to see the shows and to participate in the cultural life of "Tout Saigon". 10. "The Continental is anchored in rue Catinat halfway from the Plateau where the Cathedral stands, the Norodom palace and its colonial splendour – and from the port with its tall commercial buildings, its wharfs where rubber, precious wood and rice, the riches of the colony, are piled up" (my translation). 11. … "the green hour on the Continental terrace when short evenings used to fall on carob trees and coaches used to cross rue Catinat to the sound of their bells". 12. "It was a manner of expressing the confidence one had in the colonising mission through the hotel architecture. Not only did the entrance hall open out on the same level as the pavement, the ground floor also opened outwards to make it appear like a vast gallery. In effect, the Continental closely resembled a ship, its structures, freshly unloaded from the vessels were filled with odours of decks and gangways" (my translation). 13. "Saigon, 9 o'clock in the evening – the rue Catinat … White people, fully white, and appearing whiter in the electric light as they trot past swiftly in their little Malay horse driven carriages" (my translation). 14. "Rue Catinat, a fashionable bustle, appropriate and yet admirably free and impudent because the sovereign law of the region and its climate privilege foreign customs. There are people from every country. Europeans, mainly French, rub shoulders with the natives with the patronising insolence of conquerors" (my translation). 15. "Rue Catinat, we laugh and we get off happily in front of the hotel" (my translation). 16. "Saigon, 9 o'clock in rue Catinat … A vague atmosphere like that of a southern spa town living its nocturnal, lustful and nervous hours. White people, fully white, and appearing whiter in the electric light trot past swiftly in their tiny Malay horse driven carriages. Golden threads shine on the sailors' sleeves and hats, excessive jewels and necklaces glow on the brown skins of the mixed-race women hidden in soft muslin. As the trot of the courageous young beasts whipped by the sais becomes faster, the more marked becomes the lack of restraint in postures, the tilted stupor of smokers and the deliberate state of bliss of couples envied by lonely people sitting on the terraces and taking refuge in the consolation provided by an iced cocktail" (my translation). 17. "Generally speaking, one can define travel as this modern hesitation between frenzied nomadism and hesitant disorientation, this unresolved floating that privileges elsewhere and escape only to further withdraw in a huddled manner into the tiny home of the Self" (my translation). 18. "In Saigon, one can see: 1. a Catholic church, red bricks, two bells; 2. statue of Gambetta in an overcoat with a fur collar; 3. The theatre (here we must add that the architect had a good idea, that is to write 'théâtre' on the front wall, without which, inspired by my love for farming, I would have climbed up in the hope of watching the latest agricultural show of the neighbourhood; 4. the Continental's terrace; 5. the Governor General's palace and its garden and its avenue, which is worth something; 6. quiet rickshaws; 7. rue Catinat" (my translation). 19. Van Den Abbeele, 1985 Van den Abbeele, Georges. 1985. Montesquieu tourist, or a view from the top. L'Esprit Créateur, XXV(3) [Google Scholar], p. 66. See also MacCanell, 1976 MacCanell, Dean. 1976. The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class, New York: Schocken Books. [Google Scholar]. 20. "If an atmosphere of a bygone lively era is still present in the image of Indochina, it is in Saigon that its colours are visible" (my translation). 21. "… what smells of roasted nut! Ah! The opium smokers, Zim! Zim! Boum! Boum! And this is the single-string violin, which sounds like a cat that is being skinned … And the little Cantonese girls who sing like a whistling steam engine! We can no longer hear each other. This is a world where one has fun" (my translation). 22. "In Saigon, there are two eccentric gentlemen. If I did not go of my own accord to the terrace at the Continental, I would go specially at dinner time to see the two gentlemen announced" (my translation). 23. "I did not check into a hotel, I found a home there" (my translation). 24. "The huge dining room was in the style of the 'Messageries Maritimes' like the kitchen whose chief cook had been poached from a passenger ship. The meals, by the profusion of dishes and the generosity of portions, were true manifestos of culinary nationalism. 'As good as in France', that was the motto" (my translation). 25. "If we have spent so much time on this chapter it is not because of love for this art or fondness for the bourgeois cook, but because food, which can only be a primary condition for physical existence, still exercises an important beneficial influence on our morale. Meals are an excuse for meetings, an opportunity for entertainment through the pleasures of conversation, the variety of characters and ideas, and the gaiety of small talk" (my translation).