‘In a War, We Draw’: Vietnam’s Artists Join Fight against Covid-19

Published in April 2020, Chris Humphrey’s article for The Guardian documents the mobilization of Vietnam’s artists during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how a visual culture rooted in socialist propaganda was reactivated in response to the public health crisis. With striking wartime aesthetics and emotionally charged slogans, these artworks echo Vietnam’s long history of political posters from the American War era, this time repurposed to combat a virus. Vietnamese artist Le Duc Hiep explains, the propaganda aesthetic was intentionally chosen because: “it’s familiar to Vietnamese people and this style always invokes patriotic emotions” (Hiep, quoted in Humphrey). In his propaganda poster, Hiep portrayed masked healthcare workers determinedly standing side by side, holding hands, and showing solidarity, which also includes the message “To stay at home is to love your country”. On the other hand, veteran painter Pham Trung Ha collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the Vietnam Stamp Company on images that framed doctors and nurses as frontline warriors, including symbolic motifs such as a rising clenched fist, which is a traditional signifier of resistance.

The socialist government explicitly called on artists to create new works, recognizing their capacity to influence behavior and foster solidarity. The propaganda aesthetic they employ reflects a cultural and political environment where collective responsibility and state authority are closely linked. This visual rhetoric draws on Vietnam’s historical memory of collective endurance in wartime, making the sacrifices of pandemic life is comparable to the vigilance and discipline of wartime living. The effectiveness of Vietnam’s COVID-19 containment—such as low case numbers, widespread quarantine, and early lockdown measures—demonstrates how visual art became both a mode of communication and a disciplinary tool to curb the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, conveying encouragement and also compliance. Humphrey’s article presents a vivid picture of how art and policy can intersect during the COVID-19 pandemic.