“Đi bão! Đi bão!” “Việt Nam vô địch, Việt Nam vô địch!” Chanted the brewing crowd filling Vietnam’s streets after the nation won the AFF Cup.
As the world witnessed the triumph of Vietnam’s soccer team, foreigners and tourists coming to Vietnam were captivated by something else, đi bão.
The term đi bão is an Internet term that the Vietnamese people coined to describe a parade-like occasion to express national pride, the latest example being the AFF Cup celebration. Through the victory, the term has risen into international popularity as a cultural phenomenon in Vietnam.
On the surface level, foreigners would witness Vietnamese people flooding the street on their motorcycles, cheering, and raising flags. Yet, in a deeper investigation, the term đi bão defies translation. To a Vietnamese, the definition of the term is as foreign to any expat, yet it invokes a meaning, a feeling, a glorious aspect of Vietnamese culture that anyone on this earth can understand as if it were their mother tongue. Pride.
As the Vietnam soccer team won over Thailand in the AFF Cup, everyone knew what was going down. Silence. Then horns blared, motorbike engines revved, and metal clanged as thousands of flags were raised. Was it the spirit of football? Unlikely. What Vietnamese people love the most is a chance to gather and celebrate, cheering for their national flag.
Đi bão is a one-night chance for the Vietnamese people to parade, to party, and to celebrate a collective victory of the nation. The people dressed in red with a smear of yellow makeup, the color of the Vietnamese flag, as bikers violated every traffic rule imagined. It didn’t matter, as everyone was in a sense of euphoria. Cheeky cardboard signs went up, shirts went off, and occasionally, a person too hyped for the occasion would lead the crowd’s chant.
Đi bão beautifully reflects an element of Vietnam’s culture, the Vietnamese identity. The emotions and the experience transcend beyond any boundaries, borders, and football team. It was the loud sounds filled with excitement and pride that made the term đi bão so understandable and relatable. It was the collective joy that made even foreigners experience what it is like to be a Vietnamese for a night.
