This is a picture I have taken from my lecturer's blog on Facebook. As Vietnamese people now can hardly log in Facebook (for some reasons), so I could not copy the link of the picture here. My lecturer got it from one of her friends, and she posted it on Facebook so that every student can guess its meaning (as we learnt interpreting visual messages from pictures at school). It was her that inspired me to form this group on EC.

Here I come with some interesting explanations from my friends.

1. The setting of the picture is a Vietnamese rural house. In Vietnam, rural female citizens, especially old women are considered to be illiterate or do not learn much, for they suffered from poverty, famine and sexism which are still exist in some places. However, the old woman in the picture is reading a book attentively, which means she is not illiterate, also means that rural areas are no longer illiterate. (of course, rural residents are now no longer illiterate)

2. The old woman is sitting outside the dark house to make use of sunlight to read book, which denotes the habit of economizing electricity of rural residents.

3. Old women in Vietnamese rural areas are very traditional, so they only wear traditional clothes with black, white or brown. However, the old woman in the picture wears colorful clothes, especially the coat and the sandals have the same color "blue", which means she is stylish despite old age. It denotes that rural women are now fashionable. (I like this explanation best. It's so funny!!!)

Above are some funny descriptions from my friends. However, no one can explain the meaning of the cat's appearance in the picture. Hope that you enjoy the picture and some cultural aspects of Vietnam mentioned in those explanations as well as give us some more interesting explanations. Also, hope to see more pictures and unique explanations from you guys.