The Carp Turning Dragon

A statue 7.5 meters tall stands on the bank of the Hàn River. It is not a hero. It is not a saint. It is a carp at the very moment it turns into a dragon.

The carp becoming a dragon is one of the oldest images in Vietnamese culture. The story goes that a carp must pass through Vũ Môn, a door in the sky, before it can turn into a dragon. Not every fish can do it. Only the ones that keep swimming against the current, and never give up though the waterfalls are high and the waves fierce, reach that place. And once a carp arrives, it is a fish no more.

Vietnamese people use this image to speak about dreams. About study and exams, and about overcoming hardship to change one's life. People say "chép hóa rồng", the carp becomes a dragon, when they want to wish someone a great success after many years of effort.

The statue by the Hàn River is set at exactly that moment of change. Not when it is still a fish. Not when it has become a dragon. It stands in the middle of the change, when the fish's tail has not quite gone and the dragon's head has begun to appear. It is the hardest moment to carve, and also the most beautiful.

Seen from below, the statue rises higher than a building of two floors. The fins spread out like wings, the mouth is open wide, and the eyes look straight ahead. On both sides lie the Hàn River and the sky of Da Nang. In the afternoon, when sunlight pours onto the water, the shadow of the statue stretches across the surface. It looks as if the carp were really swimming between the current and the sky.

It is no accident that the statue stands here, beside a river that flows out to the sea. The Hàn is the backbone of Da Nang. The city grew from these two banks. Bridges were built across, buildings rose, roads widened, and all of it began at the river and spread outward on both sides.

Da Nang is, by nature, a city that knows how to rise. From a small town at a river mouth, it has grown larger and wider, and reached out as far as the sea. New bridges cross the Hàn, tall buildings stand along the east bank, and whole neighborhoods were built on empty ground. In that way the carp turning into a dragon is more than an old tale. It is an image of Da Nang itself.

At dusk, when the street lamps come on and the river glitters, something curious happens. The statue is made of concrete and metal, yet under the lights it seems to move. As if it were swimming. As if it were rising.

The moment of turning into a dragon never ends.