Recently, in Ho Chi Minh City, I saw a painting that I found deeply moving: an oil on canvas by Vietnamese artist Nguyen Manh Hung, painted four years ago. In it, an old man, his arms behind his back, stands beside a plastic table and a red chair. He’s wearing a red armband above his left elbow and he holds a truncheon. This could once have been a typical street scene in Vietnam, except that the man is not on a footpath but in the sky, in the clouds, and that the painting’s called “It’s Safe Here”.

Something about the man in the painting — an attitude of existential exhaustion — reminded me of the dozens of Vietnamese war veterans I’ve talked to over the years. Many of them have remained faithful to the ideals of 1945: independence and freedom. They believed that fighting for independence was a noble cause but ended up being deceived by the Communist Party. Yet they didn’t leave the country; they spent their lives in poverty, without losing their pride. In front of Hung’s artwork I couldn’t help but think of them.

Intrigued, I asked a mutual friend to introduce me to the painter. A few days later, I met Hung at the Factory, a contemporary arts centre that opened in Ho Chi Minh City in 2016.

• Tags: Issue 16, Louis Raymond, Nguyen Manh Hung, Vietnam