Saigon fines Taiwanese graffiti artist for vandalizing walls

A Thursday morning police patrol of the Bui Vien Street in District 1 caught Chang Yu Jui, 28, red handed painting graffiti on a house’s wall.

Police also seized 10 paint sprayers in his bag and found in his smartphone dozens of images of graffiti that he’s believed to have painted on the walls of several different streets in Saigon.

Graffiti on a wall in Bui Vien Street. Photo by VnExpress/Que Bien

Jui, a resident of District 4, admitted his work to the police and promised to restore the vandalized walls to their previous status.

HCMC police say that graffiti work has been rampant in the city of late, but the street artists do their work very late in the night or early hours of the morning, making it difficult to catch them red-handed.

Graffiti has posed problems in other cities too. Authorities in the ancient town of Hoi An, a major tourist destination in the country, have blamed foreign tourists for vandalizing its iconic yellow walls with graffiti.   

Le Quang Trung, the town chairman, said drunk tourists buy paint and spray on the walls.