Photos: Memories of ex-lovers on sale at Vietnam’s Old Flames market

Vietnam's 'Old Flames' market is where waned relationships are put on sale. Lovers put old books, love notes, candles, clothes and perfumes on sale for others to buy, mementos of failed relationships too painful to hold on to.

Updated on: Nov 08, 2017 11:19 AM IST

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A man looks through a sketch book on display at a once-a-month ex-lover’s market in Hanoi. At Vietnam’s Old Flames market, curious customers peruse love letters and pick through perfumes, candles and clothes --relics from failed relationships put on sale by forlorn lovers. (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)

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Dinh Thang, the owner and organizer of Vietnam’s ‘Old Flames’ market in Hanoi smiles as he speaks about the market he started after a few bitter breakups left him with unwanted paraphernalia from a now extinguished passion. He proudly displays love letters, heart-strewn birthday cards and sentimental scrapbooks from his ex as a reminder that such memorabilia need not be painful forever. (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)

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‘Young people are more open-minded and they want to share deeply and widely to overcome pain, without suffering alone,’ said founder Dinh Thang, as a visitor strummed love songs on a guitar nearby. (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)

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A man takes a photograph of a woman at Long Biên Bridge, a century old bridge built by the French and a popular destination for lovers to go and take photographs. (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)

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For those who haven’t quite reached Thang’s stage of emotional post-breakup enlightenment, he’s set up a message board to pen notes to exes. ‘To all my ex-lovers, I’m sorry because I feel like we never really knew each other,’ read one remorse-tinged message. Another was more succinct: ‘I’M FINE!!!’ (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)

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A man and a woman sit on a bench at an ex lover’s market in Hanoi next to a board where visitors leave notes expressing their feelings. The market has steadily grown since it opened in February, especially among Vietnam’s social-media obsessed youth, unabashed about sharing intimate details of their everyday lives. (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)

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People look through greeting cards and old film cameras that were on display at the ex-lover’s market. Thang hopes the market will make the topic of breakups less taboo in Vietnam, a conservative communist nation of 93 million where just a generation ago arranged marriages were more common. (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)

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A sign board that reads ‘Periodical market for ex-lovers’ is seen on two empty chairs at the market. Social attitudes have changed as the country has become increasingly globalised and as its vast young population --more than 50% of the country is under age 30-- embrace western dating norms. That includes internet dating. (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP)