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Người Việt bay không cần cánh
41 stories
Saigon
Hải Thượng Lãn Ông Boulevard (the former quai Gaudot) in central Chợ Lớn preserves several elegant old colonial shophouse buildings, but perhaps the most interesting of all is the one at No. 45, once the modest headquarters of Cantonese millionaire and philanthropist Quách Đàm. This is Part 1 of our miniseries on the origin story behind Chợ Lớn. Read Part 2 here .
Loạt Soạt
If you opened an American magazine, literary or otherwise, in the early 2000s and found any Vietnamese American byline, there’s a good chance it was Andrew Lam. The long-time journalist’s essays and short stories were amongst the first widely circulated in the US.
Trích or Triết
In a country fractured by ideology, Hoàng Việt's love for his wife Ngọc Hạnh persisted like a secret melody carried across closed borders by weak radio signals, and letters that had to circle the globe before finding their way home.
Environment
Curiosity drove me downstairs into the downpour. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the municipal workers — clad in orange-and-green uniforms, their clothes soaked — gathering around a crane. Their attention was focused upward. Following their gaze, I looked up, and froze.
Music & Arts
In the depths of my childhood memories lies a peculiar ritual: my grandfather feeding me baby powder while Vietnamese revolutionary songs, or “nhạc đỏ” (red music), played in the background. Without these melodic accompaniments, I would refuse to eat.
Architecture
Take a stroll along any random street in downtown Saigon , one is bound to bump into a hodgepodge of architectural styles. Sleek but boring international-style skyscrapers, tranquil Buddhist pagodas, and yellow colonial villas peek out in between a sea of generic tube houses. Amid those influences, the predominantly gray facades of modernist houses seem drowned out by the noises.
Ẽplain
Lychee tea can be found anywhere and anytime around Saigon, from street stalls to artisanal cafes. Averaging VND20,000–50,000, it’s a popular choice among Vietnamese youths. However, Thái Công Cafe prices their version of the fruit tea at around VND160,000 on their rather pricy menu. Yet, the drink remains extremely popular at the cafe and even went viral amongst Gen Z-ers on TikTok. The reason behind this virality is actually a meme.
Quãng 8
“High school was when we all had lots of thoughts and reflections. And I felt like I didn’t fit in with the world around me at that time, so I turned to music as my companion,” Aprxel reflects on the period of time where her connection with music began to solidify, which ultimately set her on the path to become a music artist.
Literature
Fruit and poetry: the two things I love most.
Film & TV
Past Lives left me bereft, much like how the reunion of main characters Hae-sung and Nora concluded at the end of the film — that is, without much conclusion at all.
Natural Selection
Knotted gnarls of lush stems, leaves, vines; a verdant scrimmage of tangled plant matter kept afloat by buoyant bladders accented by pleats of pink petals that resemble the skirts of ballerinas trapped inside music boxes: the water hyacinth.
Culture
In the summer of 2021, Hương Nguyễn decided to pivot away from her office job and launch an online thrift store called Vintage Hearts. She was motivated by how difficult it was to find clothing in Saigon that reflected her personal style — what she used to describe as “inspired by foreign pop singers on Pinterest,” she tells me, but what is now known as “Y2K,” or “year two thousand.”
Saigon
Travelers arriving by train in Hồ Chí Minh City sometimes express surprise that the main Saigon Railway Station is located in Hòa Hưng, some distance from the central business district. In fact, this is the third railway terminus in a city where each successive station has been built further away from the river.
Loạt Soạt
Of all 20 th -century Vietnamese authors whose works were translated into English, none have received more high-profile attention than Bảo Ninh for his wartime novel Nỗi buồn chiến tranh ( The Sorrow of War) . Commonly billed as an essential book to better understand the American war from the Vietnamese perspective, it has won numerous prestigious awards worldwide and been translated into twenty different languages.
Culture
On a recent ritual walk around my suburb, I was held up by the sight of a middle-aged man with his “fur kid.” I introduced myself and when he heard the word “Vietnam,” his eyes lit up and with a smile as he tumbled out the words: “The Mekong Delta. Ducks.”
Saigon
The area of Công Trường Quốc Tế and Turtle Lake (Hồ Con Rùa) has been through many changes both in design and function throughout the history of Saigon. First, it housed a gate for a Nguyễn-dynasty citadel, then the land was flattened for a water tower in accordance with a new urban plan by the French colonial government, and finally, the square became a diplomatic display for past allies of the previous regime.
Saigon
From the very first discussions in 1868 regarding a new marketplace for Saigon, it was not until 1914, that Bến Thành Market became a reality. The birth of the market was like a dream come true, one that came together after nearly five decades of debate in search of solutions for the city’s infrastructure woes.
