
Culture
The Harrowing History of Vietnam's Rubber Plantations
" Oh it’s easy to go to the rubber and hard to return, / Men leave their corpses, women depart as ghosts."
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17 stories connected by this topic.

Saigon
An Early View of a Barely Developed Saigon in the 1860s
Dropping a modern Saigoneer into the 1860s version of the city would be a wildly disorienting experience.

Saigon
An Early View of a Barely Developed Saigon in the 1860s
Dropping a modern Saigoneer into the 1860s version of the city would be a wildly disorienting experience.

Vietnam
Vua Versus Volcano: How the 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa Upset the Nguyễn Dynasty
On September 9, 1883, ominous smoke hung over Huế. The sun was blue-green, and throughout the day, people on the streets had no shadows. As their legitimacy relied on maintaining the Mandate of Heaven, the Nguyễn royal court was alarmed. Three high-ranking mandarins rushed to advise the Emperor to change his ways to regain Heaven’s favor. While this strange incident can be easily dismissed as another case of outdated superstitions, a closer look reveals it as a rare conjunction of astrology, power, and — given the source of the smoke — volcanism, all set against the backdrop of France’s rapid incursion into Vietnam.

Saigon
From WWI Monument to Ancestor Temple: The Story of Saigon's Hùng King Temple
The Hùng King Temple at 2 Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm was originally built in 1927–1929 under the name Temple du Souvenir Annamite (Annamite Temple of remembrance), primarily to honor the memory of Vietnamese soldiers who died while fighting in World War I.

Literature
5 Quixotic Books About Vietnam for When You're Craving a Little Quirky Read
There are too many good Vietnamese books to recommend, let alone read.

Saigon
Saigon Demolishes 3 Heritage Villas to Make Room for Covid-19 Memorial Park
As part of a plan to build a dedicated space to commemorate victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, Saigon authorities recently demolished several heritage buildings from the 1950s, sparking concerns about the city’s loss of architectural heritage.

Hanoi
Street Cred: Pháo Đài Láng, Home of Ông Voi and Where the War Began
More often than not, a country’s independence is won with guns. The location where the first shots were fired for Vietnam is memorialized to this day.

Vietnam
Vibrant Watercolor Paintings Take Us Back to Northern Vietnam in 1890
Way before colored photography appeared, generations of our ancestors had to rely on the finesse of painters to create visuals records of their everyday routines. This collection of watercolor paintings from the 1890s is a particularly vivid example of that, depicting lively scenes of Vietnam two centuries ago that are full of humor and personality.

Culture
" Oh it’s easy to go to the rubber and hard to return, / Men leave their corpses, women depart as ghosts."

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.

Vietnam
From the end of the 19 th century to the beginning of the 20 th century, hát bội left a major mark on the hearts and minds of many viewers, including French colonizers. The French brought this form of folk performance art to the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, a world’s fair organized to showcase international cultures. Scenes of hát bội can be seen on promotional materials, souvenirs, and lithograph prints from back then.
![[Photos] Inside a Vaccination Point in Vietnam Nearly 100 Years Ago](https://media.urbanistnetwork.com/saigoneer/article-images/2022/02/23/oldphotos/p4l.webp)
Vietnam
A century ago, the colonial government was active in inoculating Vietnamese citizens against a variety of diseases.
![[Photos] Black-and-White Shots Depict Quotidian Details of 19th-Century Vietnam](https://media.urbanistnetwork.com/saigoneer/article-images/2021/1/06/andre/salles-00l.jpg)
Vietnam
These black-and-white shots are among the highest-quality documentation attempts of Vietnam at the end of the 19 th century.

![[Photos] Into the Wilderness of Saigon in 1867](https://media.urbanistnetwork.com/saigoneer/article-images/2020/03/02/thomson/oldsaigon0l.jpg)
Saigon
Before “southern Vietnam,” there was Cochinchina; before Saigon, there wasn’t much of anything but vast stretches of tropical jungle and mosquito-infested swamps.

Music & Arts
Without notice, a gust of July rain swept through the museum of animals and plants' foyer, knocking down several paintings, strewing paper coffee cups and shattering the monitor that had been playing a short video.

Culture
This noble house is one of Saigon's dormant treasures. Dating back to 1848, it once hosted a notable Saigoneer, Vuong Hong Sen, and his family now calls it home. The lives of its current inhabitants is a parable of the vicissitudes of life.