#diacritics

Culture

An Ode to Gối Ôm, Our Time-Honored Sleeping Companion

There’s a scene in The Sound of Music , where Julie Andrews gazes into the future on a stormy night and envisions something holy: play clothes. She wraps herself in her bedroom curtains, a stuffy cream and sage brocade. Play clothes, she seems to resolve, that’s what the Von Trapp children need, their austere father just having interrupted their song and dance.

Arts & Culture

It All Started With 100 Boxes of Cookies

Food is anything but apolitical.

Film & TV

Q&A: An Interview With 'Raya and the Last Dragon' Co-Writer Qui Nguyen

When Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon was released in March, it was a cultural milestone for Southeast Asians. Raya is the first Southeast Asian Disney princess in the Walt Disney Company’s 98-year history. And she’s not your usual Disney princess either.

Podcast

Saigoneer Podcast: 'Things We Lost to the Water' Author Eric Nguyen

We hope you had a good, safe holiday weekend!

Music & Arts

Review: The Confluence of Art and Hip-Hop in Rapper Táo's Melancholic Music

Táo, based in Saigon, began his career as a rapper and developed his interests to include painting, poetry, literature, modeling, and photography. As a rapper, Táo has a recognizable rap style that cannot be mistaken.

Literature

How DiaCritics Creates a Platform for Diverse Vietnamese Voices From Abroad

“Vietnamese communities can sometimes/often demand conformity and tradition of people in order to feel a part of things; I have always seen diaCRITICS as an opportunity to trouble the definitions, push the boundaries, to include the atypical voices and stories and viewpoints.”

Vietnam

[Photos] Views of 1993 Vietnam From Behind the Lens of a Past War Orphan

I have been carrying this film around for over a quarter-century from Hanoi to Saigon to Boston and to New York.