From Vauban Citadel to Modernist Icon: The History of Turtle Lake
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 ci...
From Swampland to Heartland: The History of Bến Thành Market
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 t...
The Splendor of Hát Bội, as Depicted in Vintage Posters for the 1889 Paris World's Fair
From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, hát bội left a major mark on the hearts and minds of many viewers, including French colonizers. The French brought this form of f...
[Photos] Inside a Vaccination Point in Vietnam Nearly 100 Years Ago
A century ago, the colonial government was active in inoculating Vietnamese citizens against a variety of diseases.
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.
[Photos] Black-and-White Shots Depict Quotidian Details of 19th-Century Vietnam
These black-and-white shots are among the highest-quality documentation attempts of Vietnam at the end of the 19th century.
Linh Pham in 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.
A Brief Primer on Vice and Sex Trade in Colonial Vietnam
War loves sex. Sex loves war.
[Photos] Into the Wilderness of Saigon in 1867
Before “southern Vietnam,” there was Cochinchina; before Saigon, there wasn’t much of anything but vast stretches of tropical jungle and mosquito-infested swamps.
Thi Nguyen in Music & Arts
Through Vietnam's Stories of Coffee and Rice, a Trio Finds Where Art and History Meet
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 pla...
Paul Christiansen in 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."
Inside the 170-Year-Old Homestead of Vuong Hong Sen, Vietnam's Famed Historian
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 i...
