Paul Christiansen in 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 s...
Paul Christiansen in Literature
If you were a book publisher and saw a sudden spike in sales for a book published years ago, how would you explain it?
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
“If the rain could wash away everything, maybe we could all find peace. For the third generation after the war, what was left behind wasn’t anger or bitterness, but an enduring sorrow that echoed from...
From Thương Nhớ Mười Hai to Miếng Ngon Hà Nội, Vũ Bằng’s way of lacing Hanoian features with melancholic reminiscence always brings me straight back to the embrace of my hometown, even more so after I...
Another classic of Vietnamese literature is heading to the big screen in the near future.
Thi Nguyễn in Loạt Soạt
Published in 1938, Dumb Luck, or Số Đỏ, remains one of Vietnam's most popular and controversial novels. Vũ Trọng Phụng was fined by the French colonial administration in Hanoi in 1932 for his stark po...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
“Shame, rather than pride, can be the basis for national identity… individuals may be motivated to move their country in a desirable direction when national shame outweighs pride.”
Thi Nguyễn in Snack Attack
Step inside the kitchen of any household in Saigon and chances are that you will find one or two ready-made curry powder packets in a cupboard waiting for the family's next weekend treat of cà ri gà (...
Paul Christiansen in Literature
Literature, more than any other art form, allows people an intimate vantage point from which to witness the experiences, emotions, and thoughts of individuals drastically different from themselves. Bo...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
“When you’ve lived to a certain age, you don’t ask whether or not something is true, you ask which truth it is.”
When facing a bubonic plague epidemic, is it wiser to delve into sewers and cull infected rats yourself or offer payment to Vietnamese for deliveries of severed tails instead? For Hanoi’s French colon...
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us,” according to famed Czech writer Franz Kafka.
When book lovers open a café, we are blessed with book cafes; when animal lovers open a café, we are given a myriad of animal cafes; what happens when florists open a café? This is the case of Mơ Đi H...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Where are all the female writers?
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Nguyễn Quang Thân passed away on March 4, 2017, several weeks before I moved to Saigon. So of course I never met him, but I feel like I know him. My first introduction was via An Insignificant Family,...
Paul Christiansen in Literature
Spoilers for an 80-year-old story that every student in the nation is required to read: the dog dies, the old man dies, his son's misfortunes show no sign of abetting. Simply, misery abounds at the en...
Captured by Butchers, the “blackmarket bogey men who deal in rare goods,” Nhika Suonyasan is caged and auctioned off to the city’s elite. A figure in a fox mask attempting to purchase her is outbid by...
Uyên Đỗ in Vietnam
"To effectively govern colonial peoples, the foremost requirement is a thorough understanding of the very people one rules over," so believed Paul Doumer, the second Governor-General of French Indochi...
If I had to describe Reading Cabin in one phrase, it would be “every cafe in Saigon all at once.”
I got to know Bá Tân Bookstore thanks to a friend’s suggestion.
The 2023 National Translation Award for fiction was given by the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) to Nguyễn An Lý’s translation of Chinatown by Thuận.
“A myth,” said existentialist psychologist Rollo May, “is a way of making sense in a senseless world.” Humans need myths and legends to survive. And they need us to survive too; it’s how we’ve learned...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Environmental devastation, irresponsible development, economic imperilment, social ills, war legacies and the abandonment of cultural traditions and connections: these multifaceted, interconnected rea...
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial, the new book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Viet Thanh Nguyen arrives from Grove City Press on October 3.
It’s been hidden right there in the heart of Saigon for over half a decade.
Paul Christiansen in Literature
“I’m always homesick for Vietnam. To write is to return home. That's why I had to bring Vietnam alive onto the pages. I had to hear the people speak, I had to listen to the music, to the language; I h...
Oliver Newman in Hanoi Ngõ Nooks
“Just read it and forget it. Then you can write anything you like about Tender Bar. Thank you.”
Linh Phạm in Trích or Triết
“Tenderly, fondly, Xuân Diệu held on to my wrist, caressing it up and down. Our eyes locked in affection…Xuân Diệu loved me.”
This short story is featured in Volume 2 of In My Ear, Your Voice Still Flickering // Bên tai tôi, giọng người vẫn chờn vờn, a three-part, bilingual collection of works by more than 20 Vietnamese arti...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
“The Great Gatsby, but with an Asian American narrator and some of the characters are queer and there’s magic.” This is a fine elevator explanation for The Chosen and the Beautiful.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Born in Saigon in 1977, Tuan Phan and his parents left for America via boat in 1986. Remembering Water includes depictions of the voyage including lengthy stops in refugee camps followed by acclimatio...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Of all 20th-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 ...
Khôi Phạm in Literature
In our years of writing about Vietnam, Saigoneer has had the pleasure to meet many passionate, inquisitive individuals whose creative and academic projects inspired us to appreciate the many facets of...
Paul Christiansen in Travel
The photos don’t do it justice. That’s what you’ll often hear from people who visit Hà Giang to cruise its famed highway loop.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Stories focusing on the natural world and humanity’s relationships with the environment existed before the term eco-literature became popular in the west in the 1970s, but since its coinage, writers a...
The enduring pages in our history deserve book covers that match their significance.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Turning a beloved but brief legend based on scant historical evidence into a page-turning novel is no easy task. But Phong Nguyen’s book Bronze Drum succeeds in depicting the upbringing and rebel...
Michael Tatarski in Loạt Soạt
Much like humanity, great systems of the natural world rely on connectivity to thrive.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Vĩnh, born in Hanoi to a Vietnamese mother who studied in the Soviet Union and teaches English in France, and an ethnically Chinese father raised in Hanoi but now working in Chợ Lớn, dreams of the day...
Lục Xì is a reportage written by Vũ Trọng Phụng in the first volume of Tương Lai newspaper in 1937. In the series, Phụng describes his experiences visiting the dispensary (nhà lục xì) where prostitute...
If Captain Tsubasa was a treasured part of your childhood, perhaps you can give Sơn Goal! a try.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
How would you tell the story of your birth soil?
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Sometimes stories can articulate what we cannot put into our own words. Fairy tales can function as long-form proverbs that allow people to identify and pass on important values, expectations and expe...
Saving H'non: Chang and the Elephants, a sequel to the critically acclaimed children’s book by Trang Nguyễn, is scheduled to hit shelves on June 11 following the success of Saving Sorya: Chang and the...
This poem is featured in Volume 1 of In My Ear, Your Voice Still Flickering // Bên tai tôi, giọng người vẫn chờn vờn, a three-part, bilingual collection of works by more than 20 Vietnamese artists and...
In My Ear, Your Voice Still Flickering // Bên tai tôi, giọng người vẫn chờn vờn is a collection of work from twenty Vietnamese writers and artists released as part of the Miami Book Fair, one of ...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Fame and poetry rarely go together.
Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái was one of Vietnam’s first anthologies written in Hán characters in prose form. It’s a collection of 22 folk tales, mythologies, and legends surrounding the origin story of the Vie...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Engaging plot or strong characters? Fantastic escapism or insightful depictions of the real world? A sweeping epic across generations and nations, or a deep examination of a brief moment in time? What...
Michael Tatarski in Environment
Have you ever walked past a plant and wondered "Hey, I wonder what that could do?"
“A collision of literature and art on the pages” is the descriptor that Bar De Force, a Vietnamese independent press, gives itself.
"I embarked on the project with the desire to help students like me have a more positive and interesting view of textbooks in particular and learning in general, making subjects no longer an abstract ...
Joshua Nguyen lists himself as many things on his Instagram bio — a writer, a PhD student, a boba snob. He received his MFA from the University of Mississippi, where he is currently studying for ...
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai was named the runner-up for this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prize in the fiction category.
Michael Tatarski in Loạt Soạt
In the Saigoneer office — which I haven't actually seen in person for months — a common concern is the prevalence of the war in literature about Vietnam. Even among younger writers, particul...
Growing up in the 1990s, many Saigoneers must have gotten used to the sight of Triệu Thị Chơi’s name embossed in the author position of many cookbooks.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Why haven’t some of Vietnam’s most famous early 20th-century short stories been translated into English?
If recent developments in Vietnam’s COVID-19 outbreak have dampened your spirit, here’s a wholesome pick-me-up.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
When I first met Hoa Nguyen several years ago in Hanoi, it was her first trip back to Vietnam since she left as a child.
They tell the story of a Vietnamese woman working to rescue a bear and an elephant.
Somebody definitely paid attention in art class.
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 novel The Sympathizer will be getting a TV adaptation directed by Park Chan-wook, the auteur behind the success of The Handmaiden and Oldboy.
We hope you had a good, safe holiday weekend!
This is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the book Pills, Teas, and Songs: Stories of Medicine Around the World by Debby Nguyen, republished with permission. Debby's family of pharmacists and doc...
Tteokbokki, sushi, dim sum, pizza, croissants, burritos: during an average year, many people in Saigon eat dishes from a great variety of global cuisines.
Will the organization become the Vietnamese Snopes?
The most fascinating factoid about the video project is that black teeth had such enduring appeal across centuries and dynasties.
It's our last episode of the year!
Our second-to-last episode of 2020 is here!
The move comes amid major production shifts from China to Vietnam over the last two years.
At the heart of Đặng Thân's poetry collection, OM [Other Moments], is the poetics of dichotomy: beauty and brutality, light and darkness, hope and despair, nihilism and existentialism.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Why must we continue talking about war?
An’s first journey to school isn’t just limited to the Mekong Delta anymore, he’s paddled his way to the wide oceans of the world.
If your grasp of the ingenious satire of Vũ Trọng Phụng’s Số Đỏ (Dumb Luck) is slipping, this newly published edition might prove helpful for brushing up before the film adaptation comes out.
Govi Snell in Loạt Soạt
In Con Đã Về Nhà - I'm Home, Tăng Quang documents his two-week stint in quarantine at Military School Zone 7 in District 12 of Saigon with a combination of paintings and prose.
Mel Schenck in Architecture
The following article is an edited excerpt from the recently published book Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture, presenting the history of the style, and how it contrasts with modernism in nort...
With a depleting number of children’s literature writers, it is becoming ever more difficult to meet the appetite of Vietnam’s youths hungry for a good Vietnamese book.
The latest Saigoneer Podcast episode is now available!
Khoi Pham in Saigon Hẻm Gems
In Saigon’s indie cafe scene, there are household names and well-kept secrets; and then there are secrets that one might think are well-kept, but are actually household names.
Khoi Pham in Culture
Born at the intersection of fashion and history, a new art book by a team of Vietnamese researchers and creatives will take readers on a journey back to the eras of the country’s past royalty.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
“I just can’t get the voices out my head,” Andrew Lam explains of his writing process.
For those of us who have read countless books by Vietnamese authors and members of the diaspora, the novel Dragonfish is not just one more installment of ethnic literature or postwar fiction.
The Book Street Festival was open for Tet from January 22 to 28.
How envious we are of those who can render in great detail paper scenes that otherwise could only be accessed through one’s memory.
Jimmy Liao is a prolific Taiwanese illustrator and author who has expanded readership of picture books beyond children to general audiences. With sensitivity and creativity, he crafts each of his stor...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
As American bombers roared over the horizon preparing to drop fire and misery, air raid sirens screeched and people throughout Hanoi scrambled to find safety.
To Ha Dong Nghi, a 25-year-old professional racer, recently caused controversy after announcing on Facebook that he finished a drive from Saigon to Hanoi in only 19 hours and 45 minutes.
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
“Read what you don’t know because if you can already imagine it, then you can already imagine it; but if you can’t, then open up something that reveals a world you can’t imagine and then suddenly you’...
If you’re not content with your life right now, fret not, for travel video blogger Nas Daily is here in the flesh to remind you why Vietnam is a deliriously happy country.
Tim Doling in Saigon
In an exclusive excerpt from his latest book, Exploring Saigon-Chợ Lớn: Vanishing Heritage of Hồ Chí Minh City, historian Tim Doling discusses the city's threatened heritage architecture and what the ...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Children can “hear the music and see the colors of letters on a page — magic portals to a wilderness without fixed meanings… all adults see are the neat rows of black lines, the building blocks of def...
Paul Christiansen in Literature
"Lanterns Hanging on the Wind" features 18 poems read in Vietnamese and translated into English that span themes, styles, time periods and locations to give listeners a broad introduction to the natio...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Seeking, sucking, tonguing for each scrap of contained marrow: should a book of poetry labor over a single topic the way a mouth savors a soup bone? Or should it be akin to a buffet plate atop which t...
Paul Christiansen in Loạt Soạt
Vietnam transitioned to a market economy like an old train lurching to life: momentous shakes and shudders, steam bursting out busted gaskets, disheveled cargo tumbling from luggage racks, sparks shoo...
This bold makeover project of Vietnam’s history textbooks might make you wish you were in school once again.
Paul Christiansen in Literature
When the wind strafes Da Ngan’s window, seedpods shake and rattle like spent bullet casings in the tamarind tree that Americans planted decades ago. They also built the large apartment complex where s...
In their latest crowdfunding project, Vietnam Centre is combining the fashion design and history in a comprehensive art book detailing the ancient Vietnamese costumes worn during the late Le dynasty.
Thi Nguyen in Literature
One of my favorite pastimes during summer holidays was reading through the textbooks for my next school year. History textbooks were the most interesting and fun to read: they were like the Harry Pott...
Khoi Pham in Tech
My first memory of the internet in Vietnam occurred in an internet café on Tran Hung Dao Street. It was the early 2000s: Walkman players were still a thing, MTV actually played music, and Britney Spea...
Khoi Pham in Music & Arts
In Shao-Chen Lin’s new sketchbook, On-the-spot Sketching at Cafes in Saigon, Vietnam, the southern metropolis is defined by its most charming aspect: a robust coffee culture that permeates every ...
