#migration

Saigon

As Thanh Đa Faces Redevelopment, Writer Dạ Ngân Reflects on What Will Be Lost

To me, my trip to Cư xá Thanh Đa in summer 1982 was a serendipitous encounter. It was Saigon’s largest-scale residential complex in the first half of the 1970s, with nearly 4,000 separate units housing about 50,000 inhabitants. Cư xá refers to a residential quarter reserved for gainfully employed citizens, with a vision to establish a model community with a high quality of life. Here, in their three-bedroom apartments, civil servants, professors, doctors, and military leaders ranked major or higher lived in pride of being a part of a cư xá like that.

Vietnam

Bạc Liêu-94, Cà Mau-69: In Saigon, a Surprising Reminder of Home Lives on License Plates

Once in a while, I bump into a little sliver of my hometown on a random license plate on the street.

Vietnam

My Mom’s Care Packages Remind Me That Home Can Fit Inside a Box of Food

“What do you guys crave? I’ll send some.”

Saigon

As Saigon Moves Forward, Xích Lô Lag Behind as Nostalgic Remnants of a Past Era

Among Bùi Viện's assortment of xe ôm drivers and street food vendors, Bible-toting religious enthusiasts and other colorful personalities, 66-year-old Nghĩa stands out for his kind eyes and walrus-like mustache.

Music & Arts

In 1920s–1940s Paris, Vietnamese Artists Painted Through the Interwar Period as the 'Others'

How did Vietnamese artists navigate the complex tides of social and political changes, and mark their own position in the art world as the “Others” during interwar Paris — which was celebrated as the “City of Lights,” yet also a stage for both colonial propaganda and a ground for anti-colonial resistance?

Vietnam

Cold War History With a Side of Nem Rán in Prague's Little Hanoi

Across English-speaking countries such as the US and Australia, the Vietnamese diaspora established close-knit “Little Saigon” towns whenever they settled down, founding large markets, starting financial services, and introducing southern fares like gỏi cuốn and bánh mì to the local population. Elsewhere in Europe, however, the Vietnamese community is often known as “Little Hanoi,” due to the regional makeup of the first wave of immigrants. Some, like Prague’s Little Hanoi, have flourished to the point of being a “city within a city,” boasting its own self-sufficient administrative services, schools, and housing.

Saigon

Saigon Is the Most Preferred Destination for Relocation in Vietnam, Report Shows

Vietnam's commercial center draws more people from elsewhere in the country than any other province or city.