Happy New Year! Chúc mừng năm mới! A week ago, I made an offering to the Kitchen God on my stove top. The ritual is typically performed on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, a week before new year’s eve according to the traditional lunar calendar. I cleaned the stove, placed three apples […]
SENDING OFF THE KITCHEN GOD (Part 1) Read More »
I am marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War in 1975 with an irregular series that reflects on the war’s end and its aftermath. This third second post is about Phan Thúy Hà’s Don’t Mention My Name, which serves as a foil to Phan Nhật Nam’s Stories Along the Road. Phan Thúy Ha’s Don’t
I am marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War in 1975 with an irregular series that reflects on the war’s end and its aftermath. This third second post is about Phan Thúy Hà’s Don’t Mention My Name, which serves as a foil to Phan Nhật Nam’s Stories Along the Road. Phan Thúy Ha’s Don’t
I am marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War in 1975 with an irregular series that reflects on the war’s end and its aftermath. This is my second post, and it builds on my first one about Phan Nhật Nam’s Stories Along the Road, a book that reflects the long arc of recent Vietnamese
Today is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975. I wanted to mark the occasion with an irregular series that reflect on the war’s end and its aftermath. My very first post in the series is about Phan Nhật Nam’s Stories Along the Road, a book that reflects
Happy New Year! Chúc mừng năm mới! Another year, another holiday song… Phạm Đình Chương’s “A Celebratory Glass of Wine” was one of my favorite holiday songs for the Lunar New Year when I was a kid. It was the last song on Tiếng Tơ Đồng Xuân (The Silken Strings of Spring), a Tết album
I regularly teach a survey course on the history of Vietnam, and I’m often struck by the stark differences between my introduction to the subject compared to my students. I grew up in a Vietnamese-American household, and I first learned history from my mother, who always taught in Vietnamese. She based her lessons on her
PARTICULARITY AND UNIVERSALITY IN THE TEACHING OF PREMODERN VIETNAMESE HISTORY Read More »
Phạm Duy’s “Riddles” (“Đố ai,” 1954?) is a charming song that mixes tradition and modernity. It is the last track on Saigon Rock & Soul, and this post will probably be my last one in my series-within-a-series translating the lyrics of songs from that CD. “Riddles” exemplifies a Vietnamese musical genre known as “new folk
MEMORABLE MUSIC: PHẠM’ DUY’S “RIDDLES” (“ĐỐ AI”), TRACK 17 ON SAIGON ROCK & SOUL Read More »
Tuấn Lê’s “Mad at Him, Angry at Her” (“Hờn anh giận em,” 1970?) is a clever duet about a soldier and his wife in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam). The song speaks to the burden that war imposed on soldiers and their romantic partners. “Mad at Him, Angry at Her” is the
Hoàng Thi Thơ’s “The Pin in My Hair” (“Cái trâm em cài,” 1971?) is a sweet song about a young woman whose boyfriend is away fighting, and she treasures the hairpin that he made for her as a memento of their love. The song was composed sometime in the early 1970s in the Republic of