marriage – Canh Than

2. WHEN HISTORIANS GET MARRIED: WHAT IS TRADITION ANYWAYS? (PART 2)

June 3, 2026 / heritage / ancestor worship, Confucianism, customs, early modern Vietnam, filial piety, marriage, modern Vietnam, wedding, when historians get married

This post continues a short series about marriage traditions and my own adaptation of them for my wedding years ago. In this post and the previous, I identify a few defining characteristics of Vietnamese marriage patterns and relate them to Vietnamese history and culture more broadly. The last post discussed patrilocal residence, bride price, and […]

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1. WHEN HISTORIANS GET MARRIED: WHAT IS TRADITION ANYWAYS? (PART 1)

May 15, 2026 / heritage / betel chewing, customs, early modern Vietnam, marriage, mythic past, remodern Vietnam, wedding, when historians get married

Wedding season is just around the corner in the US, and every wedding season makes me think of my own wedding years ago. I wanted my wedding to reflect Vietnamese tradition, but as a historian, I knew that there was no such thing as a single, timeless tradition and that practices change over time in

1. WHEN HISTORIANS GET MARRIED: WHAT IS TRADITION ANYWAYS? (PART 1) Read More »

4. FUN READS, 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION: THE PLIGHT OF SOLDIERS’ WIVES IN PHAN THÚY HÀ’S DON’T MENTION MY NAME (ĐỪNG KỂ TÊN TÔI) – PART 2

June 13, 2025 / heritage / 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, April 30, DRV (North Vietnam), fun reads, literature, marriage, Operation Rolling Thunder, oral history, PAVN, Phan Thúy Hà, post Vietnam War, PTSD, SRV, US bombing of DRV, veterans, Vietnam War, women

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

4. FUN READS, 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION: THE PLIGHT OF SOLDIERS’ WIVES IN PHAN THÚY HÀ’S DON’T MENTION MY NAME (ĐỪNG KỂ TÊN TÔI) – PART 2 Read More »

MEMORABLE MUSIC: HUY THANH’S “A GIRL’S DESTINY” (“DUYÊN PHẬN CON GÁI”), TRACK 16 ON SAIGON ROCK & SOUL

May 17, 2024 / heritage / gender, Huy Thanh, Mai Lệ Huyền, marriage, memorable music series, music, romantic love, RVN (South Vietnam), Saigon Rock & Soul CD, urban culture, women, youth

Huy Thanh’s “A Girl’s Destiny” (“Duyên phận con gái,” year unknown) is yet another song in which love trumps wealth, similar to Nguyễn Trung Cang’s “Our Treasure” (“Kho tàng của chúng ta”). “A Girl’s Destiny” is the thirteenth track on Saigon Rock & Soul, and this post is a continuation of my mini-series translating the

MEMORABLE MUSIC: HUY THANH’S “A GIRL’S DESTINY” (“DUYÊN PHẬN CON GÁI”), TRACK 16 ON SAIGON ROCK & SOUL Read More »

FUN READS: MIGRATION AND DISLOCATION IN BÌNH NGUYÊN LỘC’S THOROUGHFARE (ĐÒ DỌC)

November 24, 2023 / heritage, research / Bình Nguyên Lộc, courtship, fun reads, literature, marriage, migration, novels, romantic love, RVN (South Vietnam), southern regionalism, women

Bình Nguyên Lộc’s Thoroughfare (Đò dọc, 1959) is a charming novel about migration and dislocation in southern Vietnam in the mid-1950s. Nam Thành and his wife are originally from a village in Bạc Liêu province in the Mekong delta, but they flee with their daughters to Saigon during the early years of the Resistance War

FUN READS: MIGRATION AND DISLOCATION IN BÌNH NGUYÊN LỘC’S THOROUGHFARE (ĐÒ DỌC) Read More »