As I mentioned earlier, I worked on a series of teaching videos about the Vietnam War for the Choices Program a few years ago. Sadly, Brown University shut down the Choices Program and scrubbed the website of the program’s contents. Therefore, I wanted to post my teaching videos here. The two videos in this post […]
COOL THINGS THAT HISTORIANS DO: TEACHING VIDEOS ON THE VIETNAM WAR (4) Read More »
As I mentioned earlier, I worked on a series of teaching videos about the Vietnam War for the Choices Program a few years ago. Sadly, Brown University shut down the Choices Program and scrubbed the website of the program’s contents. Therefore, I wanted to post my teaching videos here. The videos on this post are
COOL THINGS THAT HISTORIANS DO: TEACHING VIDEOS ON THE VIETNAM WAR (3) Read More »
I originally meant to post this on Christmas Day 2025, but my blog ran into some technical problems that took some time to resolve. What was Christmas like in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam)? Two years ago, I briefly mentioned my mother’s memories of Christmas celebrations in Saigon in the early 1970s.
CHRISTMAS IN NGÔ ĐÌNH DIỆM’S REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM 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 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
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
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