A few days ago, my roommate and I were riding along the Saigon River on a wide and immaculately paved highway in District 1. The road had two separate lanes; one was for cars and the other for motorbikes, and the traffic lights were configured to account for both types of vehicles. The sides of […]
Ancestor Worship and Governance in Vietnam
My time in Vietnam has opened up a new world of ideas and this has lead my to ask many different questions to how a society can run. I have been most keenly aware of the tensions that seem to be running through society that do not seem to be challenged or questioned by people […]
Short Term Gains for Long Term Strains
Here is a link to my observational post “Short Term Gains for Long Term Strains” regarding the consequences of rapid industrialization on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.
All is Fair in Love and Exercise: Hoan Kiem Park, Hanoi
Before the advent of the Internet, societal consciousness was generated in physical public spaces: on the streets, in cafes, on buses, or in parks. These hubs of human contact were, and in many ways still are, essential for the dissemination of information, for the formation of relationships outside of the home, and occasionally for spreading […]
Making Sense of the Saigon Heat: How the Vietnamese Do Hot Dogs and Basketball
The Saigon Heat is Vietnam’s team in the ASEAN basketball league and they are currently down 0-2 in a best of five playoff series with the Kuala Lumpur Dragons of Malaysia. I had seen a couple of their regular season games on TV but I was still very curious as to what a professional basketball […]
Get Your Weird On: Hanoi Edition
Members of society can become worked up over many different types of things, be it Americans about Ebola, Kurds about the Islamic State, or Vietnamese about their public space: and when the people become upset, governments usually intervene. The Vietnamese are an old people with many longstanding traditions and practices, their capital city, Hanoi, is […]
The Joy of Sects: The Role of the Churches in Vietnam
Traveling through Hue, I visited a church that became a shelter during the Tet Offensive. Among countless others, Nha Ca was present in the church throughout the massacre. Nha Ca was one of the fortunate ones who survived this tragedy. She did not move on from this experience, but instead chose to retell this story […]
Parks and Recreation: The Individuation of Expression
On my walk through Hoan Kiem Park I began to people watch. I noticed that many people were exercising. This does not seem out of place on the surface. It is a public park, people work out there. But then I began to watch them closer. Their exercising practices seemed incredibly peculiar. I would not […]
Nature in the city?
Hello, Munich students! I hope you’re thriving and having the time of your lives in Germany. Since I’m not able to wander the city streets with you, I’ll be talking with you virtually about your experiences there. Today I’ve posted a little blurb about a photographer from the previous century whose name has become synonymous with the […]
Community spaces, community dance lessons at 6am
This morning I arrived at Reunification Park, formally known as, and sill commonly referred to as, Lenin Park, at exactly 6:25am. I paid the entrance fee of 4,000VND, equivalent to roughly 20cents USD and walked around the lake taking pictures of as many activities as I could until 7:30am. I was in awe of […]
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