Stories from and

Mapping Vietnam's Socio-Economic Indicators

  28 March 2015

The World Bank has launched mapVIETNAM, an interactive map that shows various socio-economic indicators in Vietnam such as poverty rates, employment, and electricity connectivity. The photo above shows the number of households living on $2 dollars a day. Using the map, we can see that poverty rates are high in...

Open Letter Asks UN Human Rights Council to Probe Abuses in Vietnam

  16 March 2015

An open letter signed by 27 groups and 163 individuals is asking the United Nations Human Rights Council to probe the human rights abuses committed by the Vietnamese government. The signatories are also demanding the removal of Vietnam's membership in the UN human rights body. We urge member states to...

Experience the “Hanoi Soundwalk” Interactive Audio Tour

  26 August 2014

The Soundwalk is an “interactive, geo-locative audio tour” where a user with a headphone and smartphone app equipped with GPS can hear sounds as he or she walks around the city. …when you move around the sounds will appear to be coming from a particular location, and you can discover...

Sexual Abuse of Children in Tourism in Southeast Asia

  1 July 2014

The Project Childhood Prevention Pillar, an initiative of the Australian government, has released a study about the prevalence of sexual abuse of children in the Southeast Asian region. It cited social factors such as “poverty and marginalisation, as well as lack of family support, education, opportunity, and protective factors” for...

Ending Illegal Wildlife Trade in Southeast Asia

  21 June 2014

Daniel Besant of Southeast Asia Globe has interviewed photojournalist and activist Karl Ammann about the efforts to end the illegal wildlife trading in Southeast Asia: At the moment, I’m convinced that 90% of what’s being done in Southeast Asia is window dressing and lip service. Making pronouncements, signing MOUs [Memoranda...

‘Worsening’ Human Rights Situation in Vietnam

  11 May 2014

The Vietnam Human Rights Network released its 2013 report about the ‘worsening’ human rights situation in Vietnam: …the human rights situation in Vietnam took a turn for the worse in 2013. The number of people detained for political views contrary to those of the ruling party increased, unabated police violence...

State of Political Blogging in Vietnam

  16 April 2014

Doan Trang observed that a growing number of Vietnamese bloggers have been tackling human rights and other political issues by writing commentaries and analyses, even finding supplementary facts. Despite the emotional style which may sometimes reveal their non-professionalism, they filled the vacuum left by the mainstream media which in most...

Two Historic Saigon Buildings to be Demolished in Vietnam

  17 March 2014

Tim Doling, writing for the Saigoneer, gives a brief history of the Ho Chí Minh City People’s Committee building and an art deco office block which are both scheduled for demolition in Vietnam. A Date with the Wrecking Ball: 2 Historic Saigon Buildings Slated for Demolition http://t.co/M6e9ACY5DB #Vietnam pic.twitter.com/PPjEBJzl7e —...

PHOTOS: Saigon in the Past 50 Years

  14 February 2014

The Saigoneer features several photos published by the French Consulate in Saigon, Vietnam that highlight the changes that took place in the city between 1955 and 2005. Slideshow: How Saigon, #Vietnam Changed from 1955 – 2005 http://t.co/mdfjPyQGgz pic.twitter.com/Z6teefeXLo — Saigoneer (@Saigoneer) February 12, 2014

Why Vietnam-made Game Flappy Bird is Popular

  8 February 2014

Vietnam-made game Flappy Bird is today's number one app in the iOS App Store in over 100 countries. It already has more than 50 million downloads and it even beat Facebook's Paper app. Anh-Minh Do of Tech in Asia explains the popularity of the game: It’s so hard that it’s...

French Influence on Vietnamese Cooking

  6 February 2014

Writing for The Culture Trip, Melissa Pearce reviews the French impact on Vietnamese cooking: The French brought many ingredients and flavours to Vietnam, most popular and noticeable upon entering the country is probably the baguette, which the Vietnamese adapted and today create their own style of baguette using rice flour.

Teaching Art During Vietnam War

  27 January 2014

The British Library blog features several art works made during the Vietnam War era. It also quotes Nguyễn Toan Thi, a guerilla artist during the war: Art classes were held outside in the forest until our schools were bombed: classes were then held underground. Art teachers and students shared the...

How the Vietnamese are Using Facebook Pages

  22 January 2014

Despite being regularly blocked by the government, Facebook continues to grow in terms of users in Vietnam. Patrick Sharbaugh of Vietmeme explains how Vietnamese are maximizing Facebook pages: …they don’t use it only for posting personal information, but often for creating temporary civil society communities and advocating for pet causes....

Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia

  31 December 2013

The Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development has published a policy briefer that tackled the extent of human trafficking in Southeast Asia. Many Southeast Asian countries are at the bottom of a lot of the world's supply chains, including for food, garments, and technology. Yet few countries in...

Remembering and Reviving Vietnam's Ca Tru Singing

  20 October 2013

Đoan Trang interviews Pho Kim Duc, a famous ca tru (sung poetry) vocalist in Vietnam in the 1940s. Kim Duc said ca tru is a very noble form of art. “It’s is not just singing but also poetry. Whoever with a taste for poetry will love ca tru to find...

Vietnamese Blogger Speaks Out Against Government Repression

  26 September 2013

Nguyen Bac Truyen gave a testimony in a human rights event in Geneva about the repression suffered by bloggers and activists in Vietnam: Since Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang came back from a visit to President Obama in the United States at the end of July, government repression has entered...

100 Million Signature Campaign for Resolution of Japan's ‘Sex Slaves’ Issues

  6 September 2013

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan has launched a new campaign to gather 100 million signatures. Their online petition, in eight different languages, calls on Japanese government to offer an official apology and legal reparations to the victims and asks the international community to join their cause....