BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – There’s nothing quite like finding out your house is very much alive and wants to consume you. Vietnamese American teenager, Jade Nguyen, lands in Vietnam with her younger sister Lily for the heroic purpose of surviving five weeks with her estranged father, with…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: SHE IS A HAUNTING (2023) BY TRANG THANH TRAN – A BLEAK HOUSE WITH SPECTRAL VISION
ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL REPORTS – The LMU and AMI family is proud to pass along the very happy news that Michelle P. Nguyen has accepted Columbia University’s invitation of admissions to its internationally prestigious School of International and Public Affairs. SIPA sits in the very top tier of public policy…
Full Article YOUNG LIONS ON THE PROWL AND CLIMB: MICHELLE P. NGUYEN, LMU ’20
GABY RUSLI WRITES— Do you have what it takes to become the next big thing? If so, would you do anything to have your shot at stardom? Translated into English, Siren Queen (2022) by Nghi Vo chronicles Luli Wei – a girl born and raised in a stereotypical traditional Chinese laundromat family in the pre-Code…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: SIREN QUEEN (2022) BY NGHI VO — IN THE LAND OF STARLETS AND MONSTERS
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Within Time is a Mother (2022), Ocean Vuong fashions a world so rich with polarities. No stone is left unturned. Vuong explores relationships in all their capacities: a person and their chosen loves, a person and society, and loving oneself. Following the successes of Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016) and On Earth…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: TIME IS A MOTHER (2022) BY OCEAN VUONG – LEARNING TO LIVE WITH DEATH AND ONESELF
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Hauntings, secrets, graveyards — Violet Kupersmith’s debut novel, Build Your House Around My Body (2021) — is an ash-charred sky splattered with these ghastly hues. Winnie is a twenty-two-year-old Vietnamese American (or Việt Kiều in Vietnamese) woman who sets out for Saigon with nothing but “a passport,…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: BUILD YOUR HOUSE AROUND MY BODY (2021) BY VIOLET KUPERSMITH — WHEN GHOSTS CEASE TO HAUNT THE PAST
SAMANTHA GERBASI WRITES — When choosing production locations, American companies typically consider profitability, labor availability, and taxes. But now, there is a new factor at play: Public health. Consider the case of Vietnam. After a prolonged lockdown due to a surge in coronavirus cases, the country is finally beginning to…
Full Article VIETNAM: WILL THE ‘MADE IN VIETNAM’ LABEL IN OUR CLOTHING BECOME A THING OF THE PAST?
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Motherhood — perhaps the most intimate and universal experience to exist in the universe. Nothing organic can start without it, nothing is left untouched by it. Motherhood transcends all differences. Yet, no singular being’s journey with it is ever quite the same as the next. At…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: A THOUSAND TIMES YOU LOSE YOUR TREASURE (2021) BY HOA NGUYEN
LULU AKHALIDI WRITES – Vietnam’s National Assembly passed the Public-Private Partnership Law designed to streamline bureaucracies that have made it difficult for investors to enter the growing Vietnamese economy. The law goes into effect on January 1, 2021 In 2019, Vietnam registered a 7% GDP growth, making it one of Southeast…
Full Article VIETNAM: WILL FOREIGN INVESTORS SHRINK FROM THE NEW PPP LAW?
Asia Media International is proud to announce that its Executive Editor Michelle Nguyen has been awarded one of seven coveted national Congressional Fellowships offered this year by the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), the highly praised national non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Asian Pacific American participation and representation…
Full Article ANNOUNCEMENT: APAICS CONGRESSIONAL FELLOWSHIP AWARDED
Loyola Marymount University’s critically acclaimed student-driven website – Asia Media International – has a new managing editor: Zhi Jiao Danielle Goh ’20. This recent graduate of the University’s undergraduate college — the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts (BCLA) – excelled as a double major in Screenwriting and Political Science, and…
Full Article BRILLIANT NEW EDITORS FOR ASIA MEDIA
CHARLOTTE TRUONG WRITES — Vietnam in general and Saigon in particular have controlled the pandemic very well, so entertainment services during the day and at night were soon allowed to resume operations. The service sector, though, is facing a period of extreme challenges, which is how to maintain, as well as…
Full Article SAIGON: WESTERN TOURISTS WELCOME…PLEASE!!
CHARLOTTE TRUONG, WHO HAILS FROM VIETNAM, WRITES — Recently, Netflix has stepped into the Asian movie market through collaborative works such as Kingdom of Korea and The Victim’s Game of Taiwan. Among them, Da 5 Bloods (Vietnamese title: 5 Chien Huu) is a film directed by Spike Lee, filmed in…
Full Article VIETNAM: SPIKE LEE’S MOVIE ‘DA 5 BLOODS’ IS OUT OF SYNC WITH THE COUNTRY IT PORTRAYS
CHARLOTTE TRUONG WRITES – Since the end of December 2019, in the center of Wuhan city (China), the COVID-19 pandemic has caused great damage on a global scale in virtually all areas: economics, politics, society and tourism. Although Vietnam is China’s neighbor, and had early cases of infection, the country…
Full Article VIETNAM: HAPPY LIVING POST-LOCKDOWN
ANH NU DIEU TRUONG WRITES – In recent days, given the seriousness of COVID-19, the majority of Vietnamese students who had been studying overseas decided to go back home for a sense of safety and family. All must undergo 14 days of isolation before returning to normal life. Some, though,…
Full Article VIETNAM: HELPING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
CHARLOTTE TRUONG WRITES – China is Vietnam’s largest market for agricultural and aquatic products, accounting for about 27% of total agricultural and fishery exports each year. According to the United Nations Comtrade database on international trade, during 2017 Vietnam exported US$35.39 billion from China. But now, due to the outbreak…
Full Article VIETNAM: FINDING SLIVERS OF PINK-BREAD SILVER LINING IN THE CORONAVIRUS DARKNESS
ANH NU TRUONG WRITES – Internationally, today, there are around 20 to 40 million people in modern slavery, otherwise known as human trafficking. Yet cases are difficult to assess because, according to the United Nations, the vast majority go undetected. Only about 0.4% cases are identified. And in Vietnam, human…
Full Article VIETNAM: THE HORROR OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING