YVONNE EPPS WRITES – If Ho Chi Minh was Vietnam’s superhero, then General Vo Nguyen Giap was his trustee sidekick. Befitting such a person of honor, Vietnamese turned out in the thousands for a two-day national funeral to help send the the general to his final resting place. General Giap, a…
Category: Vietnam
VIETNAM: Like a Virgin (Insured)?!
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – Cultural icons can get away with insuring the body parts that made them famous, but when someone starts insuring their virginity, things can get dicey. The king of nhac vang, a genre of music, Ngoc Son, is reported to tell the media that he’s insuring his virginity for…
VIETNAM: An Extreme Obsession with Tourism
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – What do police patrols, food, and WiFi have in common? No, it’s not cops eating donuts while browsing Tumblr on their smartphones, but rather Vietnam’s obsession with tourism. From promoting the country as the “kitchen of the world” to protecting tourists from robbers, Vietnam is concerned…
VIETNAM: Beautiful Bodies, Uterus Required
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – The next Vietnam beauty may be just around the corner, but the government will only except the most feminine of them all, literally. Based off America’s Next Top Model, the fourth season of Vietnam’s Next Top Model has come under fire after advancing transgendered contestants in…
VIETNAM: 50 Shades of Chains and Apple Lawsuits
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – Trashy fiction is an increasingly popular guilty pleasure, making one writer’s trash a corporation’s treasure. Racy Vietnamese novel Soi xich (The Chain) was sold on the Apple App Store without author and actress-singer Le Kieu Nhu’s permission, violating the copyright laws protecting the work. Although the…
VIETNAM: Officially Banned, Unofficially a Smash Hit
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – It’s been banned, but can you really keep it under wraps if it’s already been leaked onto the web? Earlier this summer, the National Cinema Department (NCD) instrumented a hasty campaign to ban Bui Doi Cho Lon (Life in Chinatown) directed by Vietnamese-American Charlie Nguyen, but…
VIETNAM: Free Wi-Fi, but a Wired Outcome
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – Today, life and the Internet are synonymous, so free Wi-Fi is to be expected, but what’s the benefit if citizens aren’t the intended users? Residents and tourists in Hue City, Vietnam’s former Royal Capital, are scheduled to receive free Wi-Fi in major public areas such as…
VIETNAM: A Win for LGBT, but a Loss for Activism
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – Vietnam’s LGBT community got a morale boost on International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia May 17, but the big picture of social freedoms in the country is uneven. Viet Nam News reported that the United Nations praised the country for cutting anti-gay discrimination through local media’s spread…
VIETNAM: Idol Culture Threatened by K-Pop Sensations
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – The Vietnamese Idol culture might have some competition from some neighbors whose intentions might be more hostile than sensational. Last month, Vietnam Net Bridge covered a story on “Idol culture” in Vietnam where it was found that fan clubs obsessively love their respective idols like…
VIETNAM: Going to the Birds?
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – Vietnam is counting its chickens. In response to 11 deaths in China from a new strain of bird flu, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health is gearing up to fight the disease, even though there are no reported in-country infections yet. As reported by Vietnam News and Voice…
VIETNAM: American Reporting Trivial to Vietnamese Readers
YVONNE EPPS WRITES – The United States prides itself on being “number one” in most areas, but it seems that social culture is its main point of interest to outsiders nowadays. A quick search on the Vietnamese language version of ThanhNien News Network reveals that American social reporting seems to…
VIETNAM: Beijing Ultra-Nationalist Acts Like a Bow-Wow
Maritime disputes are heating up between China, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, all because of a sign. In February, an international outrage surged when a Beijing restaurant manager refused to apologize after removing a racist sign that excludes citizens of states in maritime disputes with China, and dogs. The sign…
VIETNAM: The Overseas Slander Musical
Who knew that Do-Re-Mi could spell Do-Re-Banned? Two Vietnamese singers in the US have been banned from performing in Vietnam, accused of opposing the mother country with slanderous lyrics. Thanh Tuyen and Tuan Vu, along with a handful of others, were charged with slander for their performances on the latest…
VIETNAM: If You’re Gonna Blog, Blog Something Nice, Ok?
Sometimes in Vietnam it pays to keep your mouth (or blog) shut. Last month, a Vietnamese court sentenced three bloggers to between 4 and 12 years in prison for allegedly troubling citizens and trying to overthrow the Communist government. You’d think with debt scandals, a slowing economy and inflation expected…
VIETNAM: Kissing for Charity Was Almost the Kiss of Death
Raising money for charity is a Samaritan thing to do, but male pop singer Dam Vinh Hung may have gone too far in his pursuit for monetary justice. Recently, Hung kissed two monks on the lips and hands at a charity auction in Ho Chi Minh City. In order to…
INDIA: China’s Passport to Trouble
China is at it again! Existing territorial conflict between New Delhi and Beijing over Arunchal Pradesh is no concern of the past. The controversial issue has been revived as China recently took matters into its own hands, launching new e-passports in which it showed the regions of Arunachal Pradesh and…