Translations
[Cổ Tích Story] Toad is the Uncle of Heaven
Story time! This is a popular truyện cổ tích Việt Nam (old collected tales of VN) that fantastically explains the phenomena of toads croaking before a big rain shower. It also expresses the age old adage of not judging the greatness of things by their appearances. This story is called Con Cóc là Cậu Ông Trời (Toad is the Uncle …(read more)
An Ode to “ơi”
In this short piece, erin Khue Ninh, editor and educator, ponders about the nuances of the Vietnamese language and in particular, …(read more)
the stories of a girl (những câu chuyện của một cô gái)
DiaCRITIC Nhu Tien Lu Reports on girls and trafficking in Viet Nam. For the past three weeks, I’ve been living …(read more)
For a Bag of Coffee (Giá của một gói cà phê)
Vietnam is simultaneously a major exporter of coffee (2nd largest in the world) and a primary source country for trafficked …(read more)
My Father’s Daughter
Although Vietnam has generally been a patriarchal society, dotted throughout its history are women who bucked the Confucianist ways and rose …(read more)
A Têt Treat: lê thi diem thúy’s Novel is San Diego’s One Book 2011
San Diego is reading lê thi diem thúy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For, and Jade Hidle is there to …(read more)
Democratic Kampuchea’s Genocide of the Cham
The Cham are descendants of Champa, a longstanding kingdom that that once occupied most of today’s central Việt Nam—roughly from …(read more)
Ho Down: Long March’s ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail Project’
This entry is a snapshot of the Phnom Penh, Cambodia leg of the Ho Chi Minh Trail project, an …(read more)
Teleconference: The Tale of Kieu in English
an introduction to the poem for English-language readers and as an in-depth discussion of Nguyen Du’s prosody for Vietnamese literature specialists …(read more)
Meeting a Taxi Driver in N.Y. and Other Poems by Phan Nhiên Hạo
SPOTLIGHT ON PHAN NHIÊN HẠO The poems below by Phan Nhiên Hạo are “fueled by a mix of strife, hope, …(read more)
