What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

I had been suffering from a bad back-in silence-for fear my local wife would offer me the same remedy as in a previous occurrence of this same ailment. [ more... ]

Closes fist, open palm

Imagine for a moment: In a courtyard stand rows of warriors, their arms extended. Despite the noise from the street, it is quiet, as though a solemn ritual has begun. [ more... ]

The passing of 'Mr Cricket'

The last representative of the golden generation of Vietnamese literature gave his final breath in Hanoi on July 6, leaving the literature community mourning. [ more... ]

Mysteries in stone

Heritage sites dedicated to the Holy Mother Mary in the world have become pilgrimage sites for faithful Catholics like (the French) Lourdes [ more... ]

From peasant poet to man of letters

On a gentle, sunny afternoon, at the headquarters of the Tay Ninh Province Literature and Arts Society, a crowd of the province’s familiar belletrists were assembled. [ more... ]

General Giap s photographer

Photographer Tran Tuan said that for the last 35 years, he had taken thousands of photos of General Vo Nguyen Giap – the legendary military strategist of Vietnam, who died in October. [ more... ]

A picture book to remember General Vo Nguyen Giap

The passing of any great and or famous figure is likely to trigger a surge of interest in any recordings or writings he or she may have left behind. [ more... ]

A secret world between the light and the dark

In 1996, I asked an errant photographic artist MPK in Dalat about the contemporary photographers with whom he took the most interest. MPK replied immediately, ‘Thi Tho’. [ more... ]

Mum s home!

Mum’s home!’ someone says, and it makes the whole family get up and rush to the river bank, where my mum unloads burden sixty or seventy kilos of fish, shrimps and crabs. [ more... ]

Himalayan Yew a Vietnam cancer cure in the making

The rare and valuable Himalayan Yew is endemic to Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands. It ranks among the species that contain the active agent 10-DB III, which is converted into taxol to make the foremost cancer treatment medicine in the world. [ more... ]