House are tailor-made for swifts

Swifts are migratory, and often seen as signals for spring. But that is not the case in Dalat, which is home to the little swift, [ more... ]

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... ]