Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

recent posts

about

With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

Author: Thang Nguyen 555

  • Brand Vietnam

    Brand Vietnam

    Long ago, at Saigon Central Market, Hynos toothpaste featured a smiling man showing white teeth. Before then Vietnam had phased out blackened-teeth, while China’s shelved away their bound-feet. Cultures in transition. The last Samurai! Kids wore BATA shoes (a popular brand in the US during WWII, when men were enlisted and women connected phone calls – switch-circuit…

  • rollin, rollin on the (Saigon) river

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Working for the man, every night and day… big wheel keeps on turnin, River boat dining provides another view of Saigon Water front. Hotel Majestic, Sheraton and Sun Wah guests look at you (dining on the river boat), while you look at them. Tourists are still coming in drove…

  • cyclo in the time of google

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: By now, you can still see a few weather-beaten cyclos around albeit restricted to tourist quarters. I still remember the sound of horse carriage in the streets of  old Saigon. My kid will be lucky if she knows what a cyclo is. She knows Google though. Paperless and painless…

  • Vespa in Vietnam

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: The brand is revitalized and resuscitated here in Saigon.  If not for the helmets, I would think it is a replay of A Roman Holiday. Back then, the burning monk was pouring gasoline on himself and asked a younger monk to lit the fire. He earned a memorial in…

  • Maslow and Vietnam

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Tocqueville saw in America a country full of contradictions. He could say the same with Vietnam: people are moving up the Maslow scale, but some want to leap-frog security step i.e. basic needs to self-esteem need. Nouveau riches switch companions like Hollywood celebs. Forbes or Swiss bank lists almost…

  • Sound of Saigon

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Young population. Lots of noise and headsets. Night clubs and bars open every single night of  the week.  And let’s not forget those Karaoke stores, coffee shops and sidewalk beer stalls. Certainly not Sound of Silence here. My morning starts with greetings from those neighbor’s roosters. From there on,…

  • Softer side of Soft Power

    In the end of A Christmas Holiday, our Somerset Maugham‘s character went back to his middle-class comfort zone but quite aware of his “plastic” existence. This was right after he had spent a week in Paris, meeting Lydia, a Russian gypsy whose suffering life was nothing Charlie had ever imagined. I couldn’t help think of…

  • On self-repackaging

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: The age of frozen self has finally arrived i.e. you either update your web presence, or remain “frozen” in cyber space. Years from now, people remotely connected to you will Google you  and mine all the intimate data about you or written by you. Personal digital archive. At the turn…

  • Don’t dream, it’s over

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: The Maytag man finally wakes up from a long nap! Pent-up demand pushes consumers to go out and spend on big-ticket items such as refrigerators, washers and dryers. Walmart got a law suit for paying men more than women for the same job. Our calendar is very consumer-friendly i.e.…

  • Lonely crowd

    Back in the 60’s , David Riesman already concluded that “the more might not be the merrier”. Social network researchers have come up with diverse conclusions about Facebook and Internet use. Passive vs active participation makes a difference whether we are happier or less happy when using social media. We have yet fully exploited this…