Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
recent posts
about
Tag: New Year
-
Tonight is New Year‘s Eve (Giao Thua) here in Vietnam. Senator McCain and Lieberman are also here on their SEA trip. But many years ago, McCain probably heard the sound of firecrackers. Tonight, there won’t be firecrackers, but everything should happen just as it has for centuries: visit ancestor’s graves or ash stored next to a…
-
The night before New Year’s Eve (year of the Dragon), Saigonese and expats got a choice to watch the rehearsal at formerly known as Independence Palace, or nurse a beer at Acoustic. Years ago, this neighborhood was a hang-out place for privileged kids who attended nearby French lycee. Today, at least in this den-like corner,…
-
Most people are out to celebrate the upcoming New Year (Tet). Dzzzzzzzzzzzzo! Heineken toast! Except for one young man, crutches aside, lifted his body (one leg dangling, the other with flipping blue jeans) up to train his upper-body. Now, that got my attention. I complimented him on finding out the right angle to wrap his hands around…
-
When I saw a Vietnamese woman on motor bike with helmet, mask, sunglasses, messenger pouch, gloves and Ao-Dai steering her scooter while holding a baby on their way to the sitter, it brought back memories of Mom’s dress. She was a schoolteacher, deeply committed to and consistent in her multiple roles: mother, teacher, wife, daughter-in-law…
-
I saw a funeral pouring out onto the sidewalk one day, and on the same block, a wedding the day after. Meanwhile, the street sweeper just went about his business of sweeping, regardless. Even if they could use some industrial-grade sweepers, people prefer man to machine. This solves labor problems. Scavengers make their daily routes by offering…
-
When you were young and with others, you wanted to start a revolution. But if you were young, but alone, you might want New Year Resolution e.g. diet, “biggest loser”, learning Spanish, pick up a new skill set. Then when you have been around the block a few times, you still think of New Year…
-
It’s a norm here in Vietnam that a certain market, after being moved to a new location, still has its old location called “cho Cu” (Old Market). My Dad and I used to go for breakfast in Cho Cu, which no longer does brisk business despite its prime location near the harbor (people are shopping at SuperMarkets,…
-
When my mom, a teacher, took me there, I was 5. This time, I went there by myself. Happy Teacher’s Day! The Temple has always opened to seekers . On New Year‘s Eve, it’s the equivalent of Times Square . The crowd, the smell of incense burning and the long line at fortune teller’s dispensary. It…
-
The Year of the Cat. Al Stewart in white suit. Cyclical, eternal and in sync with nature. No “dominion over the land and seas” as in Western theocracy (in an ironic twist, outside my window, the work crew keeps digging, plowing, flattening and paving the sidewalks – one after another, from water to power, cable…
-
Mongolian Khan, upon his first day out of jail, jumped on the horse to lead his nation to new height. Lennon and Yoko still purchased full-page ad in the NYT to run the same poster as they did 40 years ago “WAR IS OVER, if you want it”. With the new digital order, thought-leaders emerged…
Thang Nguyen 555 