Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Tag: United States
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Joan Didion‘s latest book about the death of her child has landed in the top ten of TIME magazine. Her earlier book, “the Year of Magical Thinking” recalls the death of her husband. By penning these experiences, she invited us, readers into her private chamber of grief (saving his shoes, wishing he would come back).…
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Mark Zuckerberg is here for Christmas vacation. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/science-technology/16933/facebook-s-ceo-visits-vietnam.html Perhaps he would find a striking difference between the way people celebrate the Holidays here as opposed to Northern California. In the US, the joke is “if you got tired of the Turkey, you can always order Chinese”. McDonald’ s and KFC‘s are closed. One culture withdraws…
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Coconut, sugar cane and other tropical blend to your liking. http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Business/2011/12/99081/ POM(agrenade) has made a blast as new entry into the American juice shelves. Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me got around to make a movie about brands. His VIP sponsor: POM juice. Branding is both mystical and magical. It helps institutions and companies thrive…
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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,…
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I finished the epilogue to “the Devil in the White City” longing for more. That’s how good the read was. The architects and builders reached out to the sky, and in Ferris’ case, taking the people up with him for an amusement ride in 1893. The Fair (DreamLand) later inspired DisneyLand. But not all was…
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One of my earliest collections was the Adventure of Tin-Tin. It was a roadmap for my adventure later in life, which took me to ten countries and roughly fifty cities in North America. But nothing had prepared me for an adventure in my homeland. Certain familiar elements still exist: Chemin de Fer, Ben Thanh Market and…
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Years ago, I took a course in Wilderness Survival. One of the classmates was a blind Korean guy. The others all white males. We were to spend the entire five days in the White Mountain of New Hampshire, with one solo day. Our “final” was rock repelling. I kept looking in my teammate’s eyes and…
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During lunch time at my first job (Child Welfare Bureau at Indian Town Gap, PA), we threw a football, my first. That was supposed to be my induction into the Penn State culture the following Fall. Here in Vietnam, at lunch time, I walk by a casket store. As equally shocking for foreigners as my…
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It’s known urban legend here in Vietnam that you do not take a photo with three people. Someone will need to stand in to defy the odds (of bad luck). It is also bad luck that a person in the photo but was cut out. I once saw a family picture which had a missing member.…
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I almost stepped on an envelope with imprint of an airplane on the cover. It’s been a while since I saw that design. We used to write intimate letters, telling in detail what had happened in our lives, then “seal with a kiss” an envelope which had “Par Avion” on it. In fact, when Vietnam…
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