Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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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.

Tag: Vietnam

  • Traffic turns attraction

    Crunch time in Ho chi Minh City. A nuisance for many yet a photo-op for tourists. Millions in ponchos, helmets, dust masks, sunglasses fighting for every inch (centimeter here) to get  home in the pouring rain, while tourists leisurely strolled the colonial side walks in shorts, sandals and Sony cameras trying to record their trips.…

  • Thu Thiem and Cu Chi

    Both have tunnels, but Thu Thiem‘s has just been built and visited mostly by Viet natives. Cu Chi tunnels however is a backpackers’ must-see. Going through Thu Thiem Tunnel, you feel like you were in Louisiana or Baltimore. It unveils the future of  Vietnam, where ferry workers now work as toll booth collectors. District 2 is…

  • Anchor kids

    Although “Last Men Out” tells a story about the last Marines on the last day of Vietnam, readers still learn a great deal about the Vietnamese “group culture”. Many workers of the former US  embassy were on the list to be “chopper” out (Operation Frequent Wind). It just so happened that the gardener of the embassy came…

  • Vietnam, next Hong Kong?

    On my first trip to Hong Kong summer 1981, I was taken in by the energy and entrepreneurial spirit there. A camera shop (pre-Iphone era) next to a watch shop (again, pre-Ipad era) next to an electronics store.  Shoppers from India, Europe, Australia were all there, bustling about. Double-deck buses (still under British colonial rule) moved…

  • Modernity and memory

    A “xe om” (scooter taxi) guy mentioned a city (Lai Thieu?) where one can find all the abandoned carriages (horse or cow). Hearing that, I flashed back to those early days when I accompanied my grandmother on her monthly trip to receive pension. We took a bus, and Lambretta . I always got treated to a good lunch, a special…

  • Still inflamed

    When I witnessed the monk set fire on himself some forty years ago, the streets of Saigon had less traffic than it does now. An American photographer got words that there might be something happening’.  By day’s end, morning in Washington, his shot sent shock waves over the wire, as flammable as the content it…

  • The General Temple

    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…

  • Gloria Gaynor survives in Vietnam

    When I visited the neighborhood gym, and heard “I will survive” over the speaker, I knew I was back in full swing. Scooters weaved in and out, backpackers with signature sandals (footwear was an important identifier here) and fake Heineken bootlegged in from our neighbor in the North. I will survive (recycled cook oil, recycled…

  • Re-occupy yourself!

    When I boarded my flight to Vietnam, Penn State was losing to Nebraska. And after I landed in Vietnam, I read about New York “tent city” had been re-occupied by the Mayor. Here in the land of motor scooters, and kids try to conjugate in English, I can put those problems  in perspective. It’s true…

  • Faith in humanity

    A graduate of Penn State, I related well to the scenes from the Deer Hunter, set in an industrial town of Pennsylvanian. Smokestacks on the slope, familiar faces and friends and the “Welcome Home” sign for returning soldiers from a distant war. But unlike other wars before and since, this one was controversial.  It showed when the main character,…