Khôi Phạm

in Culture

What Can Vietnamese License Plates Tell You About the Vehicles and Who Drives Them?

There was a game I used to play with my dad whenever we would stop at a traffic light. He would point to a random license plate in front of us and quiz me on where it came from.

in Travel

Mũi Né Among Top 10 Trending Travel Destinations Globally in 2026, Booking Says

Travel site Booking.com dubbed Mũi Né “one of 2026’s trending travel spots,” reflective of the international attention and domestic emphasis the beach city is currently receiving.

in Music & Arts

Euphoria, Ruin, Nostalgia: Tracing Hanoi's Changing Skyline by Its Soundtrack

From loudspeakers broadcasting construction anthems during wartime to melancholic ballads mourning vanished street corners, Hanoi's soundtrack reveals a city that has never quite learned to live in its present tense.

Paul Christiansen

in Rewind

In 'Cú Và Chim Se Sẻ,' a Director's Radical Empathy for Saigon's Less Fortunate

“They can do what they want. The city owns the zoo. They could sell all the animals here. They could turn it into a golf course. We’re just little people — you and me.”

in Loạt Soạt

In 'No Man River,' Dương Hướng Highlights the Raw Pain of Postwar Survival

Dương Hướng’s No Man River (Bến không chồng) was first published in 1991 and won the Vietnam Writers' Association Prize for Fiction. Translated into English by Quan Manh Ha and Charles Waugh, it captures the brutal reality of conflict in Vietnam from 1945 to 1979.

in Music & Arts

Nguyễn Đức Tín Weaves Spirituality, Faith, Everyday Life Altogether in His Paintings

Can a painting reflect who we are, even if we can’t see ourselves thoroughly? And how does faith guide us forward in life?

in Film & TV

Liên Bỉnh Phát Makes History as 1st Vietnamese to Win Best Male Lead in Taiwan

Vietnamese actor Liên Bỉnh Phát recently made history at one of Taiwan’s most prestigious national award ceremonies.

in Travel

An Ode to Vũng Tàu, Saigon's Unwavering Summer Crush

I recently took a trip to Vũng Tàu after a long summer of cultural research, which had me traveling up and down Vietnam. It had been seven years since I’d been back to the homeland, and 19 since I’d last seen the beaches of Vũng Tàu, when I was only 16. It felt like returning to a high school crush, and it made me think of the words of Trần Thiện Thanh, who once wrote, “Nhớ lúc xa xưa mười sáu trăng tròn…” I won’t say I wasn’t looking for something familiar, poetic, and possibly even as sappy.

Back Arts & Culture

in Arts & Culture

Sweden Just Held Its Largest Ever Exhibition of Contemporary Vietnamese Art

Mien Meo Mieng / Contemporary Art from Vietnam – the most comprehensive exhibition of contemporary Vietnamese art ever presented in Sweden – features installations, drawings, paintings, videos and scu...

in Music & Arts

Stunning Vietnamese Children's Book Wins Asia-Wide Prize

When it comes to reading materials for kids, Vietnam is full of small, inexpensive paperbacks, but seldom does the country produce a colorful, high-quality storybook like The First Journey.

Dana Filek-Gibson

in Music & Arts

The Music Man: Mark Gergis' Old-School Saigon Soul

When he was young, Mark Gergis – like most American teenagers – spent a lot of time sifting through records (or cassettes or CDs or iTunes...whatever your generation did). It was the 1980s, and there ...

in Film & TV

Vietnamese Film Submitted to 2016 Oscars

For the first time in two years, a Vietnamese film is in the running for an Academy Award.

in Music & Arts

Islands, Archipelagos and Other Liquid Territories: Exploring the High Seas with Map Office

Acclaimed Hong Kong-based artists Laurent Gutierrez and Valerie Portefaix of Map Office bring to Dia Projects their first solo show in Saigon, titled Islands, Archipelagos and Other Liquid Territories...

in Culture

[Photos] 15 Old Photos to Celebrate Vietnamese Women's Day

Today marks the 85th Vietnamese Women's Day. A nationally observed holiday since 1930, October 20 commemorates the day upon which the country's Women's Union was officially established and recognized ...

in Music & Arts

Saigon Student Creates Vietnam-Themed Alphabet

When Luu Trong Nhan first came across Around the World with Type, a project by Indian design students Rigved Sathe and Payal Jagwani, the 23-year-old student knew he could create an equally stunning V...

in Culture

[Video] Insane Buon Ma Thuot Floods Sweep Away Motorbikes

In Vietnam's latest installment of flood-related news, yet another deluge has struck the country, this time in the Central Highlands city of Buon Ma Thuot.

in Music & Arts

Phnom Penh to Transform Abandoned Ship Into Floating Arts Center

Phnom Penh is about to get a new attraction in an old, deteriorating boat.

in Music & Arts

[Video] Downtown Saigon Is at Its Best in This Drone Video

Sometimes, when you're trapped in a gridlock of rush hour traffic, struck by an especially foul scent or awoken by the ear-splitting noise of roosters, construction projects and chatty next-door neigh...

in Music & Arts

Event Rewind: Beer Fest @ Saigon Outcast

Last Saturday, crowds of thirsty Saigoneers flocked to Saigon Outcast for its first-ever Beer Fest, which celebrated the city's growing number of craft beer producers.

in Arts & Culture

[Video] Saigon Ad Agency Portrays Romance With a Good, Old-Fashioned Cavity Search

Most Vietnamese TV commercials are pretty much the same: there's a bit of dancing, a few graphics and a handful of attractive young people parading across the screen. Everything is glossy, well-produc...

in Music & Arts

Saigoneer's September Art Picks

After the city's gallery scene took a summer hiatus, Saigoneer is back with our art picks for the month. September was off to a good start with a variety of exhibitions, employing everything from urba...

in Music & Arts

New Edition Of Standpoint Theories Will Hit Saigon This Month

Multi-disciplinary production company Standpoint Theories returns to Saigon with three performances of Legends of Vietnam: Remix, an evolution of last year's Legends of Vietnam. The new and improved p...

in Culture

Thai Binh Businessman Builds Made-in-Vietnam Mini Submarine

We all have our hobbies: for some it's tennis, for others it's golf, and for one guy in northern Thai Binh province, it's building military-grade submarines.

in Film & TV

October Movies At Saigon’s Alternative Film Venues

It is not Halloween without a dose of horror. Check out which spooky films made the list this year at Saigon's alternative movie-viewing venues. If zombies, ghosts and paranormal activity are not your...

in Film & TV

New Victor Vu Film Wins at International Festival

Last week, Vietnamese film Tôi Thấy Hoa Vàng Trên Cỏ Xanh (Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass) took home the Feature Films of 2015 award at China's Silk Road International Film Festival, held in Fujian...

in Music & Arts

Zelda Goes To The Gallery: Khói Sóng

Khói Sóng, Ha Manh Thang’s new exhibition and his second at Galerie Quynh, is part of the artist's ongoing Vietnam Landscapes (2010 – present) project, in which his reflections on Vietnamese...

in Music & Arts

[Video] Whoever Made This Drone Video of Vietnam's Floods Has a Sense of Humor

Last week, when we all had floodwater up to our kneecaps and half of Saigon was stuck in rush hour traffic, someone was having a good time in northern Vietnam with a drone camera.

in Music & Arts

The Story of the Greatest Female Pirate Retold via Cinemagraph

When it comes to brave, daring women, Asia has no shortage of badass heroines. In Vietnam alone, historical figures like Vo Thi Sau and the Trung sisters are hailed for their courage and str...