Back to English Comments News - October 8, 2018 | 09:20 am GMT+7 National Geographic photojournalist Catherine Karnow’s unique works are well known, but not many know why she’s drawn so much to Vietnam. American Catherine Karnow has been a household name in Vietnam for sometime now, but what kept her returning to the country for almost three decades has not drawn much attention. “It was literally because of General Giap that I came to Vietnam for the first time. I think it was ‘duyen’,” Catherine said, using the Vietnamese word for fate.She was already a professional photographer working on assignments and editorial and corporate projects when she first came to Vietnam in 1990, but it was not until she began photographing General Vo Nguyen Giap that she rose to stardom in Vietnamese eyes. She had the privilege of getting close to Giap thanks to her father, Stanley Karnow, a journalist and a Pulitzer-winning author whose … [Read more...] about It was destiny: How Catherine Karnow became a household name in Vietnam – VnExpress International
How to get my 7 month old to sleep
Many moons ago, mooncakes were a dark secret – VnExpress International
Back to English Comments Culture & Arts - September 23, 2018 | 11:16 am GMT+7 One experienced mooncake-maker in Hanoi has seen the art and craft wax and wane, and do it again.Dung’s hands move with practiced ease.He has been doing this for 50 years and the dough is like putty in his hands. After some kneading he cuts the dough into smaller pieces and uses the mold to shape them. A thin layer of white flour flies into the air every time he taps one piece of dough out of the wooden mold.Flour is everywhere. On the table. On his apron. On his sweaty, chef’s hat. And from the cloud of dough dust, a moon emerges. A white, sticky rice mooncake is ready to be baked and keep its tryst with the fullest, biggest moon of the year – the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, celebrated as the “Mid-Autumn Festival.”About 20 people are busy in the “workshop,” mixing fillings, shaping dough and baking new batches of cakes. They are focused and … [Read more...] about Many moons ago, mooncakes were a dark secret – VnExpress International
Lives of many people at stake in flood-prone northern Vietnam
He is an unnamed Thai man. Not a Thai national, but a member of Thai ethnic minority, one of 54 such communities in Vietnam. He’s 30 years old, and lives with his wife and children next to a stream in the mountainous Phong Tho District in Lai Chau Province. The land his family lives on was handed over from his parents. Their house, or what passes for a house, is a cluster of bamboo beams shooting up from the ground and covered with a “roof” of plastic sheets, that shields the family from the elements. Every day, his wife does all the work: from babysitting to feeding the cattle to tending the house, while he just sleeps, wakes up, drinks, then sleeps some more. I asked him why he decided to settle here. This area is highly vulnerable to flash floods, as it is only a couple meters away from a nearby stream. If a flood did occur there would be no time to react. The only way out is through an old, rusty bridge across the stream itself, and if one gets to the other side, … [Read more...] about Lives of many people at stake in flood-prone northern Vietnam