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The End Game: The Sino-Vietnamese Boundary Dispute and Settlement |
by Eric Hyer |
[ The central question of this paper is, How does the PRC approach boundary disputes and how has this pattern influenced the Sino-Vietnamese boundary settlement? That a boundary dispute even existed was usually unknown until bilateral relations between China and the other party to the dispute deteriorated. For example, as late as 1975, many were confident that the Sino-Vietnamese boundary was mutually acceptable, but in 1979 a border war erupted... ]
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Vietnamese New Year's Celebrations in the Old Days |
by Xuan Duong |
[ The Vietnamese New Year's Festival, better known as TET, falls on the first days of the Lunar New Year, which is also popularly known as the Chinese New Year. As a matter of fact, for many hundreds of years, the Vietnamese people have adopted the Chinese New Year as their own festive occasion.... ]
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Vietnamese Traditional Costumes and Fashion |
by Gia Long Alumni Association of Seattle |
[ This section will be confined to the traditional costumes of women and women's fashion. The Vietnamese have long been proud of our traditional costume for women: the ao dai, which can be translated as long dress. Why are we so fond of this garment? This question can be answered with a quote from the writer Vo Phien: The ao dai both follows the beautiful lines of the body and flatters it by lending it a sense of fluid movement it does not have. There, the eye only sees the wind, the fluid grace, and the blithe fluttering... ]
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Photos of Us |
by Kevin Keith Allen |
[ The hallway leading to the video room was set up to resemble a hallway in a typical suburban home with several family portraits hanging neatly on the wall. These portraits resembled the ones that many of us have taken a second, or third, look at and asked ourselves, How do I fit in? Back home I would stop and stare at my image in those photos and ponder the color contrast present in my family. I know I looked different from my parents, but I didn’t feel all that different. My facial features and physique looked Asian, but I didn’t know what it meant to be Asian. How can I be so sure of who I am, I asked myself... ]
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Child of Two Worlds |
by Andrew Lam |
[ When I was 6 years old, living in Vietnam, I saw Mrs. Lau, wife of our family servant, drag herself out of bed only a few hours after giving birth to bury her newborn's umbilical cord in our garden. Her gestures among the jasmine bushes, the mumbling of prayers, the burning of joss sticks, and the offerings of mangoes and rice stirred a deep sense of mystery in me. Later I asked my mother about the incident and she, in a solemn voice, announced that it was the Vietnamese way to ask the land to bless and protect the newborn... ]
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A woman called Bua |
by Nguyen Huy Thiep
Translated by Frank Trinh |
[ The bittersweet story of "A woman called Bua" (Nang Bua) is a translation from a series of ten short stories "The Breezes of Hua Tat" (Nhung ngon gio Hua Tat) written by Nguyen Huy Thiep. His stories are written in simple style usually with a twist at the end. The author manages to paint vivid word pictures using a minimum of words, and often incorporates some of his own philosophies on life into his stories.... ]
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Viewing Cac-Co Cavern |
by Ho Xuan Huong
Translated from the Vietnamese by John Balaban |
[ Heaven and earth brought forth this rocky mass...its face cut by a deep crevasse...crack's dark mouth shagged with moss pines rocking in wind rush... ]
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Thirteen |
by Nguyen Sa
Translated by Xuan Duong |
[ Is it going to be sadly rainy or lovingly sunny...I'll go home if it rains...the bubbles all burst in my hands...back here I'll stay if sweet the sunny rays... ]
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The old time scholar |
by Vu Dinh Lien
Translated by Xuan Duong |
[ Each year blooms the cherry appears...he the old time scholar...arranging his ink and his brushes...out spreading his red paper sheets...on the crowded shopping strip...for many the sheets he brushes...who just love his old time scripts... ]
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Coast |
by Mong-Lan |
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Chu Phong
Vietnam's Images
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[ It has been 18 years since I left Viet Nam, so last November I decided it was time to go back for a photographic tour of the country. I traveled from the south to the north during the two weeks there. It was a wonderful trip and I took about 70 rolls of films. I was able to visit a lot of places that I had not been to when I lived in Vietnam (Vinh Long, Phan Thiet, Hoi An, Da Nang, Hue, Ha Noi, Ha Long, and the Northwest). A lot of places I only knew by reading books and watching movies, now I was there in person... ]
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Homeward Bound
Resist the hill, face the life
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[ up the hill we go...against time and wind...against prejudice and greed...against death and war... ]
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The Peanut Vendor
Living of peanuts
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[ Each life is great...for it carries inside itself...the power to touch the world...and mark it... ]
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Offering
Life cheats death with death
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[ It was about seven o’clock in the morning when I walked to the market in HoiAn, a beautiful seaport in central Vietnam. The lady had just laid the two live chickens down on a side street and ready for a day at the market... ]
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Fruits of Life
The past in each wrinkle
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[ I was asked which one of the pictures (about a thousand) that I took during the Vietnam trip was my favorite and my answer immediately was this one. I met this old lady at a bus stop on the way to Vinh Long... ]
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Reflection
Visions of provisions
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[ Pain is incommunicable...Eyes can talk in silence...About years of fighting...In her eyes... ]
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Water Pavilion
Greatness defies aging
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[ Time is invisible and no one can see it...But the mark time leaves every one sees....Time touches everything and steals... ]
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Bridge Over Troubled Water
Pseudo-Perfection
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[ Those who walks on the bridge straightforwardly...Are not conscious of the enchantment...Those sensitive beings visualize... ]
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Morning Ride to the Rice Field
Maintain the flame
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[ Inside the house...Inside the heart...Sun or rain...Maintain the flame... ]
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The Estate
Peace is the sky on the lake
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[ Peace is the sky on the lake...Of peaceful waters...Peace survives until when...Wind comes... ]
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Contributors
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