In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Rangoon shimmers under a blue sky in mid-October, but the gentle breezes announcing the coming end of the year soften the edge of the heat and allow for the day to ease gracefully into the evening. The city is more spread out than one would expect, with tree-lined streets wrapping around lakes and gardens…

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The streets of Vietnam’s biggest cities reveal unmistakable signs of wealth. Mercedes and Lexus luxury cars are common, and now and then, you can catch a glimpse of a Bentley or a Maybach gliding along the congested thoroughfares. Vietnamese “new rich” can now access the latest fashion and accessories…

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Vietnam has just finished its university entrance exam season, with nearly 2 million applicants vying for a coveted spot in some 400 universities and colleges. The competition is fierce; only about one-third of them will be successful. Given the country’s strong traditional dedication to learning, the intense desire by Vietnamese parents to ensure that their children will have more opportunities than they had and will be able to compete in a more globalized world is driving the educational pressure even higher. The legacy of a socialist, polytechnic education system in Vietnam means that students are channeled early into specialized academic areas…

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When I first visited Vietnam in 1989 as a young graduate student, the country had recently undergone the doi moi, or economic reform policy, but there weren’t any physical signs of change yet. Hanoi in April 1989 was a gray city, preternaturally quiet with bicycles as the main mode of transportation, and electricity limited to [...]

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This is the loveliest time to be in Hanoi. The weather is cooler, and the light takes on a soft, golden glow spilling over the ochre walls of the numerous stately colonial buildings around the city. It makes the perfect setting as Vietnam ends its year of ASEAN chairmanship and hosts the 17th ASEAN Summit [...]

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This summer has been one of the hottest summers on record in Vietnam, with temperatures often rising above 100 F in many parts of the country. Low rainfall has rendered the country’s network of hydroelectrical power plants virtually useless, and rising energy consumption has outstripped the capacity of the state-owned energy sector, leading to rolling [...]

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Vietnam has garnered international attention over the past two decades with its remarkable economic growth and strong poverty alleviation record. The adoption of the doi moi (renovation) policy in late 1986, marked by a shift to market-oriented development and international integration, has transformed this country of 86 million. Crucial legal reforms embodied in such laws [...]

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Vietnam’s citizens have a great passion for reading, and public libraries in Vietnam are free for users, open for long hours, and have relatively well-qualified personnel to support patrons. The country’s public library system is extensive: the National Library of Vietnam in Hanoi functions as a repository for all Vietnamese publications. The network includes 64 [...]

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On a cold and gray day last December, a group of women huddled together in the Hoa Sua restaurant in Hanoi for the last lunch before they departed for the flight that would take them back to their home province of Can Tho, located in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. This was no simple [...]

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Vietnam may be experiencing the highest inflation rate in the last two decades, a whopping 28 percent year-on-year in August, but of late the country is consumed with a different crisis. The latest beauty to be crowned Miss Vietnam on Aug. 31, 18-year-old Tran Thi Thuy Dung, was discovered to not have finished secondary school, [...]

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