https://www.scmp.com/rss/500534/feed Sen Nguyen is a Vietnamese journalist who writes features and analyses that unpack nuances and provide contexts of policies and developments of public interest, with a particular focus on marginalised populations. She has covered everything, from an investigation about the structural causes that have led to considerable out-migration in the Mekong Delta, labour abuse of Vietnamese migrant workers in Serbia, a critical look at Vietnam's air pollution, the nuanced lived experiences of the... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Gura Amin, 20, says he can “never forget the most difficult time” in his life, when he drifted at sea for seven months with about 900 other Rohingya refugees on a boat run by smugglers, who had promised to take them to Malaysia only to arrive in Indonesia. With their help, Amin was able to leave a refugee camp in Bangladesh, home to more than a million refugees like himself, where he lived for five years with little to no education or job prospects. But he could not accept what he experienced... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3211657/rohingya-risk-death-rape-hands-smugglers-escape-open-air-prison-myanmar-bangladesh?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3211657/rohingya-risk-death-rape-hands-smugglers-escape-open-air-prison-myanmar-bangladesh?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Feb 2023 00:30:10 +0000 Southeast Asian nations are failing to protect people from being trafficked into scam networks, according to rights activists, who are demanding swift action from Asean to rescue victims of syndicates running multimillion-dollar criminal enterprises inside the bloc. Asia’s scam centres have reeled in an untold number of people with the promise of high paying jobs overseas which later turn out to be online cons, targeting victims across the world with bogus romance or investment opportunities. To... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3210584/southeast-asian-activists-urge-asean-help-rescue-scam-trafficking-victims-chinese-gangs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3210584/southeast-asian-activists-urge-asean-help-rescue-scam-trafficking-victims-chinese-gangs?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Feb 2023 09:21:37 +0000 This year’s Lunar New Year will be a treat for Singaporean Henry Koh’s family as they hold their first “normal” celebration after living with strict Covid-19 curbs that made it all but impossible for family gatherings. Koh, a 45-year-old behavioural therapist, expects over 20 people at his home for the traditional lo hei salad toss to usher in good fortune and prosperity, before tucking into a scrumptious spread of premium prawn rolls and steamboat. “Lunar New Year is pretty much the same for me... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3207559/asias-chinese-diaspora-celebrates-first-post-covid-lunar-new-year-even-inflation-bites?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3207559/asias-chinese-diaspora-celebrates-first-post-covid-lunar-new-year-even-inflation-bites?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jan 2023 05:00:10 +0000 When the retaining wall of Vietnamese fish farmer Ho Thi Bich Tuyen’s catfish pond collapsed into the Hau River several years ago, she knew who was to blame: illegal sand miners. “They took the sand, and the riverbed just kept going lower and lower,” she said. “There were so many of them. The sand miners came close to the riverbank. So I told the local ward officials to shoo them away, but at night they came back again.” The damage caused 150 tonnes of Tuyen’s catfish to escape into the wider... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3204441/vietnam-mighty-mekongs-banks-are-crumbling-illegal-sand-miners-run-riot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3204441/vietnam-mighty-mekongs-banks-are-crumbling-illegal-sand-miners-run-riot?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:18 +0000 Names have been changed to protect interviewees’ identities Gisou*, an Iranian scientist in Europe, had never been vocal about politics in her home country Iran. But the death of a 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police in Tehran for violating the country’s Islamic dress code, was a tipping point for Gisou. “The main reason I left Iran was because of the hijab. I could not live in that society any more,” said Gisou, who also pointed to dress requirements in Iranian... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3193648/irans-anti-hijab-protests-escalate-diaspora-speaks-out-terrible-memories?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3193648/irans-anti-hijab-protests-escalate-diaspora-speaks-out-terrible-memories?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Sep 2022 05:00:14 +0000 When Dannie Dinh moved to the United States at age 13 with her family, she refrained from speaking in her native language even though Texas had a large Vietnamese community. Newly-arrived immigrants felt intense pressure to assimilate and learn “perfect English”, she said. “There’s also a layer of discrimination if you speak a foreign language in public,” added Dinh, who is now 31 and works as a climate adaptation professional. “Those incidents of white people yelling ‘Speak English’ isn’t that... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3191924/vietnam-encourages-diaspora-embrace-language-and-culture-soft?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3191924/vietnam-encourages-diaspora-embrace-language-and-culture-soft?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Sep 2022 06:00:20 +0000 Grim footage of dead corals at a Vietnamese marine reserve, as far as the eye can see, has reignited calls for better environmental action as even a two-year pandemic pause in tourism has done little to help the ecosystem recover. Last month, pictures and videos of dead coral stretching hundreds of square metres at Hon Mun Island struck the public’s nerve and prompted local authorities to restrict swimming and diving in the marine reserve until it fully inspected the area. The dead reef is... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3186177/vietnams-coral-grave-nha-trang-bay-wake-call-climate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3186177/vietnams-coral-grave-nha-trang-bay-wake-call-climate?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Jul 2022 03:00:31 +0000 Community swimming instructor Tran Thi Kim Thia is on a mission to help stop children in Vietnam from drowning. Since 2002, Sau Thia, as she is colloquially known, has given free swimming lessons to around 4,500 children as part of a social programme – known as Sau Thia’s swimming class – in rural Hung Thanh commune, southern Dong Thap province. Sau Thia said when the authorities launched the initiative, the local women’s group nominated her as she was a strong swimmer and a single, childfree... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3180397/vietnams-child-drowning-plague-and-community-swimming-trainers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3180397/vietnams-child-drowning-plague-and-community-swimming-trainers?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jun 2022 06:00:14 +0000 Ngoc Binh used to call TikTok a “cancerous platform”. Fast forward two years, and the 23-year-old now uses the video-sharing social network to deliver mental health advice and personal relationship tips to his 255,000 followers. “On TikTok I give advice, but in real life, I don’t usually do that,” he said. “When people message me for advice, I often ask them questions to guide them through their feelings and situation and empower them to self-govern.” In urban Vietnam, young people like Binh,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3175262/fighting-suicide-tiktok-and-self-help-groups-vietnams?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3175262/fighting-suicide-tiktok-and-self-help-groups-vietnams?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Apr 2022 07:00:11 +0000 Van* had never seen snow or left her home country of Vietnam until she arrived in Romania. She is among hundreds of employees at a turkey meat producing plant in the small town of Codlea, about three hours from the capital Bucharest. “I went far away to work so that my son can have a better life and his life will not be as hard as his mother’s,’’ Van told This Week in Asia, adding that she sends money home from the Eastern European state every month. In 2019, Van, who is from a town in northern... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3170654/vietnamese-migrants-fill-romanias-worker-crunch-face-risk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3170654/vietnamese-migrants-fill-romanias-worker-crunch-face-risk?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Mar 2022 08:00:20 +0000 Gaurav Patil would not hesitate to recommend getting married in Vietnam to his friends back home in India. Patil, who has lived in Vietnam for 10 years, tied the knot with his Vietnamese partner at a resort in the central coastal town of Quy Nhon in late 2019. “Cost-wise it is much cheaper than India for [a similar] kind of resort or hotel. Resorts in Vietnam are true value for money in terms of services provided for guests,” said Patil, originally from Madhya Pradesh in central India. “In Phu... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3164172/why-vietnams-phu-quoc-billionaires-choice-big-fat-indian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3164172/why-vietnams-phu-quoc-billionaires-choice-big-fat-indian?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jan 2022 03:45:22 +0000 When Vo Van Hieu* paid over US$2,000 to a Vietnamese recruitment agency to work in Europe, he expected to be employed by a German furniture factory. Instead, he’s spent the month working outdoors to build a factory for China’s Shandong Linglong Tire Co in Serbia’s free trade zone of Zrenjanin, about 80km from the capital Belgrade, and where South Korea’s LS group and Italy’s Tecnostrutture also have factories. After living in cramped rooms without heating and mattresses under temperatures... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3157073/vietnamese-workers-chinese-tyre-factory-serbia-get-back-passports?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3157073/vietnamese-workers-chinese-tyre-factory-serbia-get-back-passports?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Nov 2021 09:30:18 +0000 Ahead of next week’s COP26 climate summit, aimed at extracting fresh pledges from world leaders to bring down carbon emissions, an ongoing energy crunch is driving up demand for coal globally. Yet nowhere is this addiction to dirty fuel more visible than in the Asia-Pacific, which accounts for about three-quarters of worldwide coal consumption. A recent report from non-profit financial think-tank Carbon Tracker showed that five Asian countries – China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam – are... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3153361/vietnams-addiction-coal-shows-tough-climate-choices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3153361/vietnams-addiction-coal-shows-tough-climate-choices?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Oct 2021 03:00:17 +0000 For four months this year, as Vietnam battled the Delta variant, manufacturing worker Le Van Teo stayed in his shared room in the southern industrial hub of Binh Duong, where he survived on donated food supplies. Lockdowns and temporary closures of factories as the country tried to quell a surge of Covid-19 cases meant workers’ earnings were irregular at best. They saw their savings evaporate and relied on neighbours or the local government for meals, a situation many found traumatic. So when... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3151940/vietnams-factories-lurch-crisis-worker-exodus-holiday-shopping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3151940/vietnams-factories-lurch-crisis-worker-exodus-holiday-shopping?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Oct 2021 10:45:26 +0000 On the day Hanoi re-emerged from coronavirus lockdown, Tran Khanh Thien went out for a ride. After nearly two months of movement restrictions, the Vietnamese capital’s streets were once again lined with parked cars and filled with the noise of roaring motorbike engines. Restaurants and shops were open, the 27-year-old entrepreneur said of his outing on Tuesday, though there were still plenty of signs urging social distancing and “100 per cent of people” were wearing masks. Meanwhile, in Ho Chi... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3149842/has-vietnam-turned-corner-its-coronavirus-fight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3149842/has-vietnam-turned-corner-its-coronavirus-fight?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Sep 2021 00:00:27 +0000 When long-time Vietnam resident Benjamin Herman heard that the Peace Corps was for the first time recruiting English teachers to help run classes in the Southeast Asian nation, he was overjoyed. Volunteering with the US-government-funded programme is something of a tradition in the 39-year-old American’s family, with no fewer than five of his relatives having served as volunteers in Central and South America, as well as in Europe. “I love helping people learn and I’m very interested in delving... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3148537/us-peace-corps-fixture-asia-vietnam-last-sign-hanoi-washington?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3148537/us-peace-corps-fixture-asia-vietnam-last-sign-hanoi-washington?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Sep 2021 22:00:12 +0000 For almost two months, Sang Luu has been impatiently working at home earning half his previous salary, counting the days until it is safe for Vietnam’s economy to reopen. The 32-year-old, who lives in the southern province of Binh Duong, sells plastic injection moulding machines for a Vietnamese company that imports machinery from China and resells to local and foreign buyers. “We can’t deliver our products. We only have a few stocks left but we couldn’t even sell them,” Luu said, referring to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3146514/vietnam-struggles-keep-manufacturing-hub-binh-duong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3146514/vietnam-struggles-keep-manufacturing-hub-binh-duong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Aug 2021 01:30:22 +0000 Twice a week, Vietnamese farmer Nguyen Quang Tuyen would ship 2,000kg of cantaloupe from his farm to the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City during harvest season. But a lockdown since early June to stem surging Covid-19 cases has seen transport costs almost triple for each box of vegetables, along with an increase in administrative requirements, such as the government regulation that he and the truck driver each need to test negative before the journey. The 40-year-old owner of HT Hitech... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3144887/export-dependent-vietnam-covid-19-eating-food-and-agriculture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3144887/export-dependent-vietnam-covid-19-eating-food-and-agriculture?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Aug 2021 04:00:22 +0000 When Phuong joined Vietnamese community charity Happy Vegetable Trip over a month ago, she was amazed at the amount of work involved in getting free food to those in need. It included mobilising volunteers, keeping track of vegetable stocks, securing permits from local authorities to venture out during lockdown, and ensuring every volunteer had protective equipment. “I didn’t know how things work at the beginning. Everyone is a volunteer but we try very hard to make sure our activities run... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3144571/volunteers-vietnam-come-rescue-coronavirus-lockdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3144571/volunteers-vietnam-come-rescue-coronavirus-lockdown?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Aug 2021 01:30:23 +0000 University student Tran Thanh Nha has been working 14-hour shifts almost every day for the past two months, delivering food to locked-down residents and assisting medical workers in conducting Covid-19 tests in Vietnam’s southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City. Dressed in a protective suit in the sweltering summer heat, volunteers like her constantly sanitise themselves as they help take up to 250 nasal samples a day. She fears they too may get infected with the Covid-19 Delta variant that... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3142734/vietnams-coronavirus-surge-continues-lockdowns-take-their-toll?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3142734/vietnams-coronavirus-surge-continues-lockdowns-take-their-toll?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jul 2021 23:00:14 +0000 Vietnam’s European Chamber of Commerce has urged European Union ambassadors to push for more vaccine donations and to send doses to EU citizens in the Southeast Asian country, as it experiences its worst wave of Covid-19 infections and continues to struggle to procure jabs for its population of 97 million. EuroCham chairman Alain Cany told a webinar this week that the chamber has met different ministries and other high-level party officials in the last month to discuss the acceleration of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3141248/vietnams-eurocham-urges-eu-ambassadors-procure-more-vaccines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3141248/vietnams-eurocham-urges-eu-ambassadors-procure-more-vaccines?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Jul 2021 11:15:09 +0000 Most people prosecuted for trafficking women from Vietnam to China between 2012 and 2020 were young members of ethnic minority groups with no prior criminal record, a new report has found, underlining how vulnerable people from those communities are to being caught up in the illicit trade. The study by the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, a Hanoi-based non-profit that rescues and defends victims of human trafficking, was shared exclusively with This Week in Asia ahead of its Thursday... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3140227/young-members-ethnic-minority-groups-most-risk-vietnam-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3140227/young-members-ethnic-minority-groups-most-risk-vietnam-china?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jul 2021 00:00:22 +0000 Our Tokyo Trail series looks at key issues and athletes in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics, which are scheduled for late July. This is the second in a two-part feature on Asian-American gymnasts who made headlines in the past week. When Asian-American gymnast Sunisa Lee clinched her spot on the US women’s gymnastics team last weekend, members of the Hmong ethnic minority rejoiced in her historic achievement. The 18-year-old will become the first member of the community – which has its roots in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3139706/tokyo-olympics-hmong-american-gymnast-sunisa-lee-makes-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3139706/tokyo-olympics-hmong-american-gymnast-sunisa-lee-makes-history?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jul 2021 00:00:23 +0000 Samorn Anantakul, 75, lives in a sparse room in eastern Thailand, with just a handful of belongings, including a television set, an old clock, and a plastic shelf of ointments and medicines, to keep her company every day. Until last year, it was a home she shared with her husband of 46 years, who died at age 91. Now, his made-up bed lies empty. Samorn keeps a photo of him in his younger days, dressed in a crisp naval uniform, in a handbag that hangs near her pillow. “I miss him. It gets lonely,”... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3138571/developing-asean-getting-old-getting-rich-and-pensions-arent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3138571/developing-asean-getting-old-getting-rich-and-pensions-arent?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Jun 2021 05:30:08 +0000 Vietnamese citizens are being lured into migrating to Cambodia, sometimes illegally, with attractive but often fraudulent offers to work in casinos and online gaming establishments, Vietnamese officials have warned.  The Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia last week highlighted the risks of trafficking, noting both the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the difficulty of controlling the porous border between the two countries. In a Facebook post, the Vietnamese embassy urged its citizens to be... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3137941/vietnamese-being-trafficked-chinese-nationals-work?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3137941/vietnamese-being-trafficked-chinese-nationals-work?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Jun 2021 13:00:00 +0000 Former dengue patients who contract Covid-19 could experience more severe symptoms, a small study has suggested, raising concerns that countries in Asia, where mosquito-borne diseases are endemic, could face a “double burden” at a time health systems are stretched thin by the coronavirus pandemic. The study, published in May by the University of Oxford’s peer-reviewed journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, analysed blood samples from 1,285 people in the small town of Mâncio Lima in Brazil’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3136463/philippines-malaysia-asia-could-face-double-burden?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3136463/philippines-malaysia-asia-could-face-double-burden?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Jun 2021 06:56:40 +0000 Dang Duong, a 42-year-old restaurant owner in Ho Chi Minh City, is hoping everyone in Vietnam will be able to get vaccinated against Covid-19 soon. Her business has been struggling without its main clientele of foreign residents and tourists since March, when the country shut its borders to keep out imported cases. While Vietnam has mostly managed to avoid a mass crisis, new outbreaks since April have contributed to more than half its total caseload of over 8,000, and the country is also dealing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3136137/coronavirus-vietnam-approves-sinopharms-vaccine-will?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3136137/coronavirus-vietnam-approves-sinopharms-vaccine-will?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jun 2021 04:30:18 +0000 When coronavirus cases began rising in North Vietnam’s industrial production hubs two weeks ago, Ruby La realised she had a mounting problem on her hands. The chief executive of Ngoc Nghia, a firm that supplies plastic packaging to Coca-Cola and other brands, had a few dozen manufacturing workers doing three shifts a day at their factory in Bac Ninh, next door to epicentre Bac Giang. The two provinces – which together have 3.1 million residents and house hundreds of factories that are plugged... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3135519/coronavirus-vietnam-races-cut-disruptions-suppliers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3135519/coronavirus-vietnam-races-cut-disruptions-suppliers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 May 2021 12:18:55 +0000 Travel agent associations in India and Thailand – which are battling surges in Covid-19 infections of varying degrees – as well as the tourism department of Vietnam have warned the public against operators advertising overseas tours to get vaccinated, saying there can be hidden costs. Advertisements for vaccine tours, mainly to the United States, have popped up on social media in India, despite restrictions that make international travel almost impossible. In Thailand and Vietnam, too, there are... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3134677/cant-get-vaccine-asia-tourism-firms-are-running-vac?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3134677/cant-get-vaccine-asia-tourism-firms-are-running-vac?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 May 2021 13:00:17 +0000 Mai Le in Boston does not know when her parents will be able to get vaccinated. The Vietnamese Americans went to Vietnam last January to visit family members and have been stuck there since. With Vietnam now struggling with a fourth wave of Covid-19 that has infected more than 1,400 people in the past three weeks – accounting about a quarter of the country’s total tally – she fears they are vulnerable. “I feel terrible. They should be vaccinated, not me. I’m younger, I’m healthier. They are in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3133960/biden-pledges-80-million-covid-19-vaccines-world-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3133960/biden-pledges-80-million-covid-19-vaccines-world-us?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 May 2021 23:00:10 +0000 Newlywed Nguyen Phuong Anh had been dreaming of starting a family in a virus-free Vietnam until she was jolted back to reality last week. One of her tenants, a medical student living a few floors beneath Anh, was told to isolate after visiting a public cancer hospital where a Covid-19 cluster was discovered. For Anh, a 26-year-old cashier in Hanoi, it was too close for comfort. “My husband and I had not made any contact with her, so we packed our stuff and went to stay at my grandma’s place... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3133254/vaccination-drives-stutter-new-covid-19-waves-hit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3133254/vaccination-drives-stutter-new-covid-19-waves-hit?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 May 2021 23:00:17 +0000 Growing up in Los Angeles, Korean-American Eunice Kim, 34, learned to assimilate by downplaying parts of her heritage that her family celebrated proudly at home. It was only in recent years that the second-generation US citizen started to share Korean food and traditions with her non-Asian friends. This is despite her being born and raised in California, a state where Asians account for 14.2 per cent of the population, double the 7 per cent they make up nationwide. Kim said she felt a need to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3132245/asian-americans-hope-us250-million-plan-fight-racism-will-support?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3132245/asian-americans-hope-us250-million-plan-fight-racism-will-support?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 May 2021 13:30:16 +0000 On a late afternoon in Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island, couples and families relax on beanbag chairs at a Middle Eastern-themed beach bar, clinking their glasses while watching the sun set on the horizon. A few metres away, children build sandcastles, jump into the waves and indulge in water fights. A scene like this in April seems far-fetched amid a raging Covid-19 pandemic that has seen spikes in new cases and fresh lockdowns in Asia and Europe. But this is a reality in Vietnam, where life... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3130859/forget-phuket-heres-phu-quoc-vietnams-big-tourism-hope?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3130859/forget-phuket-heres-phu-quoc-vietnams-big-tourism-hope?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Apr 2021 01:00:17 +0000 Thach Di Thi Phuong Thuy and her husband have their eyes glued to a smartphone screen in their tiny studio apartment in an industrial township near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. They are on a video call with their son Sarum, 11, who is keen to show them the cashew nuts he helped his grandmother peel that day. Sarum lives with his brother Saruon, 13, about 180km away in the Mekong Delta, where they are being raised by the extended families of Thuy and her husband Thach Saret, who are both ethnic... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3129803/china-migrant-workers-southeast-asia-are-leaving-behind-generation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3129803/china-migrant-workers-southeast-asia-are-leaving-behind-generation?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Apr 2021 01:30:11 +0000 Six years ago, Christina Bui, who was born in the US state of Virginia to a family of Vietnamese immigrants, accepted a job in Ho Chi Minh City. Her mother was appalled. “My dad was ‘whatever’ [about it] but my mom was furious, giving me the whole ‘I came to America to give you a better life!’ speech,” the 28-year-old recalled about her move to the city also known as Saigon. But amid recent incidents of violence against Asians and African Americans, the Trump administration’s mishandling of the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3127529/vietnamese-americans-rising-anti-asian-violence-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3127529/vietnamese-americans-rising-anti-asian-violence-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Mar 2021 22:00:25 +0000 Nguyen Minh Giang is not a big fan of singing but enjoys listening to others showing off – just not when the warbling is coming from karaoke gatherings near her home in Ho Chi Minh City. ‘’When people sing on the other side of the river at night, people in my apartment building on this side curse,’’ said the 33-year-old footwear company employee, adding that the karaoke singing in her own neighbourhood is so frequent she now knows her neighbours’ favourite songs and musical genres. The singing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3126229/karaoke-or-torture-vietnam-loud-singing-becomes-public?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3126229/karaoke-or-torture-vietnam-loud-singing-becomes-public?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Mar 2021 05:00:21 +0000 Hanoi resident Hoang Cam Hang, 25, is looking forward to her Covid-19 vaccination. Vietnam, which has among the lowest total reported coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia, will launch its immunisation drive on Monday with over 117,000 doses of the vaccine developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The programme will initially be conducted in 18 hospitals treating coronavirus patients, and in areas with higher infection numbers, Vietnam’s health minister Nguyen Thanh Long... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3124384/vietnam-begins-covid-19-vaccination-drive-without?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3124384/vietnam-begins-covid-19-vaccination-drive-without?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Mar 2021 04:00:24 +0000 Three years ago, a lack of job prospects in his Mekong Delta hometown led Truong Ba Long, 33, to move to Vietnam’s economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. “Saigon is the promised land for people from the delta,” said Long, who now works as an electrician at a restaurant chain. The son of a vendor and a hairdresser from Kien Giang province received his degree in electrical engineering from a university in Saigon and said about 80 per cent of the friends he grew up with had... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3123184/chinese-dams-pollution-send-vietnamese-mekong-delta-search?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3123184/chinese-dams-pollution-send-vietnamese-mekong-delta-search?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Feb 2021 01:15:10 +0000 Cambodia’s efforts to reclaim artefacts taken during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s and smuggled through neighbouring Thailand received a boost when the daughter of a controversial late British art collector last month announced she would return more than 100 items worth over US$50 million. The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts on January 29 said Douglas Latchford’s collection constituted “one of the greatest collections of Khmer cultural heritage outside of Cambodia” and their... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3122697/cambodia-awaits-return-artefacts-worth-us50-million?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3122697/cambodia-awaits-return-artefacts-worth-us50-million?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Feb 2021 04:00:22 +0000 The Lunar New Year is traditionally a time when communities across Southeast Asia celebrate with large family gatherings, communal meals. In other words, exactly the kind of activities that the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing measures have made difficult. It’s not just that restrictions on international travel mean visits from relatives overseas are out of the question – even small family gatherings (and over enthusiastic salad tossing) could be off the menu in countries where... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3121299/lunar-new-year-coronavirus-crashes-party-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3121299/lunar-new-year-coronavirus-crashes-party-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Feb 2021 09:30:11 +0000 Every day, Nguyen Thi Nham Thin sits at a busy traffic intersection in the Vietnamese capital. She is one of thousands of vendors selling food and drinks who make up Hanoi’s bustling street life. But this constant exposure to the fumes comes at a cost. Hanoi, a city of 8 million, has around 7 million vehicles. “I’d inhale about seven to eight hours of dust every day, but you know, even xe om [motorbike taxi drivers] and [other] street vendors would too. It is unavoidable,” the 69-year-old... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3119332/vietnam-air-pollution-bigger-daily-threat-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3119332/vietnam-air-pollution-bigger-daily-threat-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Jan 2021 01:00:12 +0000 Nguyen Huu Khanh hasn’t seen his family since he moved to Madrid in 2017 to study Spanish – and he also misses pho with tender beef and the many other foods of his home. As soon as Spain reported its first Covid-19 outbreak in February last year, he booked a flight home to Vietnam, only to end up having to delay his return. ‘I was worried about my visa, which was about to expire, and that I wouldn’t be able to return [to Spain] and would have to cut short my study and work, so I postponed my... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3116939/vietnams-tight-lid-coronavirus-leaves-many-citizens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3116939/vietnams-tight-lid-coronavirus-leaves-many-citizens?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Jan 2021 07:51:53 +0000 INDIA Indian authorities have ordered at least 1.6 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines, the most of any country, according to the Launch and Scale Speedometer managed by Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Centre. The order includes a billion doses from Maryland-headquartered Novavax, 500 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and 100 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik-V. The Indian government has yet to set out a timeline for immunisations, although the health minister said... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3115579/coronavirus-vaccine-race-how-many-doses-has-each-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3115579/coronavirus-vaccine-race-how-many-doses-has-each-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Dec 2020 04:00:16 +0000 This is the ninth story in a series on the Covid-19 disease, one year after it first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Here, we look at the challenges facing countries as they attempt not only to procure trusted vaccines for desperate populations, but also to implement efficient immunisation programmes. Please support us on our mission to bring you quality journalism. From Manila to New Delhi and Tokyo, authorities in the Asia-Pacific are making cautious preparations for a historic roll-out... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3115577/coronavirus-vaccine-asia-pacific-countries-tread?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3115577/coronavirus-vaccine-asia-pacific-countries-tread?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000 China, which used to be the world’s salvage king, is shutting its door to all waste imports starting the first day of the new year. The recent announcement triggered the same kind of anxiety among waste-exporting countries as in 2018, when China enacted its “Operation National Sword” policy, which banned the import of 24 types of solid waste, including plastic waste. The 2018 policy switch caused the world’s major waste-exporting countries – Europe, Britain, the US and Australia – to scramble... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3113665/southeast-asia-prepares-get-dumped-china-enacts-waste?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3113665/southeast-asia-prepares-get-dumped-china-enacts-waste?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Dec 2020 02:00:16 +0000 In Vietnam, a man caught groping a woman’s bottom would be slapped with a fine of 200,000 (around US$8.60) or the cost of a pizza. This is what happened to an Estonian citizen living in Ho Chi Minh city, after a woman reported him to the police for slapping her posterior in lift earlier this year. Last year, another man was given exactly the same fine after forcibly kissing a woman, also in a lift. Social media users decried the US$8 fine as being a mere slap on the wrist, pointing to how more... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3112618/heres-why-vietnam-needs-embrace-metoo-right-now-fine-groping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3112618/heres-why-vietnam-needs-embrace-metoo-right-now-fine-groping?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Dec 2020 10:17:45 +0000 For Tran Thi Khanh Trang, who holds an MBA degree from Colorado State University in the US, going into farming was not exactly a trendy career option in an agrarian country where parents typically expect their university-educated children to score urban jobs. For Andreas Ismar, a 38-year-old Indonesian financial journalist, quitting the city for country life was just the ticket he needed to realise his dreams. Both Trang, who is Vietnamese, and Andreas are among a wave of younger, educated... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3108845/young-asian-entrepreneurs-embrace-green-collar-lives-technology?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3108845/young-asian-entrepreneurs-embrace-green-collar-lives-technology?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Nov 2020 02:00:09 +0000 With the results of the US presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden too close to call, American politics has proven once again it is nothing if not dramatic. The proceedings have gripped both expatriates and locals across the region as they await the results of a vote many experts believe could prove pivotal for America’s relationship with Asia. And with some battleground states warning it could be days before mail-in votes are counted, the excitement looks... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3108446/sacred-flame-trump-india-bars-back-biden-indonesia-korea-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3108446/sacred-flame-trump-india-bars-back-biden-indonesia-korea-how?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Nov 2020 09:34:58 +0000 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used his last stop in a five-country tour of Asia to rally support from a key Indo-Pacific ally just days ahead of the US presidential election. Pompeo arrived in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Thursday for a two-day visit. On Friday, he held talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh and Public Security Minister To Lam. But unlike his comments at the previous stops that included India and Indonesia, Pompeo... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3107801/pompeos-vietnam-visit-focuses-security-and-trade-us-aims-bolster?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3107801/pompeos-vietnam-visit-focuses-security-and-trade-us-aims-bolster?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Oct 2020 09:06:22 +0000 Le Thi Lai stands motionless in front of her roofless house while her sons play inside. The 51-year-old and her husband had just built a new home, but could only watch last week as powerful winds completely stripped away the corrugated iron sheets that had kept seemingly relentless storms at bay, leaving the family exposed to the angry sky. “We just cleaned up our home. Now another storm is coming. Storm after storm, flood after flood. I already lost a tonne of rice and 70 chickens,” she said,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3107478/hammered-typhoon-molave-people-vietnam-struggle-stay?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3107478/hammered-typhoon-molave-people-vietnam-struggle-stay?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Oct 2020 12:30:16 +0000