What else does Vietnam have besides coffee and pho? Impressions of Vietnam through the stories of three Vietnamese women

The image of Vietnamese women, exaggerated by literary novels and movies, began to have the stereotype of being soft-spoken, gentle and graceful, wearing traditional Ao dai clothes to show a slender and well-proportioned figure, and seeming to be nice and talkative even when angry. After this trip and in-depth conversations with local female friends in Vietnam, I found that this stereotype is actually quite correct.



Regardless of whether you have set foot on Vietnam or not, everyone has a Vietnam of their own in their hearts. With history, the Vietnam War, and a large number of movies and novels describing Vietnam, Vietnam has become a unique existence in the world.



Vietnamese-style quick-fried restaurant, you can start business while squatting on the ground

For some people, Robin Williams said: "Good Morning Vietnam", accompanied by a graceful woman wearing a traditional Vietnamese dress walking through the streets of Saigon, while a shirtless man wearing a bamboo hat rode a bicycle slowly. The pictures they pass by are the starting point of their impression of Vietnam; from the perspective of foreign tourists, their impression of Vietnam begins with the sight of motorcycles ramming in front of them, making it difficult to cross the road; for gourmets, Vietnam can also be the scene of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain (Anthony Bourdain) Bourdain’s eyes are full of delicious food, a country where you can go on a gastronomic adventure.

For some of my friends, Vietnam is the foreign bride who sells fish and vegetables in the market, the waiters who wash dishes and serve dishes in restaurants, and the hometown of new immigrants who provide all kinds of labor; for some Taiwanese men, Said that Vietnam is their partner’s hometown, the mother of their future children, and their future.

I have visited North Vietnam and Central Vietnam in the past. North Vietnam is famous for its famous tourist attraction Halong Bay, while Central Vietnam has the tourist city of Da Nang. My impression of Vietnam is that travel is cheap, the people are hardworking and kind, the food is unusually light, the women speak softly, and the men are generally short in stature. The upcoming visit to Saigon in South Vietnam is in the novel "The Quiet American" (The Quiet American). The British man and his young Vietnamese mistress live together in a place that combines French and Chinese old buildings. A stereotype created by a Westerner Saigon.

"Vibrant" impression of Vietnam

I heard from the Vietnamese that they are still used to calling Ho Chi Minh Saigon, probably because "Saigon" has only two syllables and has a pleasant sound, while "Ho Chi Minh" has three short syllables and usually needs to be added with "city" to distinguish whether it is talking about a person or a person. City.

When we come to Ho Chi Minh City, except for a few skyscrapers, most of them are low-rise houses or deep, narrow, connected small buildings that are common in Southeast Asian countries. There are not many new constructions, and there are still many buildings as far as the eye can see. There are many old buildings left over from the French colonial era. The sound of motorcycles, engines, and horns is endless in the urban area. The English words "hustle and bustle" are the best description of this place.


Ho Chi Minh City at night, prosperous, beautiful and modern

Walking on the streets of Vietnam, in addition to the busy street scene, Ho Chi Minh City is also a "vibrant" city. It is chaotic and disorderly. Since there is no order, everyone needs to find their own solutions and show their talents, thus giving birth to vitality and street creativity. But there is another, more important reason: the country’s young demographics.

According to statistics, in Vietnam’s population structure, people under the age of 25 account for 50% of the country’s total population, and the average age of the total population is only an astonishing 27 years old! Standing on the streets of any big city in Vietnam, you will see that the people sitting on the street drinking coffee, the food delivery people shuttling through the traffic, motorcyclists, service industry workers, etc. are all young people. For a country that is entering an aging society, vitality is such a precious quality!

What else does Vietnam have besides coffee and pho?

Before going to Vietnam, I checked a lot of information on the Internet, and faced with caution and fear the public security issues that everyone was talking about, as well as various methods of abduction and robbery. But I know very well that I have no interest at all in the tourist attractions in Ho Chi Minh City, such as the Pink Church, Opera House, Art Museum, Independence Hall, Ben Thanh Market, etc. In this way, I not only eliminated most of the tourist attractions in Saigon, but also avoided many abductions and robberies that occurred due to the gathering of tourists.


Saigon street scene, you can see French architecture left over from the colonial era everywhere

Since I don’t plan to take the general sightseeing route, what I can do in Vietnam is walk around the city, drink coffee, admire the architecture, watch pedestrians, and experience the history and stories related to this city. People often say that architecture, coffee, and Vietnamese people constitute the style of Saigon. Due to space limitations, let us skip the beauty of architecture and the aroma of coffee and talk about Vietnamese people, especially Vietnamese women!

Evolving Vietnamese women

When talking about Vietnamese people, we can’t help but talk about Vietnamese women. The image of Vietnamese women, exaggerated by literary novels and movies, began to have a stereotype of being soft-spoken, gentle and graceful, wearing traditional Ao dai clothes to show a slender and well-proportioned figure, and seeming to be nice and talkative even when angry. I used to think that this was the standard Western impression created by Western novels and movies, but after this trip and in-depth conversations with local female friends in Vietnam, I found that this stereotype is actually quite correct.

Let me start with my friend Ngoc, who I have known for many years and came to Saigon to travel with me this time. In her early 30s, because of her parents' strict discipline and overprotection, she did not choose big cities such as Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi after graduating from college. She stayed in Da Nang, which is mainly in the tourism industry, to work in hotel-related jobs.

Ngoc's upbringing environment shaped her traditional and conservative thoughts and actions, but the adventurous factor in her nature and curiosity about the world drove her to learn English, Chinese, and Korean, and use her language advantage to make friends from all over the world (including Including me), and her adventurous gene overcame the opposition around her, allowing her to come to Saigon and travel to Saigon for 4 days with foreigners who had only met once in Da Nang before. According to her, this is a very bold adventure for her, her family and friends; because in Vietnam, it is very dangerous to easily trust others (especially foreigners).


The image of Vietnamese women, exaggerated in literature and movies, has the stereotype of being gentle, graceful, and well-spoken.

Her college friend Anh is a different type of Vietnamese woman. She not only has the appearance of a city girl, but is also the same as a young Taiwanese girl in some aspects. She wears Korean style, speaks and behaves generously and cheerfully, and is even a yogi. teacher. But under these urbanized and modern appearances, living in a mixed city like Ho Chi Minh also makes her very cautious about "adventures". Both Ngoc and Anh grew up and lived in the city, and their family environment was also middle-class. Although they are over 30 years old and not yet married, their families also have an open-minded and understanding attitude and will not put too much pressure on them. They also have their own ideas about marriage. They refuse blind date introductions from family members, but wait for the right person to appear, and the other person must be Vietnamese. They said categorically: "No Korean, No Japanese" (No Korean, No Japanese). Maybe because I am Taiwanese, it is inconvenient for me to directly say No Taiwanese.

Ngoc often mentions the issue of Vietnamese accent in chats, and she also strongly agrees that Vietnamese speech is soft and gentle. She said that North Vietnamese people speak with fewer ending sounds and are more square, especially in the capital Hanoi, where the intonation is the standard accent of Vietnam. The South Vietnamese accent is softer and has more ending sounds; the people in Can Tho and Hau Giang Province, which are only about 160 kilometers away from Ho Chi Minh City, speak softer and have more ending sounds, and they also add some redundant words (similar to Taiwanese ye, la, pinch). and so on), even she likes to listen to the South Vietnamese talk. She said that their Sino-Vietnamese accent is the most unpleasant of all Vietnamese accents. She feels that her voice sounds like a duck, so in Vietnam, most internet celebrities come from Hanoi or South Vietnam, which have nice-sounding voices.

When it comes to accent, almost every Vietnamese can chat with you for a long time. They all have their own opinions and ideas about accent, and they are happy to share it with others. If you want to chat with Vietnamese, start with the accents from different places, and you’ll be guaranteed no awkward moments!

Ngoc and Anh respectively represent the Mesozoic generation of Vietnam’s younger generation. Yes, in a country with a young population, those in their early 30s can be considered the Mesozoic. So what does Tracy, a 19-year-old Vietnamese girl who grew up on the Internet and social media, look like?

The new look of Vietnamese women

Tracy was selected for the volleyball team when she was in school because of her tall figure. After graduating from high school, she went to college for a while and started running a self-media business. After that, she dropped out of school and came to Ho Chi Minh City alone. Hailing from Hanoi, she looks like a standard Korean outfit and Korean makeup. Her work as an internet celebrity allows her to meet more different people and expand her international horizons. At such a young age, she can speak Chinese, Korean, and Korean fluently. English 3 foreign languages. Although I don’t know where she learned it from or who she learned it from, what is certain is that her experience is not proportional to her age. You can find a bit of Chinese influence, some Western influence, and obvious Korean style in her, but few Vietnamese elements.


Vietnamese Internet celebrity girl Tracy runs Instagram and Tiktok

She is generous, kind and polite, with the energy and innocence of a young person, but with a hint of defensiveness. After all, leaving her hometown and living alone, she knows that "relying on friends when going abroad" and "being on guard against others" are all things she doesn't know. The adjectives used to describe Vietnamese women are completely inappropriate when applied to her. Instead, she looks more like young people from Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Thanks to the far-reaching influence of the Internet, Tracy also reflects to some extent what the image of Vietnamese women will be like in the future.

The above views are just my fleeting impression of Vietnam as a traveler, but just such a surface level is enough to impact my impression of Vietnam. Those Vietnamese emotions piled up by movies and novels have been broken and reconstructed. To me, Vietnam is no longer just a messy street scene and people’s voices twisting and turning like a winding path in the mountains, but a country that is entering modernity. s country.