When I was in Vietnam last week, I caught up with fellow Australian expatriate Samizdatista James Waterton. James presently works teaching English in Vietnam to people preparing to attend Australian universities, and prior to moving to Hanoi lived in Beijing for several years. During this time he wrote for us about both Chinese, other Asian, and Australian affairs. Really good anonymous stuff on China was occasionally known to appear on this blog during this period, also.
After James guided me to a number of fine culinary establishments (as one would expect from one of the world’s great authorities on soy sauce) and gave me a tour of the main sights of Hanoi from the back of his motorbike, the two of us sat down in a cafe on the second floor of a building mysteriously shaped like a ship in central Hanoi, where we recorded a conversation about what was on our minds. This included our experiences as expatriates and our opinions on economic growth in Asia in general and China and Vietnam in particular, the outlook for the Chinese nation and economy, the differences between the the authoritarian habits of the Chinese and Vietnamese governments, ways in which people in poor countries now in some ways have greater and easier access to modern technology than do people in rich countries, and (surprisingly related to this) the correct etiquette for visiting the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh.
There is a little bit of background noise in this recording, much of which is the honking of motorcycle horns and other street noise coming from outside the cafe. I think the conversation is quite easy to follow despite this, so I shall just refer to this as “ambience that adds to the listening experience”. Enjoy.
Update: The link pointing to the post on soy sauce was incorrect. This is now fixed.
“Samizdatista”?
Shouldn’t it be “Samizatdatnik”?
Although that could be taken as a literal allusion to the actual Samizdat in the USSR. One wouldn’t want to commit the absurd pretension of putting oneself on that level.
“Samizdatan”?
Samizdatista is the correct term, mate.
I’ll listen to this later. I was in central and northern Vietnam for three weeks a few years ago and I have never eaten so well ever.
I don’t think I’ll quite say that Vietnamese food is the best I have ever eaten (in Asia that would be the food in Malaysia and Singapore) but yes, it is indeed very good and I ate very well.
You really think Malaysian food is good? You must be easy to please, but then you are from UK. Former British colony/former French colony: No contest.
Jack, Japan Alps
Finally got round to listening to this. Excellent interview. So, the Chinese are miserable and find themselves confined to huge compounds? Didn’t know that.
And Chinese soldiers are way too serious but Vietnamese ones aren’t. I wonder if there is a graph to be drawn with soldier smartness on one axis and freedom on the other.