Cultural Discourse In The English-Language Vietnam Blogosphere

I finally joined the blogosphere in order to have contact with my friends in the Philippines. I now have two: a personal blog and this, my public blog. Since I am in Vietnam, I have been perusing some Vietnam blogs lately and what do you know, I found an interesting article about cultural discourse in the Vietnam blogosphere. Lesson: THINK before you (I) blog.

This is an excerpt. To read whole article (edit: written by Mark Robertson), go to global voices online.

Recently there has been a very lively discussion in the English-language Vietnam blogosphere about the phenomenon of the self-proclaimed expat expert... An example of this kind of cultural dialogue is a discussion amongst Vietnam bloggers on the nature of Vietnamese social relations. This strand began with several posts in Six Months in Hanoi about the contrast between Vietnamese and Western patterns of socializing. In one post, HanoiMark describes a mixed party in which these patterns were in stark contrast: the fluid networks of Western expats vs. the family-like groups of the Vietnamese. In another post he tries to understand the nature of “closed social networks” or “groups” among Vietnamese friends. While Western modes of socializing often involve mixing circles of friends and creating new acquaintances, the Vietnamese approach affords a spontaneity and intimacy between friends that is perhaps less common in the West.