Pop Song is a beautiful work of criticism as it is a memoir, with Pham’s articulation of doubt, fear, and her attempts at love so raw and poignant.

But there was a story there—one I didn’t know, and one that others didn’t want to talk about. 

Will you ever hear tiếng Việt and feel like it welcomes you in a soft embrace, a home entering your heart through your ears?

Alison Hồng Nguyễn Lihalakha’s Salted Plums holds up a mirror to the experience of Vietnamese people whose diaspora took a detour away from the common direct route to California. 

Reading Dream of Me as Water by David Ly is like falling down a rabbit hole and discovering vibrant color and vivid imagination in the depths. An almost Alice in Wonderland-like experience, the book opens the way a drop of ink blooms in water: centered, before it spreads out. From there, Ly takes us from dreamscape to dreamscape, each poem subtly suspending reality at the same time it is very much grounded in it.

News from Việt Nam ►Hundreds of Vietnamese workers return home from Cambodia More / Other ►Vietnam is not facing fuel shortages, minister says ►Immigrant-owned coffee roasting company brings...

We’re excited to present our first special issue of diaCRITICS!

To listen to Sinn Sisamouth is to have a romance with oneself. 

I wanted to explore my Vietnamese roots and possibly blend them with my American roots. How could I incorporate that into my music and into my sound?

I wanted to create a new strong, independent picture of an Eastern or South Eastern Asian woman.