My North Vietnamese Friend

“He told me about his life in the city, and maybe it was released by the liquor, but a sadness started to seep through my body. Was this lust or envy? He knew the depths of Hanoi in a way that no amount of study could ever replicate.”

In “My North Vietnamese Friend,” Minh Nguyen visits Hanoi to research the historical optimism of Vietnamese socialist realism and finds herself navigating the promise of another, differently familiar romance.

Minh Nguyen

Minh Nguyen is a writer, critic, and curator based between New York City and Ho Chi Minh City. She is the curator of Dogma, a collection and exhibition space of art and political graphics in HCMC; the managing editor of e-flux journal; and the author of an essay collection, Memorial Park (2025).