The story of Vietnam in English-language media has long been told through a Western lens, often ticking familiar boxes of what Vietnam or what Vietnamese are meant to represent — a poor, struggling, underdeveloped nation cast under the shadow of war.
But Vietnam is more than its remnants of war or a mere vacation destination: it is a vibrant home to 54 ethnic groups, a thousands-year-old cultural heritage, and bold people actively shaping its global voice.
In 2025, Vietcetera International shed its zombie mode and returned to what it set out to do: bring Vietnam to the world. Stories of Vietnam are now told through a Vietnamese lens and by Vietnamese voices — from influential cultural figures to policy updates shaping a changing nation. Vietnam-centered, not Vietnam-exoticized.
Whether you’re a Việt Kiều rediscovering your roots, a Vietnamese reader curious about your own homeland, or a foreigner seeking to better understand Vietnam, thank you for being part of our journey in sharing stories of a modern Vietnam.
Below are our highlight stories of 2025.
1. Vietnam’s Great Provincial Merger: What You Need to Know
The “once-in-a-century” administrative restructuring of Vietnam’s provinces has come into effect as part of Resolution No. 60-NQ/TW, cutting the three-tier system of local government down to two and merging nearly half of the country’s provincial units.
Billed by the Hanoi Times as the country’s most extensive administrative overhaul since the country’s reunification in 1975, the streamlining effort means Vietnam’s 63 localities have now been consolidated into 34, comprising 28 provinces (tỉnh) and six centrally-governed cities.
The intermediate district-level system has also been abolished.
Remember District 1 (Quận 1) in Saigon? That’s just Saigon Ward now (phường Sài Gòn).
This article is everything you need to know about the great provincial merger.
View full article here.
2. A Post-Merger Guide To Ho Chi Minh City: Understanding The City
Following administrative changes, this guide helps readers understand Ho Chi Minh City beyond surface-level districts or tourist shorthand. It explains how governance shifts reshape urban boundaries.
View full article here.
3. Ocean Vuong: “I’m The Writer I Am Because I’m Vietnamese”
Rather than centering Ocean Vuong solely as a Western literary figure of Vietnamese origin, this interview reveals how his Vietnamese identity is foundational to his voice. Vuong speaks about language, memory, displacement, and how Vietnam shapes his worldview—even from afar. The article resists flattening diaspora identity into trauma alone, instead presenting it as layered, evolving, and self-defined.
View full article here.
4. Vietnam’s Reverse Migration 2.0: Returning Home To Build
From narratives of post-war economic “national reconstruction” to a 21st century era of “building prosperity” – the nation calls, and Vietnam’s great transnational family answers. A growing wave of overseas-born or educated Vietnamese people are electing to return to the country of their heritage to build their lives and careers in a renewed wave of “reverse migration” for the fast-growing southeast Asian nation.
View full article here.
5. The Artisan Reviving Vietnam’s Lost Mid-Autumn Lantern Art
In its golden days, Phu Binh lantern hamlet was home to hundreds of households crafting lanterns that originated from Bao Dap village. Today, in that same narrow alley of the old District 11, homes of the remaining artisans sit quietly among grocery stalls and rice shops. The neighbors who once shared this livelihood have long abandoned the craft. Five days before the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2025, I met Nguyen Trong Binh, a third-generation artisan of Bao Dap village.
View full article here.
6. A Post-Merger Guide To Hanoi: Navigating Vietnam’s Capital
Hanoi – the historical city of many contrasts – has undergone noticeable transformation over the past two decades as it welcomes an influx of modernity in co-working spaces, startup culture and new developments.
And now, nearly half of the country’s previously 63 localities have been merged and consolidated into just 34 provinces and centrally-governed cities in a move hoping to streamline governance, improve efficiency, and cut bureaucratic barriers to investment as Hanoi looks to secure its place as a modern, smart capital by 2030.
View full article here.
7. Vietnam War Told Through Female Lens
It’s been fifty years since the Vietnam War ended.
Hundreds of films have tried to tell that story. But how many of them were told by women?
Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now or Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket shaped how the world remembers the war in Vietnam: soldiers, battlefields, fire, tanks.
As Svetlana Alexievich once wrote: We are all captives of “men's” notions and “men's” sense of war.
We think we’ve exhausted the war on film. But one lens is always missing: the female one.
I wonder: how different would the Vietnam War look when seen through the lens of women? How do they perceive that war? What do they choose to tell about it? And what stories still remain in the shadows?
View full article here.
8. A Second Generation Viet Kieu On Losing Your Parent’s Language
According to 2024 figures from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Vietnam leads the ASEAN region in volume of students sent abroad for an education, totalling 137,022 students — more than double the figure posted by Indonesia which comes in second.
But what happens when that internationalization comes at the expense of your own native language?
View full article here.
9. 108 Vietnamese Air Warriors: The First Comprehensive Photobook On The Air Force Of Vietnam
Unveiled in the historic month of April – in celebration of Vietnam’s 50th reunification celebration – 108 Vietnamese Air Warriors is proudly presented by chief editor Tu Phuong Thao and renowned photographer Ngo Nhat Hoang. After 9 years of work, 108 Vietnamese Air Warriors was completed – featuring more than 600 archival images, spanning nearly 300 pages, and presented bilingually. It captured generations of Vietnamese Air Force pilots – from legendary heroes to the young aviators who today stand sentinel over the nation. At the heart of this work beats a profound gratitude and reverence for the intrepid warriors who once ruled Vietnam’s skies.
View full article here.
10. Things We May No Longer See In Vietnam By The End Of 2025
After 80 years of independence and 50 years of reunification and “Đổi Mới” (Reformation), Vietnam is preparing to usher in its next chapter of nation-building, with the date for the country’s 14th National Party Congress set for early 2026.
According to Open Development Vietnam, the country’s urban population increased to nearly 40 per cent in 2023, up from 19 per cent in the late 1990s.
As the pace of urban development re-shapes the functionality and habits of the country’s major city centers, the government wants those changes to come with an associated uplift in aesthetic appeal, cultural habits and living standard.
View full article here.