ABSTRACT
It is almost now a cliché to assert that contemporary Vietnam, especially contemporary urban Vietnam, is experiencing rapid social change. The impact of the 1986 doi moi (economic renovation) open-door policy, slow to start, had by the late 1990s allowed the formation of an urban generation of young people increasingly almost as much attuned to the external flow of ideas/culture/ opportunities as to internal imperatives of Party/culture/tradition. Vietnamese magazines aimed at the youth market profile almost as many Korean pop stars and actors as they do local celebrities. Readers even of more staid mainstream media are treated to news of foreign music, film, and television “news,” regularly featured, such as on the “Arts and Culture” pages of the Women of Vietnam or New Ha Noi papers. Jackie Collins and Stephen Crichton have been translated into Vietnamese, as has Jane Austen and many recent French novels, especially the Goncourt prizewinners.
