A conversation with the wedding planner who doesn't believe weddings equal happy endings.

Our narrator Maia Do chats to Hoàng Anh about choosing an unusual career path, Disney princess' fantasies, how hanging up mosquito nets can make or break a marriage and why a career in finance isn't for everyone.

Episode #9 was recorded in front of a live audience at the Women's Storytelling Salon hosted at Manzi Art Space in Hanoi. 

Photo: Jacques Smit www.pursuethewolf.com

Episode #9: Dương Vũ Hoàng Anh

Cafe owner and poet on the struggle to find meaning in words and life. 

Nam Lu is known to Hanoi to Hanoi's creative community as nonsensical poet, thoughtful photographer and the occasional quirky subject of friends' artistic projects. 

He is the co-founder of both the Nha San Cafe and Tranquil, two of the capital's most quiet caffeine oases.

Over two long conversations we talked to him about his poetry, noticing the details that make certain objects special and certain individuals unique, and coping  with an inability to find meaning in life.  

Thần Tượng
Go Lim - Phuu Lieu
@Al Hobson - Family And Friends
@Count Clemence - Before The Rain, Dance Outside In The Sun
Go Lim - Nguoi dan ba lam dau

Photo: Jacques Smit www.pursuethewolf.com

Episode #10: Nam Lu

In episode 11 we join the conversation of Trang and Mai: two aspiring PHD candidates, while they talk about reducing poverty, Vietnam's masculinity crisis, and what they'd do with the power to change policies.

Kai Engel - Rainbow
@CountClemence - Used To Play
@CountClemence - Harpeggio 
Khoa Pham - Magic Hour
ma xó - it's not even there

Photo: Jacques Smit www.pursuethewolf.com

Episode #11: Trang Pham And Mai Thanh

An award winning music composer on adding depth to pop music.

We travelled to Ho Chi Minh City for episode 12 to grab a coffee with ﻿﻿Lê Đức Hùng aka Mew Amazing, have him walk us through composing one of Vietnam's greatest viral pop hits of 2016 and tell us what he would say to Drake if he ever met him. 

Mew Amazing - U Thi
Mew Amazing - TRÚC NHÂN
Kai Engel - Cloudburst 
Zwett Brieman - 7 minute guitar

Image: Giang Hoang Nguyen 

Episode #12: Mew Amazing

Viral cartoonist and English teacher on online publishing and retaining the joy in doing what you love.

The cartoonist Xuân Lan has over the last few years amassed quite the online following. Her illustrations take their inspiration from her own life experience and she told us why that is one of the reasons she won't turn drawing into a full-time career.

We also chatted to her about getting giddy over being noticed by one of her idols, her process and why she would take a 21st century camera back to the bao cấp era.

The episode was recorded live at Manzi Art Space in Hanoi.

Episode #13: Xuân Lan

Explore the utopia of a social activist and entrepreneur who would rather be doing nothing. 

Hoàng Đức Minh has over the last few years made a name for himself in the world of social and environmental activism and was selected by Forbes Vietnam as one of their 30 under 30s.

We visited him to talk about his start up Wake It Up, how seeing people cry has decided his career path and being a child with many questions and few answers.

Episode #14: Hoàng Đức Minh

Plaaastic is one of Vietnam's most popular and successful online personas. She is a fashion blogger and Internet artist who has established herself as a queen of virtual emo. She lives in a part of the internet where Hello Kitty meets bondage fantasies and teenage souls find comfort in being weird.

We spoke to her about the blurred lines between her art and commercial endeavor, how intense loneliness led to online success and getting married to a guy two weeks after meeting him.

Episode #15: Plaaastic

Four teenagers trying to make sense of their identity, privilege and future.

We invited four young women in their late teens for a chat over coffee and cake to find out what they think about privilege, not being taken seriously by the generation before them and their hopes for the future.

Mia, Mai, Boba and Giang all come from families who have benefited from the possibilities that Doi Moi brought for some people in Vietnam. Access to international education, social opportunities and financial stability have shaped their young lives. When we met them they were studying abroad already or preparing to do so.

Episode #16: Mia, Mai, Giang & Boba

A Huế  based NGO worker bringing change to the shelter he grew up in.

For episode 17 we travelled to central Vietnam to talk Nhật who lost his parents when he was young boy and had to move from a small village to Huế.

He now works at the shelter he grew up in and on a stroll around the city's citadel we talked to him about countryside living, helping to improve the lives of children who suffered similar tragedies to his and finding success despite some academic set-backs.

Episode #17: Trần Văn Nhật

A policy researcher and columnist's post-ideological musings

Khắc Giang Nguyễn firmly believes there is a need to give civil society more of a voice, but he also thinks this need not mean major political reforms as many an ideology has proven to be problematic once implemented.

For our interview we went for a Sunday afternoon stroll around Hoàn Kiếm Lake followed by a coffee. We chatted about why how his personality and lack of connections make him unsuitable to be a politician, what happens when a people forgets to nurture its creative side and what is lost when written from one perspective only.

Episode #18: Khắc Giang Nguyễn

Sonic portraits of the young minds re-imagining Vietnam's future.

In the backdrop of Đổi Mới, the name given to the 1986 economic ‘Renovation Policy’ that would transform Vietnam, we share portraits of those born after that year, dubbing them the ‘Renovation Generation’. 

We meet with graphic artists, hardcore metal stars, gallery curators, hip hop artists, poets, entrepreneurs and everything in-between. 

Produced by Eliza Lomas & Fabiola Buchele
Assistance from Trang Nghiem & Maia Do 
an & of other things production 

#vietnam #radio #hanoi 

xinchao@therenovationgeneration.com 

Episode #10: Nam Lu

The Renovation Generation

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