Awareness of nutrition problems among Vietnamese health and education professionals.

Professionals who provide nutrition education and consulting to the public are encouraged to take into account the health, environmental and social contexts that influence health-related attitudes and behaviours in the population. This paper examined the awareness of shifts in population health outcomes associated with the nutrition transition in Vietnam among university nutrition lecturers, health professionals and school education professionals. Most of these professionals held accurate views of the current population health issues in Vietnam. However, they differed in their awareness of the seriousness of overweight and obesity. Although the majority indicated that the prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) had increased, nearly half believed that the government should complete its attempts to control undernutrition before trying to control obesity. More health professionals believed that food marketing was responsible for the growing prevalence of children's obesity, and more of them disapproved of the marketing of less healthy food to children. In contrast, the university nutrition lecturers were least aware of food marketing and the seriousness of obesity. Of the three groups, the university nutrition lecturers held less accurate perceptions of nutrition transition problems and their likely drivers. There is an urgent need for greater provision of public nutrition education for all three groups of professionals.

Towards a Vietnamese university public health nutrition framework: Needs assessment.

There is a significant need for the improvement of nutrition education in Vietnamese universities in order to better prepare health and education professionals to respond to contemporary nutrition transition problems. Strong leadership at national and ministerial levels will be required to set a clear agenda for changes in this area.

Voices of dissent: Unpacking Vietnamese international student experience

Purpose – This study examines Vietnamese international students’ experiences with thecampus learning environment by analysing differences in staff and student perceptions.Design/methodology/approach – Two focus groups (N = 12) and ten (10) in-depthinterviews were conducted with Vietnamese students and four (4) in-depth interviews withthe university staff (totalling 26).Findings – The findings show a greater divergence of views between students and staff onteaching and learning than English language proficiency and student support services.These key differences were influenced by students’ prior expectations of their learningenvironment.Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to one group of internationalstudents and to one Australian university.Practical implications – The academics and administrators must have a goodunderstanding of international students’ learning backgrounds and expectations to enhancetheir positive experience; Appropriate teaching skills and practices are essential foracademics to meet the current needs of students. More effective training for internationalstudents to understand the multicultural nature of Australia is also essential.Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature by identifying the experienceof Vietnamese international students in a western university, which is, a relatively underresearchednationality compared to other Asian nationalities such as Chinese and Indian.

Translating difference: questions of representation in cross-cultural research encounters

This paper addresses questions of cross-cultural communication and represen tation as they arose in a longitudinal research project which sought to learn about the lives and concerns of older women. It focuses on the translations and mistranslations that occurred in narrative workshops where Australian researchers, who did not speak Vietnamese, worked with Australian Vietnamese women aged 55-74 and a translator to produce video diaries of the older women's everyday life. A number of workshop interactions around storytelling are examined to document the complexities that can arise when communities meet and interact across cultures. The aim is to 'come clean' about the problems of trying to conduct research without a common language and to suggest just how difficult translations and representations of culture really are and how easily preconceptions and cultural positionings interfere with the process of communication that is actually occurring.

Feudalism in the service of the revolution Reclaiming heritage in hue

This article discusses the way the past is being reexamined in modern-day Vietnam, particularly through the medium of heritage. Hue, the old royal capital of Vietnam, provides the case study, as this city reflects the great themes and events of Vietnamese history over the last two hundred years, from the establishment of a unified nation under the Nguyen, through the imposition of colonial control, the devastation of war, reunification, and the establishment of communism, to the consolidation of an independent postcolonial nation. The importance of Hue's heritage is recognized in its status as a “world heritage” site. The author argues that Hue's heritage is, nevertheless, problematic for Vietnam's ruling communists, because to them it largely represents a regime—the Nguyen Dynasty—that was “reactionary” and that had sold out the country to the French. The apparent contradiction between the standard communist view of the Nguyen past and the value accorded to Nguyen heritage in Hue is resolved, the author contends, by recourse to the depoliticized practices of heritage preservation and tourist promotion.

Receiving bankruptcy law into Vietnam

With assistance from foreign donors, countries in developing East Asia are rapidly replacing bureaucratic regulations with statutory norms mainly derived from international trade protocol (eg, WTO and AHA). Using imported legal norms, Vietnam enacted a Law on Business Bankruptcy (LBB) (Luat Pha San Doanh Nghiep) in 1993. By any measure, the [*2] transplanted bankruptcy principles have failed to take root. During the East Asian Economic Crisis (1997-2001) when non-performing business loans dramatically increased, cases heard by the bankruptcy courts in Vietnam declined. This article investigates the ways Vietnamese ideological, cultural and structural conditions have influenced the reception of the LBE. It is concluded that legal transfers are shaped more by political, economic and legal interactions, than by 'chance and prestige'.

Using mitochondrial nucleotide sequences to investigate diversity and genealogical relationships within common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.)

Direct sequencing of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop (745 bp) and MTATPase6/MTATPase8 (857 bp) regions was used to investigate genetic variation within common carp and develop a global genealogy of common carp strains. The D-loop region was more variable than the MTATPase6/MTATPase8 region, but given the wide distribution of carp the overall levels of sequence divergence were low. Levels of haplotype diversity varied widely among countries with Chinese, Indonesian and Vietnamese carp showing the greatest diversity whereas Japanese Koi and European carp had undetectable nucleotide variation. A genealogical analysis supports a close relationship between Vietnamese, Koi and Chinese Color carp strains and to a lesser extent, European carp. Chinese and Indonesian carp strains were the most divergent, and their relationships do not support the evolution of independent Asian and European lineages and current taxonomic treatments.

The cultural role of capital cities : Hanoi and Hue, Vietnam

Hanoi promotes itself both as a place for foreign investment in urban development and as the 'cradle of Vietnamese civilisation'. Special status is given to places of national heritage significance, and policy makers and planners face challenges of balancing heritage conservation and modern development. By contrast, the former capital, Hue, continues to decline economically relative to other Vietnamese cities and is discovering value in its imperial heritage as a 'vector for development'. These Vietnamese capital cities demonstrate that heritage conservation is a key consideration in government efforts to improve the position of their constituencies in the newly-shaping global and national economic systems.

Power relations in virtual communities: an ethnographic study

Peoples' need to socialize with others and greed for power can be best captured with Aristotle's description of human beings as “political animals”/“social animals.” This paper reports on observations of how cyber communities, such as Web-based forums and mailing lists, manifest themselves through social interactions and shared values, membership and friendship, and commitments and loyalty. The paper highlights the importance of power relations in these communities, how they are formed, exercised and evolve. This paper explores power relations as they emerge in two online Vietnamese communities and suggests a new understanding of the formation and evolution of power in virtual societies.

Power relations in cyber communities

Peoples' need to socialize with others and greed for power can be best captured with Aristotle's description of human beings as "political animals"/"social animals." This paper reports on observations of how cyber communities, such as Web-based forums and mailing lists, manifest themselves through social interactions and shared values, membership and friendship, and commitments and loyalty. The paper highlights the importance of power relations in these communities, how they are formed, exercised and evolve. This paper explores power relations as they emerge in two online Vietnamese communities and suggests a new understanding of the formation and evolution of power in virtual societies.

Hanoi, Vietnam : representing power in and of the nation

Hanoi, like most capital cities, performs functions at three levels. It is home to its residents and provides local level services for them. But it also has a role as a city for all citizens of the Vietnamese state, performing capital city functions across the entire national territory as well as beyond national borders. Hanoi is especially interesting because of the uneasy way in which it has been forced to share power internally with Ho Chi Minh City in the south—Hanoi maintaining political and cultural sway but its rival becoming stronger in economic and demographic terms. Externally, it has struggled for recognition, having been regarded as capital of a weak political state open to the interventions of the Chinese, French, Americans and the Soviet Union. This paper argues that Hanoi's double vulnerability has made its rulers acutely aware of the need to demonstrate the city's power as a capital city—or at least to give the semblance of power—through urban planning and architectural design, the building of heroic monuments and the naming of city features after key historic events and people. Major events and projects have become an important way in which the Vietnamese government has sought to strengthen Hanoi's place—and hence its own—in the national consciousness. The regime also continues to push on with efforts to make a future Hanoi dominant both within the Vietnamese urban hierarchy and as the country's undisputed international metropolis.

Economic reforms, cultural policy : opportunities and challenges to the arts and culture in Vietnam in the age of globalization

The author investigates social change in Vietnam in the late 1980s-2000s, a transition from a subsidized economy to a market-oriented economy. The author discusses the influences of socioeconomic changes on the operation of the performing arts sector through analyzing changes in cultural policies, opportunities, and challenges confronted by performing arts organizations. The new cultural policy allows arts organizations, arts managers, and artists more opportunities to develop a greater degree of autonomy and more freedom in performing, programming and other artistic activities. The author believes that open policies will motivate Vietnam to develop its own national identity and to participate in cultural exchange with other parts of the world. However, under the impact of global culture, global economics, cuts in state funding, and rapid technological development, the performing arts sector has faced challenges in terms of financial viability, audience development, and balance between commercialization and artistic creativity. The author suggests that privatization should be implemented depending on the art form. Consideration should be given by the Vietnamese government to implementing appropriate funding policies and schemes, as state funding still forms a significant part of public companies' incomes.