Vietnam

A candid yet empathetic account of Vietnam’s struggle to balance economic progress with social and political enfranchisement.

Vietnam has emerged as one of Asia’s most compelling economic success stories. Yet Communist Party chief Tô Lâm—the first to rise from the police apparatus—fears stagnation before prosperity is secured. He is pursuing dramatic economic and institutional reforms and relentless modernisation in a high-stakes bid to ensure Vietnam escapes the ‘middle-income trap’ and gets rich by 2045.

Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting, Kit Humphrey and Sen Nguyễn chronicle the nation’s breathtaking transformation, amid the fortieth anniversary of the Đổi Mới reforms that propelled Vietnam into the ranks of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Through first-hand accounts ranging from politicians and economists to artists, activists and street vendors, they examine the uneasy dance between authoritarian control and free-market growth—in an increasingly pervasive surveillance state. This vital new work details the environmental decline of the Mekong Delta, the stifling of civil society, farmers’ land rights, the LGBT movement, discrimination against ethnic minorities, and patterns of migration.

An antidote to tired clichés, Vietnam: Brave New Era reveals the complexities of the country’s ascent onto the global stage, as well as the challenges facing a population still grappling with the trauma of a conflict that ended half a century ago.

• Timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the Đổi Mới reforms that transformed Vietnam's economy
• Years of on-the-ground reporting, from politicians and economists to street vendors and activists
• The first book to cut through the ‘Asian tiger’ clichés to the country's harder realities