On the outside looking in: A US American in Vietnam

VnExpress By Mark A. Ashwill   February 7, 2019 | 11:03 am GMT+7

On the outside looking in: A US American in Vietnam
Vietnamese women at a wet market in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Valentina Aru

An ‘other’ reflects on the ways in which he and many others feel they belong, why Vietnam is home.

I have spent over 40 percent of my adult life outside of my home country, never content with having my soul controlled by geography, to paraphrase George Santayana. I carry a U.S. passport but it doesn’t define me. I am a U.S. ex-patriot and global citizen who calls Vietnam home.

It was during my first visit to Hanoi 23 years ago this month that this country – with its tragic yet inspirational millennia-long history – cast its spell on me.  After moving here in 2005, I joined a select group of expats – an estimated 100,000 of them, according to official sources – who live in the midst of 97 million Vietnamese.

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