From a Chinese City: In the Heart of Peacetime Vietnam

by Gontran de Poncins

Written in 1995, this diary and sketchbook vividly portrays Vietnamese and Chinese traditions.

A Frenchman's portrait of Cholon, a Chinese section of Saigon, in the 1950s is "very vivid and true," according to Linh Dinh, who spent two years there himself as a child. "His Cholon is a 24/7 Rabelaisian carnival where every door is flung open, where privacy and its attendant brooding are not tolerated, where laughing strangers lean on you in the theater"

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

262 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Jean-Pierre Gontran de Montaigne, vicomte de Poncins, who used the nom-de-plume "Gontran De Poncins", was a French writer. He was the direct lineal descendant of a much more famous French writer- Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592).

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This traveler’s journal was not the most intellectually interesting. However, it was a crucial piece to understanding this little corner of the world in 1955. Very useful for a personal family history project, but I would not recommend beyond that.

[Tường-Vân · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the Vietnamese translation by Phan Xich Linh.
3 stars for the book itself and 5 star for the translation

[Genie Nguyễn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lược bỏ một số đoạn tham khảo ra thì mình thấy quyển này, rất đáng đọc và tìm hiểu, ít ra là với người con Sài Thành như mình.

[Kim Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monsieur De Poncins, a French author and artist, wrote of his travel and subsequent stay in a small Chinese section of Vietnam (Saigon) before the upheaval of Indo-China in 1955. Most intriguing illustration of life of the chinese untouched by Communist China. The chinese custom of leaving one's door open to its neighbors was enough to make me wonder what exactly do we Westerns do behind closed doors!