Description
Decades after the Vietnam War shattered his childhood, journalist Nguyen Qui Duc traveled to his homeland and documented the changes he witnessed in the country. (Aired 2003)
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Decades ago, the Vietnam War shattered Nguyen Qui Duc’s childhood. Over the years, Nguyen, who came to the U.S. as a refugee, returned to his homeland as a journalist, reporting on the country’s culture and establishing connections with writers and artists living there. In 2003, he documented a journey through Vietnam for FRONTLINE/World, looking, he said, “for home, for a bit of myself, for a country that always exists in my memory.”
As Nguyen traveled to different parts of the country in “Vietnam: Looking for Home,” he shared his reflections about the nation: “It’s easy to remember Vietnam has a habit of adopting and resisting changes. The culture, the people, will survive.”
Several years after “Vietnam: Looking for Home” aired, Nguyen returned to Vietnam, this time for good. He filed occasional dispatches with FRONTLINE and FRONTLINE/World, and opened an influential arts and culture salon that pushed the boundaries of Vietnam’s communist government. Nguyen described the salon as “a gallery, an event space, a meeting point for creative and unorthodox people and a comfort space for expats.” He ran it until his death in 2023.
Originally developed by FRONTLINE producers in conjunction with public television stations KQED San Francisco and WGBH Boston, FRONTLINE/World launched in 2002 as a national public TV series that turned its lens on the global community, covering countries and cultures rarely seen on American television. The series completed its final broadcast season in 2010.
We are making episodes from FRONTLINE/World’s archive newly available here on YouTube and on pbs.org as part of an effort to make our past reporting widely accessible.
“Vietnam: Looking for Home” was reported by Nguyen Qui Duc. It was produced by Camille Servan-Schreiber, who was also the videographer. The founder and executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning.
Explore more about FRONTLINE/World and this film on the legacy website for the series:
https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/
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FRONTLINE/World was a production of GBH in Boston. The executive producer was David Fanning.
FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and The Fialkow Family Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Nguyen Qui Duc Visits His Native City of Hue in Vietnam
05:20 - Education & Economic Change in Post-War Vietnam
08:00 - Travels Through Saigon, Hanoi & Beyond
14:32 - How Vietnam’s Younger Generation Viewed the U.S.
17:37 - Credits