It's a Living: Work and Life in Vietnam Today

Gerard Sasges (Editor)

Through interviews and 40 colour photographs, It's a Living reveals the energy and struggle of the world of work in Vietnam today. A goldfish peddler installing aquariums, a business school graduate selling shoes on the sidewalk, a college student running an extensive multi-level sales network, and a girl doing promotions but intent on moving into management, are just a few of the people profiled.

Based on frank and freewheeling interviews conducted by students, the book engages a broad range of Vietnamese on their feelings about work, life and getting ahead. By providing a ground-level view of the texture of daily working life in the midst of rapid and unsettling change, the book reveals Vietnam today as a place where ordinary people are leveraging whatever assets they have, not just to survive, but to make a better life for themselves, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Gerard SASGES is Assistant Professor in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.

publication year: 2013
190 pages
ISBN: 978-9971-69-698-6  Paperback  US$24.00  S$28.00