Vietnam's Beauty Pageant Obsession; Bad Behavior by Vietnamese Abroad

On this week's show we begin (1:17) with a conversation on beauty pageants and their place in Vietnam. Why do these often-obscure contests get so much media coverage? What do these events say about beauty standards in the country? We also dig into what it means that a Vietnamese contestant won a pageant for transgender women earlier this year, while a woman from one of Vietnam's ethnic minority groups won another contest around the same time. Then (15:06) we discuss a few recent cases of Vietnamese behaving badly overseas. Could these incidents have an impact on the perception of Vietnamese people internationally? What does it say about us that we are even worried about this? As always, we end with Banh Mi Banter (27:07).