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Govi Snell is a reporter for Southeast Asia Globe based in Ho Chi Minh City. She is interested in stories related to arts, culture, the environment and endangered species.
The Vietnamese novelist's English-language debut, 'The Mountains Sing', was an international hit. Now, her second epic, 'Dust Child', examines the scars of war through the circuitous journey of an Amerasian man searching for acceptance
By Govi Snell - Mar 09, 2023
After hunting and habitat loss have nearly decimated Vietnam's native turtles, social media sales and the exotic pet trade pose new hurdles
By Govi Snell - Jan 05, 2023
The Vietnamese Communist Party has long struggled to silence online dissent, but now, the government is tightening its grip on the internet and its users
By Govi Snell - Nov 23, 2022
Despite international pressure, forced labour and beating are still common at government-run rehab facilities
By Govi Snell - Sep 30, 2022
Art historian Pamela Nguyen Corey looks at how contemporary artists are shaped by ruptures to metropolitan landscapes in Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh
By Govi Snell - Aug 17, 2022
A lack of oversight allows the torture and deaths of suspects in custody to frequently be blamed on suicide or sudden illness
By Govi Snell - May 27, 2022
Sugar contraband illicitly brought into Vietnam from Thailand is increasing, adding an additional burden to the country's struggling sugarcane enterprises
By Govi Snell - May 24, 2022
As big business builds aerial lifts from north to south, citizens and experts worry over ecological impacts
By Govi Snell - May 02, 2022
A looming energy shortage and surging fuel prices have made nuclear power a more attractive option, although pricing and public concern remain obstacles
By Govi Snell - Apr 18, 2022
The director’s third film, The Long Walk, explores grief in the story of a murderer and a spirit traveling through time in rural Laos
By Govi Snell - Mar 22, 2022
Arms sales, Putin's popularity and a shared ideological and wartime history have put Vietnam in a unique spot during the invasion of Ukraine
By Govi Snell - Mar 17, 2022
Regional analysts consider Russia’s military action and the possible consequences for ASEAN nations
By Amanda Oon - Mar 16, 2022
The gentle animals remain an important symbol in the country but lack of conservation efforts heighten the risk of extinction
By Govi Snell - Feb 28, 2022
A review by Human Rights Watch describes tactics used in a crackdown on activists with padlocks, police intimidation and travel bans
By Govi Snell - Feb 23, 2022
Maltreatment rates in homes and schools remain high despite efforts to improve child protection
By Govi Snell - Feb 17, 2022
Commercial flights spark frustration among expatriates attempting Lunar New Year homecomings
By Govi Snell - Feb 03, 2022
Tough sentence exhibits progress and setbacks in the country’s fight against wildlife trafficking
By Govi Snell - Jan 19, 2022
Through memoirs, essays and children’s books, Kao Kalia Yang brings the Hmong experience and lives of displaced people to the page
By Govi Snell - Jan 06, 2022
Patchy oversight enables regimes to spread propaganda and silence critics while vulnerable populations and their defenders are targeted
By Jack Brook and Govi Snell - Dec 13, 2021
The new Hanoi subway line debuted in November despite bloated budgets and delays continuing to slow the nation’s mass transit development
By Govi Snell - Dec 08, 2021
Weak government regulation to manage debt amidst Covid-19 has left borrowers in the lurch as formal loan companies use strong-arm tactics
By Govi Snell - Nov 18, 2021
As Vietnam emerges from a fourth crushing Covid-19 wave, healthcare workers reveal how they have staffed overwhelmed hospitals during long hours with insufficient pay and resources under government threats to end their careers
By Govi Snell - Oct 25, 2021
Vietnam is among the top 16 most biodiverse countries in the world, but its native animals are increasingly threatened with extinction. Some of the nation’s talented illustrators have joined the fight to protect and raise awareness of the remaining at-risk creatures
By Govi Snell - Oct 04, 2021
Binh Duong has been hard hit by the virus. Many migrant workers find themselves struggling to survive in Vietnam’s latest outbreak of Covid-19
By Govi Snell - Sep 22, 2021
Despite liberal laws and among the highest abortion rates in the world, stigma towards the practice is pervasive in Vietnam. Representing a hard-line faction of anti-abortion sentiment, groups across the country collect fetal remains from clinics for burial
By Govi Snell - Aug 16, 2021
One of the world's poorest countries three decades ago – Vietnam has made a quick push to middle-income status. While the expertise of outsiders was necessary to this growing prosperity, a new clampdown on foreign workers showcases the country's evolution
By Govi Snell - Jul 02, 2021
Nguyễn Dân An has in recent years led a disparate collection of Vietnamese athletes for the country’s first bobsled team. Winning their first medals this year, the team has its sights set on the unlikely goal of becoming Vietnam's first representatives at the Winter Olympics
By Govi Snell - May 27, 2021
With a fast ageing population, the Vietnamese government is placing the country's economic future on women as it urges them to marry by 30 and bear two children by 35 – a move which women's rights activists have condemned as reinforcing outdated gender roles
By Govi Snell - May 14, 2021
The Mekong region countries were until recently heralded as exceptional cases in controlling the spread of Covid-19. But recent weeks have seen cases explode across Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, leaving Vietnam on high alert and observers asking what's gone so wrong
By Alastair McCready, Wanpen Pajai and Govi Snell - May 07, 2021
Vietnamese war hero Nguyễn Thị Định was a trailblazer on and off the battlefield, with her efforts toppling world powers only matched by her efforts championing female empowerment. But today, a century since her birth, her legacy fades among the younger generation
By Govi Snell - Apr 19, 2021
Vietnam's karst forests are abundant in biodiversity. But with rapid habitat loss, it is feared that species are disappearing before they can be studied, while others like the critically endangered Delacour's langur in Kim Bang forest are at risk of extinction due to mining
By Govi Snell - Mar 17, 2021
Vietnam’s North-South railway has remained much the same since it was first built 85 years ago, with the iconic line highlighting the halting nature of Vietnamese infrastructure projects as plans to modernise have gone without progress for more than a decade
By Govi Snell - Mar 02, 2021
At the age of 24, Hong Hoang became the first Vietnamese to visit Antarctica, in a trip that would set her on a path to establishing her own environmental NGO. Today, through CHANGE, she battles intimidation and apathy to promote wildlife conservation across Vietnam
By Govi Snell - Feb 18, 2021
There is much talk about the need to preserve Saigon's heritage architecture, but what about those more subtle flourishes of style that make the city? As heritage signage is pulled down, artists are working to preserve these disappearing relics of Vietnamese history
By Govi Snell - Jan 26, 2021
Vietnam's love affair with the motorbike is a relatively recent one, having only blossomed in the mid-80s. As a result of successful public health campaigns, helmet use today sits at 90%, but researchers point to a significant hurdle to road safety that is yet to be overcome
By Govi Snell - Dec 24, 2020