ABOUT ISSUE 02

No One in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoipresents an all-enveloping world of Vietnamese queer nightlife, swerving between its cities’ euphoric fumes, sobering humidity, celebratory shrieks, and ongoing dialogue between past and present.

Some histories sleep in textbooks, others are kept alive through modern practices. “The Queer Art That Counts” traces Vietnam’s earliest decolonized folk art led by trans performers, “The Flamboyant Divine” shadows a contemporary interpretation of genderfluid religious rituals, while “Where Do We Meet?” draws a mental map of Hanoi’s queer spaces between the ’70s and today.

On other pages, colors saturate and the volume rises: “The Cinema of Dancing Sapphics,” “Saigon’s Queer Quintet,” “Stumbling Towards Queer Joy,” and “Drag Our Way Forward” give a glimpse of the boundless energy of local bê-?ê, Vietnam’s once derogatory term for faggot, but now a term of empowerment, turning absurdity and the grotesque into irresistibility.

The issue highlights how nightlife is more than a space—it’s a home for one and for all: “Homecoming,” “About Our Place,” and “A Sleepless Night at Equation” are personal recollections of self-realization and belonging. They tell stories of a Vietnamese diaspora returning to their homeland at a ball, the formation of a local refuge, and a slap of reality that punctured our protective veil. These narratives challenge the one-dimensionalization of nightlife, asking both its participants and observers to seek deeper meaning between its highs and lows.

Beyond the dance floor, queerness permeates through the cities. “Hear from Hanoi’s Queers” and “Bê-?ê by Night” take life at night into its quiet hours, tracing moments of connection that unfold not just in the rush of a crowd but in the stillness of care and companionship.

ISSUE 02 also embraces new rhythms and forms: “Nh? Bóng Nào Mà Ch?ng N?i Trên N??c” weaves poetry into the reading flow, inviting readers to drift, dance, and surrender—only held together by the echoes of hearts moved by the night.

With hearts in mind, “A Heart Moved by a Dance” and “Through Another Lens” frame nightlife as both a space to inhabit and a collective of people to relate to, and connect with. Moving between these focal points, these photo stories paint the evening as abundant and expansive, as it is intimate and personal.

Through it all, ISSUE 02 stands as both a reflection and a call to keep moving, creating, and gathering—because while these spaces may be fleeting, their impact is indelible.
 

NO ONE CORE TEAM

Vi?t Raider-Hoàng, Jeremy Raider-Hoàng

EDITORIAL DESIGN

Duy Nguy?n

PROOFREADER

Tom Biddulph

LOCAL ADVISORS

Nhung ?ình, Dan Ni, PH00000NG

CONTRIBUTORS

M?t Bét, Iori Pinklady Mizrahi, Jonathan Poirier, Minh Anh Nguy?n, Tr?n Tín Ngh?a, Khoa Vo Dang, Thy ?ào, V? Nguy?n Uy?n My, M?a, Kat Joplin, Hohish H?, V? Hoàng, Khánh Phúc Nguy?n, B? Nguy?n, H?ng-Khang Phan, Kai Nguy?n, Xuân-Tùng Lê, Nguyên Khôi V?, Long Nguye??n, Nhung ?inh, Minh-Anh Nguy?n, Gio Dionisio

COVER STICKERS COURTESY OF

Lô Tô, V?p C?c ?á, Bung L0n, GenderFunk, D?p Dìu Drag Haus, A Queer Museum, Peach, Equation Festival, Snug, Savage, Gái Nh?y, The Iconic House of Mizrahi Vietnam Chapter

PROMO VIDEO & MAGAZINE PRODUCT SHOTS

(in)visible space studio

FUNDED BY ISSUE 01 SALES WITH SUPPORT BY

Creative Industries Fund NL